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The shift to remote and hybrid work arrangements has become a major trend for companies worldwide, offering flexibility and new opportunities for productivity. However, amid the excitement of this transition, many companies often overlook crucial tech-related factors that can hinder the success of their remote or hybrid work models.
By learning from these mistakes and implementing the right strategies, companies can optimize their tech infrastructure and empower their teams for success in the evolving work landscape. Here, 17 Forbes Technology Council members provide valuable insights on what companies can do to avoid these common mistakes and better navigate this technological transition.
1. Embrace Written Communication
From personal experience with remote work, coordinating calls across various time zones can be challenging. Instead of struggling to schedule a meeting across three time zones, I've found that embracing written communication is often more efficient. A detailed brief outlining the next steps can provide clarity and bypass time zone hurdles, enhancing productivity. So instead of more tech, use less! - Marlene Ronstedt, Data Union DAO
2. Enforce Employee Identity Verification
When shifting to a remote work arrangement, companies are generally more concerned with maintaining productivity than enforcing cybersecurity. As a result, they often fail to properly manage employee identity verification, which leaves sensitive company IPs highly vulnerable to hackers. Businesses should instead verify employees every time they attempt to remotely access the company server. - Dan Yerushalmi, AU10TIX
3. Prepare Your IT Infrastructure
One tech-related factor that many companies overlook when shifting to remote or hybrid work arrangements is their existing IT infrastructure's readiness for this paradigm shift. The sudden surge in remote data access can stretch network capabilities, potentially leading to downtimes, slow response times and a diminished user experience. - Andrew Blackman, EZ Cloud
4. Invest In Robust Cybersecurity
Many companies fail to implement robust cybersecurity measures, leaving their data and systems vulnerable to breaches and cyberattacks. Instead, they should prioritize investing in secure remote access solutions, putting policies in place, investing in employee training on best practices and regularly conducting security audits to ensure data protection. - Dr. Vivek Bhandari, Powerledger
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5. Host Regular Meetings
Bonding and active brainstorming are important. We have monthly group meetings that are more like fun team events that create the feeling of belonging and a core culture. We also have procured additional software and hardware to make collaboration and brainstorming easier when it comes to discussing critical areas or design topics. Above all, we try to have an in-person meeting quarterly. - Ramki Pitchuiyer, Ascendo AI
6. Create Guidelines For Communication
Deploying Slack or Microsoft Teams alone won’t improve internal communications for remote and hybrid workforces. Some companies underestimate how much they need to learn to effectively communicate with these tools. They must define when and where they communicate, how the content can be accessed and interpreted at another place and time, and how to make sure the knowledge has reached the right audience. - Perttu Ojansuu, Happeo
7. Ensure Visibility Into Third-Party Apps
Companies are becoming flooded with third-party apps that employees need to do their jobs remotely, but these tools can create “side doors” for cybercriminals to infiltrate the organization. IT and security teams should ensure visibility into which apps are connected to their organization’s network, as well as the permissions and privileges those apps have. - Mike Britton, Abnormal Security
8. Prioritize Digital Culture
Companies often neglect or do not prioritize swift digital culture when transitioning to remote work. Emphasizing robust tech, clear communication and asynchronous policies not only smooths transitions but also unlocks the full potential of distributed teams. - Amitkumar Shrivastava, Fujitsu
9. Provide Employees With Better Internet
Not all of your employees have the same bandwidth or access to high-speed connectivity. This shows in teleconferencing and is sometimes a major drawback for collaboration. I've been on many calls where one individual (who often has to speak the most) will have spotty video or choppy speech and that affects everyone on the call. Make sure your employees have proper access. - Gregory Todd, DXC Technology
10. Figure Out The 'Why,' Then The 'How'
In shifting to remote work, many companies have translated analog practices to digital ones literally (e.g., replacing in-person meetings with virtual calls). The bigger opportunity is to look at the objective of the past practice and explore how technology can best support its execution. Figure out the "why" first. Was it task management? Information exchange? Team building? Then figure out "how." - Patti Mikula, Hackworks Inc.
11. Identify Potential Security Loopholes
One tech-related factor companies fail to prioritize is hardening distributed, disparate endpoint devices, while also taking fundamental, yet critical steps to improve security. With employees coming in and out of the office, IT teams need to evaluate the current protocols in place and identify potential security loopholes to protect company assets and information. - Salvatore Sferlazza, NinjaOne
12. Facilitate Casual Conversations
In a remote or hybrid work environment, you miss out on the unplanned “hallway conversations” that can lead to innovation or cross-pollination. To supplement, companies can have dedicated sharing sessions so people can learn what other team members are working on, virtual coffee meetings to allow creative juices to flow or brainstorms with the help of tools like FigJam, Miro or Lucid. - Liz Li, Velocity Global
13. Focus On System Integration And Accessibility
With the boom in work-from-home tech, many employees are overwhelmed with multiple channels of communication and productivity tools. When employers implement remote tools, it’s crucial that all systems are integrated to alleviate this headache many remote employees face. It is also critically important that all systems are accessible from everywhere, particularly for hybrid work environments. - Rodrigo Bernardinelli, Digibee
14. Leverage True Collaborative Tools
When switching to remote environments, companies often find themselves concentrating too much on communication tools and not enough on collaborative tools where employees can truly feel like they are working next to a team member. Having the tools that allow teams to co-write code, manage projects and view the entire product will help close the gap between on-premise and hybrid environments. - Raghu Bongula, ConnectWise
15. Create More Equitable Meetings
Hybrid meetings on Zoom with some in-office staff in a conference room and some remote staff in individual windows destroy all the equity and meeting norms of a fully virtual meeting. Chat, hand-raising and other features don't work well because side conversations happen. Instead, have everyone in their own individual windows or everyone in a room together, optimizing each form factor for what it does best. - Amy Bunszel, autodesk.com
16. Get Rid Of Email
This is your opportunity to put a nail in the coffin of email and encourage the use of programs like Microsoft Teams and Slack. No one really enjoys email and, when you work remotely, you spend more time engaging with your peers in chats, video meetings or audio calls. Users can and should spend most of their days inside these collaborative tools as they provide more options and richer user engagement. - Rod Simmons, Omada
17. Budget For In-Person Events
Companies pivoting to hybrid or fully remote work still must figure out ways to periodically bring people together to foster in-person collaboration, innovation and team bonding. Whether it is companywide trips or an individual team get-together, there needs to be a strategy, plan and budget in place to support bringing people together. - Gleb Polyakov, Nylas
