Before you take the plunge for out of office working, ensure you understand the basic ethos of the firm. How important is corporate culture? Do you have a micro-management style of leadership? Do you have a trusted advisor in IT? Are these sources independent in their approach or is it driven by internal IT teams? For all these reasons or objections many firms take the easy option of staying with traditional office space. Control can be lost, if it was weak, or worse, never in place. It’s more about communication, monitoring and ownership, who will ultimately be responsible for ensuring all the actions are adhered too.
Firms need help to gain the benefits and need to not only adhere to all the remote working legal aspects, but also understand their own business processes and workflows need to be defined more clearly. Many firms have compliance obligations to certain aspects of their business and a firm can increase the efficiency by cutting back on traditional office space by introducing remote working.
The solution is not for every firm; therefore often a holistic approach is required to understand when a firm should cut back on office space. For many firms who are open to outsourcing functions in their business, it works well and it could also demonstrate creditability if they search IT firms who are already ISO27001 certified. These IT firms all have security as the key driver and therefore automatically can help your firm comply with required aspects of remote working and collaboration.
The ‘Cloud’ solution is excellent as it allows you to leverage skills from all angles. The ‘Cloud’ opens doors for mergers and acquisitions, for firms that want to grow without extra office worries and in this situation you can do away with traditional office space. It also enables us to employ staff anywhere in the world, giving them the ability to access our systems and work as if they were here in the office, without any additional cost or workload.
Ultimately, It’s all about balance and ensuring your house is in order before removing your furniture, introducing better process and then monitoring before you take the leap of faith. Given all these “things to think about”, enthusiasts will still suggest in this day and age, you do not need office space. Technology is not the driver; it’s only another efficient tool to enable your processes. The driver is you and your objectives.