More companies are facilitating remote work for staff as the world continues to grapple with the effects of the ongoing pandemic. However, for some it’s still a big transition.

Speaking on #MoneyMovesJa with Kalilah Reynolds, head of marketing at Jamlite Innovations Limited Kesi Gardner said the concept has long been championed by her workplace which has been assisting clients to take advantage of the digital world for more than ten years. She said there are certain essentials that a company can use to guarantee the desired productivity and security similar to having staff working in an office.

Locally, working from home continues to be an option for employers and employees, especially in light of tighter measures to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases. The latest data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica’s labour force survey showed that some 10 per cent (122,200) of the persons employed in April 2021 had spent at least one full day working from home or a similar location during the reference period. These persons were mostly women. More than one-half of the overall group working from home was in the professionals, senior officials and technicians occupational group.

“You can be anywhere in the world and still be able to see the overall operation which is very helpful for your bottom line [as a company],” she said, citing a client with an auto parts store who travels but has been able to keep abreast of the company’s financials and day-to-day operations through technology. She said the same client has also managed to secure the company’s data in the clouds.

Gardener said businesses now thriving from remote work would have likely developed a pandemic policy to regulate how employees are to work, including what resources must be had to ensure no disruption to the services offered. She said this provides an advantage for companies wanting to connect and collaborate outside the office.

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, in particular, have become popular over the last year within companies adopting the remote work regime. VPNs offer an encrypted connection over the Internet from a device to a network. Other critical resources needed for remote work include a computer, electricity and Internet connectivity. At the same time, Gardener said her company provides solutions that are not Internet dependent as part of its suite of offerings. She said the solutions allow clients to have access to files or do transactions remotely without an Internet connection.

In the meantime, Gardener also identified communication as another critical pillar to the success of remote work for businesses. She said this has been enhanced through several applications readily available online. “Being able to communicate with your staff in real time is important and you can use anything from WhatsApp to Slack which we use a lot in other industries,” she said.

Slack has been regarded as one of the more popular online project management systems where colleagues can collaborate on notes and projects etc. Some of the top alternatives include Asana, Workzone, Trello, Jira, Score, Proofhub and Hike.

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