It's incredible to see how well the British working public and their families have adapted to working at home during lock down. The range of new services, apps and technologies that have grown and emerged have meant we have never been more connected and businesses that have never preciously considered working from home are now seeing the benefits and possibilities of home working.  

Over the course of the last few months I have spoken to many business owners and their staff regarding how they have felt about working from home. Some love it, some hate it, but what it has made clear is there will be a lot more freedom for businesses to accommodate this, relieving pressure on office space, public transport, the roads and people as we return to 'the new normal'.

How will businesses further change as they adapt a work from home policy, as they shift from temporary or 'disaster recovery' mode, to a more permanent way of working?  When the kitchen table no longer becomes a viable work space and having calls diverted to a mobile no longer presents the professional office experience you once had?

Things to consider for long-term home working are:

1. The working environment your staff are in - is there a separate work space they can use, so they aren't taking over the kitchen every working day?

2. The reliability and speed of the home broadband network - can this cope with video calling and remote cloud services and what are the fix times on outages?

3 . Security - how secure is their home broadband connection and domestic router? Are you leaving your network exposed to a poorly secured back door?

4. Call flows and phone calls - how do calls flow through your organisation and do your staff have the ability to transfer calls from home?

If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you prepare for a more permanent home working environment feel free to get in touch on 0131 3000103 or email me at martin@2circlesconsulting.com.