TheMiddleShelf.com

Who doesn’t want employees that are more productive in the workplace?  Yet personal issues, illness and family obligations often prevent employees from coming in.  That’s why so many employers are now enabling remote access to their network.

Whether you call it “working from home,” “virtual office,” or  “telecommuting,” the idea is the same; your network is configured to give you and your staff the ability to work from some location other than the office.

While telecommuting will not work in every situation, there is no doubt that technology has made working from home extremely practical whether a few times a month or every week.  As a matter of fact, offering work-from-home options can give you a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining the best employees.  Here are some additional benefits to allowing your people remote access:

• Employees who are sick can continue to work without infecting the office or losing an entire day of work
• Employees forced to stay home to take care of sick family members can continue to work instead of taking off long periods.
• Inclement weather or heavily congested traffic won’t shut down your office.
• Key managers with a heavy workload will actually be more productive if given the ability to work from home on evening and weekends.
• Allowing employees flexibility during peak workloads (e.g., your accounting staff during tax season or periodic reporting dates) makes employees happier to put in the extra hours from a home office.
• Employees with temporary or permanent disabilities can continue to be fully functional in a home environment.

How to Get Started With a Telecommuting Program

First, make sure you have a telecommuting policy.  Second, make sure that systems are in place to adequately support telecommuting.  There are several options for remotely accessing your network, however, there are two primary ways used by most.  They are:

Remote Web Workplace

Pros:  It’s easy to use.  This method of remote access automatically comes with most Microsoft Small Business Server software.  As long as your server is configured properly, you should be able to use the remote features.

Cons:  Your desktop in your office has to be turned on and functioning.  Because this method actually takes over your computer, any issue with your computer that requires a physical reboot (meaning you need to be there at the machine) renders your work from home session impossible.

Virtual Private Network

Pros:  Doesn’t rely on another computer in the office to work. Also, a VPN has some flexibility, since it can be set up as a hardware or software VPN.

Cons:  Tends to run a little slower than remote web workplace.  Basically, if you need to do a lot on your desktop PC, VPN may not be for you.

Other alternatives such as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC let you access your PC from another PC via the Internet and work on your computer remotely as if you were sitting in front of it.

Do you have first hand experience in accessing your network or desktop remotely?  Give us your thoughts and ideas.