Recent figures issued by the National Statistics Office identified that a staggering 49.2% of adults in employment were working from home as a result of social distancing measures from the pandemic. Of course, this flexible working model is only appropriate for certain job roles; but the benefits of working from home, outside the remit of Coronavirus, are extensive!

Reduced office costs, increased productivity and boosting those 'eco-credentials' are just some of the potential benefits employers will recognise in the future. The prospect of reducing overhead office costs will be particularly beneficial to SME's in light of the financial pressures businesses will likely face post Coronavirus.

PRODUCTIVITY QUESTIONS
One of the big questions over remote working is whether employees will actually work productively. It would seem that many employers have a rather pessimistic outlook that their employees will spend their working day relaxing rather than working. However, in actual fact, 75% of employees feel they would be more productive due to reduced distractions. Furthermore, without the daily commute to work, employees can wake up refreshed and dive straight into their workload for the day without stress or tension.

There are of course drawbacks to an all new culture of remote working in the future. Spending 24/7 at home can get lonely and without the office laughs and jokes, daily working life can become less enjoyable. Switching off from work and finding the right home/work life balance might also be difficult to achieve. But with plenty of free web-based collaboration and conferencing systems such as Microsoft Teams & Skype, there are ways round keeping connected with colleagues.

THE PAPER PROBLEM
One major consideration surrounding remote working which rings alarm bells is how employees can access critical business documents. Taking the paper documents home would not be an option, as how can colleagues then share records? Not to mention the clutter and space that comes with storing paper records. The solution is simple: a digital archive.

By scanning documents into accessible PDF's, employees can login to a central online system, accessing the records they require 24/7, without delay. Furthermore, employees can set up virtual meetings to collaborate and discuss records, or quickly send over annotated documents via email. The options are endless.

HOW SECURE IS REMOTE WORKING?
As leading document scanning & cloud-based document management providers, we at Storetec have been busy helping clients facilitate remote working over the last six weeks. With the rush for businesses to set up remote working infrastructure and follow critical government orders, the reality is that currently, many businesses security systems are compromised.

Data gathered from independent surveys distributed to a range of businesses identified that some employees are accessing critical documents via email, USB and other non-secure networks. We would like to think that there aren't cyber-criminals waiting to take advantage of the situation… but in reality, that's exactly what's happening. If the Coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it's that the unexpected can happen, and businesses should be prepared to face any eventuality.

Is there a solution to the security problem, you may ask? There is: an encrypted cloud-based document management solution. Products such as our award-winning system FreeDocs will enable you to:

• Access confidential documents in a secure, cloud-based database.
• Set multi-user restrictions to determine levels of access.
• Review audit trails of which records employees have accessed remotely.
• Have the peace of mind knowing documents are secure, protected behind data encryption and 2-factor authentication.

You may already have a system like this in place, which means you're absolutely on the right track. But if you are one of the employees accessing records via USB or email transfer, we urge you to contact us today for some free advice over your cloud-based solution.

With the Coronavirus pandemic unfortunately expected to impact our lives throughout 2020, now is the time to ensure your organisation is on track with its business continuity and record management. As for the months and years following Coronavirus, who knows? But one thing is for certain; the pandemic has changed the UK's working life culture. As a result, working from home may indeed become the new normal for millions of employees.

If you would like any advice or information regarding Storetec's secure document scanning and cloud-based document management services, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0800 612 4065 or sales@storetec.net.
More info: www.storetec.net