New remote workers, ones that never had the time to dial in their processes and workflows, and are learning on the fly...new tools to collaborate, new routines to get used to and just a daunting list of changes that work against productivity. If we are being honest, we must realize that mental and physical health top the list. Among my peers, being locked in a chair in one web conference after another is common, and the social isolation silently creeps in and affects workers as well.
This is the situation. Money is tight, many companies are tightening the belt to do the right thing, and ensure as much business continuity as they can. These businesses need as much productivity out of their employees as they can, well aware of the stress and strain this whole upheaval is causing and those newly remote folks are drinking from a firehose of this "new normal."
End-User Experience
One area that I would like to call attention to is the importance of providing your work from a home population as much congruency as possible, especially for those newly remote workers. These new workers are going through a great deal of change, poor user experience exasperates the situation and kills any semblance of productivity that these workers were clinging to.
I participated in an executive panel this week titled "Helping you optimize the new normal." It was sponsored by one of our partners. A lot of great observations and ideas were discussed in that panel session. One of the simplest solutions presented, aside from planning was assessment.
Know what your end-users are going through. Know what it's like for them to have to print to the warehouse over a VPN connection. Know that it takes an extra 15 seconds to load the fat client of that ERP application or that split tunneling is causing their web-based applications to go one way, while their premise-hosted apps go another (or worse, no split tunneling is slowing down their connectivity because video and apps are running across the same network path).
Knowing what the actual end-user experience is no easy task, which leads me to another key takeaway from that panel discussion, there is help. Login VSI is focused on VDI environments to index this user experience and there are many options for Software and Services available...so phone a friend (trusted advisor), because even the most prepared BCP plans will need an overhaul in the presence and wake of COVID-19.
Through COVID-19 and beyond
Through this pandemic, work from home is having its greatest test. The results are not in, but of course, the speculation is. Whether work from home continues or reverts the world is getting smaller, and the chances that you will need to use a tool like work from home will remain high. So, take a breath (through your mask), assess your end-user experience, and tune-up that work-from-home offering so that your users - and business productivity - does not suffer. Worker productivity is one of a company's greatest assets - make sure it is optimized for times ahead.
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About the Author
Michael Is Login VSI's Chief Technology Officer. He has an extensive background in the technology field and is an experienced Architect and technology manager in Software as a Service with strong thought-leadership.
