As the disruption caused by the pandemic begins to subside, many businesses are encouraging their employees to return to the office. After a year of working from home, however, many IT protocols and security practices may have slipped or been forgotten. Below, we take you through some steps to make the transition back to office working as smooth as possible.
Look ahead and plan
It’s almost guaranteed that some issues are bound to arise as people start to move back to the traditional office set up. However, if you can try and anticipate as many as possible of these potential IT issues or disruptions, you can ensure as little downtime as possible for the workings of your business.
Desks and ports
After a year of social distancing as well as different work set-ups, many individuals may return to the office with new preferences on how to work in the office. Reconsidering the desk set up of the office – while taking in to account the need for network ports and plugs readily accessible at each desk – may allow these new routines to slot in seamlessly.
Printers
Much like new work set ups, it’s likely that many employees may no longer have the details of the office printer on their laptops or other devices. Rather than experiencing disruption caused by lost details or confused set-ups when everyone is back in the office, prevent any potential issues by sending a step-by-step guide on office printing before everyone returns. As well as preventing issues with connectivity, this could also act as a useful reminder of office printer etiquette after so long at home.
Testing systems
Making sure that the existing systems in your office building still work to the necessary standard is a crucial step in minimising delays when returning to office work. Checking network speeds, physical equipment and any other systems needed for your business to function at its best will help ensure an efficient transition when your employees return.
Disposing of old devices and accounts
Due to the unprecedented disruption throughout the pandemic, it’s likely that your team and equipment may well have changed since the last time you were in the office. Making sure that you properly dispose of outdated or unnecessary physical equipment as well as deleting superfluous accounts will prevent your business from any cyber-attacks that could de-rail your business.
Security
After so long at home, many individuals may have lapsed in their cyber-security work routines. Sending out reminders or encouraging employees to take a refresher course in cyber-security could be an effective way of preventing any security breaches when people come back to the office.
