Working from Home During the Coronavirus Outbreak
Posted by: Tim Jarrett
As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continues to spread across the world, one piece of advice from the business world has been to encourage companies to allow those that can work from home to do so for the near future.
Coronavirus is currently affecting much of the world and is present in more than 80 countries at the present time. Large gatherings of more than 1000 people are currently being reviewed all over Europe and the fear of the spread of the outbreak is causing widespread economic impact.
Protecting the workforce
The traditional office environment is a place where bacteria and viruses can spread easily. Many people work in an open situation, facing co-workers on desks laid out across the room so that collaboration is made easier. Anyone whom has worked within such an environment will know that colds spread around the office quickly and often employees are asked to stay at home if they display symptoms before the entire workforce is presenting signs of illness.
Protecting the workforce should be a priority for businesses and working from home could prove to be successful in helping to limit the spread of the disease. At this stage in the outbreak of Coronavirus, working from home is already being suggested by businesses in many sectors, where it is workable.
Enabling a remote working environment
Many businesses that can continue to operate using a largely remote workforce can do so using existing infrastructure and solutions. With connectivity and cloud benefits, collaboration need not be affected, and performance can still be monitored.
To enable a remote workforce within a secure IT environment is not always an expensive undertaking requiring large investments. Ensuring that employees have access to a network, where they can work securely and with collaborative benefits is the ideal scenario to protect the workforce and to limit the spread of the virus through human contact.
A word from J&L
The team at J&L hopes that our customers and colleagues remain unaffected by the Coronavirus outbreak. Visit this page for more information about Coronavirus in the UK, how you could be affected and what you can do to help limit the spread of the disease.