Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies have adopted the remote work so that employees can respect social isolation. With everyone at home, a new challenge arose: how to minimize the impact of this new reality on internal processes?
For this, it is necessary to assemble a home-office kit for employees, allowing them to perform their tasks in the same way as in face-to-face work. It is necessary to consider all the variables involved in the issue, such as comfort, equipment and software needed to carry out the activities.
In this post, we list everything your company needs to include in the home office kit for employees. Interested? Check it out below!
What is the home office kit for employees?
The home office kit for employees is a set of measures designed to meet the needs of employees in remote work, minimizing the impact of the new routine on working conditions.
This practice is essential to ensure that employees act in a comfortable, safe and productive way. After all, changing the environment without the proper support of the company can cause a series of unforeseen events, such as:
- discomfort due to lack of physical structure;
- lack of equipment and materials;
- inability to access important documents;
- exposure and leakage of sensitive data.
Some companies are already showing how to succeed when implementing the home office kit for employees. It is the case of Nubank, which adopted remote work as a standard for its approximately 2,600 employees in São Paulo, Berlin, Mexico City and Buenos Aires.
In addition to guaranteeing all the necessary equipment to carry out the tasks, the company is sending ergonomic chairs to the employees' homes, in order to guarantee comfort during working hours.
Considering the pandemic moment, fintech also offers employees the support of mental health specialists and face protection masks, even if they do not need to go to work.
What items cannot be missing from the home office kit for employees?
Building a good home office kit for employees requires thinking about all the needs that employees may have in remote work: from a computer with all the software they use to tools to create, edit and share documents online.
Check out a list of items that cannot be missing to ensure the good performance of your team in the home-office:
- suitable equipment;
- ergonomic chair;
- stationery items;
- videoconferencing software;
- cloud storage;
- creation of online documents;
- system for scanning documents;
- digital signature tool.
1. Adequate equipment
To support employees in remote work, it is essential that the company provides all the necessary equipment to carry out the activities, such as çomputer, keyboard and mouse, among others.
The role of the IT team at this point is critical. It is essential for the department to define specific policies for this situation, such as the use of VPN to access machines and the development of guides to good practices to preserve information security.
It is also necessary to ensure that all software and accesses are working correctly before releasing the employee to the home-office, in addition to offering a efficient distance support in case there is a problem with the equipment.
2. Ergonomic chair
The quality of the chair is often not taken into account when talking about remote work, but this is an item that directly influences the employee well-being
Anyone who has spent hours and hours sitting in an uncomfortable place knows how much this damages the spine. Often, the pain is so great that it is difficult to concentrate on work, generating a significant drop in productivity.
So, before releasing employees to remote work, ask if they have appropriate chairs in their homes. If the answer is negative, send the chair he uses in the office to his home. Thus, you guarantee the comfort of the collaborator on a daily basis and help him to preserve your physical health.
3. Stationery items
Notebooks, post-its, notebooks and pens they are common items that may be missed when moving from face-to-face to remote work. So don't forget to include them in the home-office kit for employees, ensuring that everyone has access to the same material they use in their day-to-day work at the office.
This way, employees do not have to pay out of pocket for stationery items they use during business hours.
4. Videoconferencing software
A good videoconferencing software is an essential addition to the home-office kit for employees. After all, it is not because everyone is working remotely that meetings with teams, partners and customers need to be canceled.
Today, there are several programs that make it possible to hold meetings at a distance with excellent audio and video quality. Among the best known are the Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype and Teams.
Each of them has its differentials, but in general these applications have free modalities, with more basic functions; and paid, which allow you to include a larger number of people in the conversation.
Research the alternatives offered in the market, choose the most suitable for your needs and define a standard program for all remote company meetings.
>> Want to know more about what to use in the home-office? Check out this other blog post: What are the best tools for remote work? <
5. Cloud storage
If storing files in the cloud was already an interesting solution, now that remote work has become the rule, it has become indispensable.
In systems like Google Drive it's the Dropbox, all business documents and files are stored in an online database, which can be accessed by any device connected to the internet.
In this way, employees are able to organize and access their tasks with much more practicality, in addition to the risk of losing documents being much lower.
6. Creating documents online
Another feature of cloud systems is the online document creation and sharing.
With this technology, it is no longer necessary to forward spreadsheets, presentations and text files by email whenever someone makes a change. Simply create the document online and include a permission for everyone who needs to edit it.
All adjustments are made right there, on the platform, and saved automatically. In addition, in the history it is possible to track all changes made by employees with access to the file, ensuring that no pre-existing version of that file is lost.
7. System for scanning documents
Outside the office, employees are unlikely to have access to a scanner to scan physical documents. For this reason, it is interesting to include in the home office kit for employees an application for scanning documents, such as the CamScanner.
This type of tool allows you to scan documents by taking a photo of the printed version with your cell phone camera. The application processes the image and makes all the necessary optimizations so that the image is presented in the best possible quality.
In addition, it is also possible to include signatures and watermarks to send copies to other employees and customers in a professional manner.
8. Digital signature tool
Without a scanner, it is impossible to work with contracts that need hand signed signatures, right? Wrong. Applications like DocuSign it's the D4Sign arrived to facilitate this process and are fundamental additions to the home office kit for employees.
With them, it is possible to sign important documents using only the computer, no need for printer, paper and pen.
Now that you know how to assemble a home office kit for employees, how about putting what you've learned into practice? Pay attention to the needs of employees and ensure that they have everything they need to play a good role in remote work. That way, you'll be able to reduce the impacts of change and keep productivity high.
Did you like it? Tell us in the comments how your company is adapting to the home-office during the pandemic. We are available to answer any questions you may have on the subject!
