A virtual workforce consisting of freelancers or permanent employees located anywhere can help small businesses cut costs and react more nimbly.
Regular working from home, among the non-self-employed population, has grown by 103 percent since 2005 and 6.5 percent in 2014, according to the Global Workplace Analytics survey, which was updated in September 2015. Some 3.7 million employees (2.5 percent of the workforce) now work from home at least half the time, the survey found.
With a virtual workforce, businesses can easily scale up or down as needed, and contract with workers who possess specialized skills.
There are risks, however. Organizations might need to deal more often with disengaged workers. And employees operating remotely might not feel as much a part of the team as those working in the main office.
Another concern is protecting data against threats and making sure security practices comply with the law. Companies with mobile workforces need to secure data while it is stored and in transit, requiring that they have a good handle on the security of the devices used by workers.
Here are four tips to help ensure that your small business has success operating with a virtual workforce:
1. Find ways to enable remote working with as few restrictions as possible.
The best remote working scenario is when employees have access to every tool they would have in the office, said David Johnson, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
Having access to productivity applications, collaboration tools, files and systems of record is important. So is enabling access to these tools on mobile devices or while working on public Wi-Fi, Johnson said.
2. Invest in technology to anchor your virtual workforce strategy.
Desktop virtualization separates a desktop environment and its applications from the physical device used to access these resources. When all components of a desktop are virtualized, users have access to a more flexible and secure delivery model for working remotely.
Businesses can deploy offerings such as Microsoft Office 365 Small Business, which provides access to the latest versions of Office applications across devices and enables workers to store, sync and share files online.
3. Deploy tools that enable remote workers to collaborate with colleagues and business partners.
Applications such as Skype allow remote workers to meet using video and voice conferencing.
A host of collaboration and messaging products, such as Podio and Slack, can help small businesses get the most from their virtual workforce by improving the way they communicate and share documents and data for projects. For example, Podio allows users to share a variety of content (such as documents) related to a particular project with colleagues from a single point online, making collaboration easier.
Considering the large number of workers who use smartphones and tablets, companies should extend these collaboration solutions to work with mobile devices, Johnson said.
4. Develop a clear policy that delineates responsibilities.
“The policy should outline the precautions that employees should take for ensuring security of information,” Johnson said. “It should also outline what responsibility the company has for supporting remote-work scenarios for employees, such as providing access to corporate information resources, where company support for employee-owned technology begins and ends, [and] acceptable use of company resources, to name a few.”
By following these practices, small businesses can better manage their increasingly virtual workforces and ensure that remote workers have all the tech tools and resources they need to succeed.