The business side of IT

Setting up staff to work from anywhere

Someone is starting a hybrid schedule, or the whole team needs to be able to work from home. Here is what to have in place.

1 min readChecklist

The short version

Remote and hybrid work needs more than a laptop. A short checklist covers the equipment, access and habits that make it work securely.

Equipment

A company laptop, managed and kept updated by IT, instead of a personal computer.
A headset with a microphone for calls.
A monitor, keyboard and mouse for anyone working from home regularly.
A way to make and take business calls, such as a softphone app or forwarding from the office phone system.

Work files in the cloud, in OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams, so nothing depends on being in the office.
Secure remote access to anything that must stay in the office, such as a server or specialist software.
Multi-factor authentication on every account.
Sign-in rules that suit where people actually work.

Endpoint protection on every laptop, wherever it connects.
Encrypted drives, so a lost laptop does not mean lost data.
A safer home network: an updated router, a strong Wi-Fi password and work devices kept apart from smart home gadgets.
Care on public Wi-Fi.

Staff know how to get help without being in the office.
Backups cover laptops, not only the office server.
A plan for a broken laptop: how quickly a replacement can be set up and sent.

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