Remote working is no longer a short-term solution to working under Covid-19 regulations. Your IT team is now tasked with ensuring the long-term success of the dispersed workforce as your business embraces permanent remote or hybrid working.

But maintaining the simplicity, standardisation and security experienced in the centralised office environment can be challenging in a remote environment. You need a modern solution that can provide the high-performance needed for the modern workforce and one that can remove the complexity from managing and scaling IT for remote workers.

This guide will explain how a best-in-class cloud-based VDI solution, like Pulsant Cloud Desktop, can remove the risk and complexity associated with IT management and maintenance of a dispersed workforce, helping your team to succeed in this new working environment, whilst enabling a high-performance workforce. In particular, it will cover the following factors:

• Simplify: How to simplify management and maintenance of dispersed workgroups
• Standardise: How to deliver a consistent experience across multiple devices and locations
• Secure: How to maintain security, compliance and business continuity outside of the office environment
• Succeed: How to guarantee a high-performance dispersed workforce where staff can work remotely without limits

The post Optimising IT for Remote Workers with Cloud-Based VDI appeared first on Pulsant.

An aim of organisations across industries during the remote working era has been to ensure that their employees can provide the same level of output and consistent quality of work that was previously possible in the office. Research by Mercer found that 94% of 800 employers reported the same or higher level of productivity than before the pandemic, even with employees working remotely. While this evidence shows that employees can successfully make the shift, the responsibility sits with the employer to ensure that the tools are available to enable this productivity.

Employee expectations

Younger people entering the workforce today are increasingly unlikely to remember a time where others were not instantly reachable, creating certain expectations that employers should provide the right communications technology, whether in or out of the office. Employees are now expecting a consistent desktop performance and true accessibility, regardless of the device used and where they are based.

But for in-house IT teams, it isn’t always so simple to provide this experience. Ensuring that desktops are fully up to date can be a time-consuming and costly challenge, in addition to the user support and ongoing maintenance of servers and storage that needs to be provided. This management of hardware and software compatibility can prove overwhelming, leading to difficulties with prioritising IT fixes and leading to inconsistent employee experiences.

 Traditional VDI solutions

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a technology that has been available for some time and allows a managed desktop solution to be provided to employees. Legacy VDI solutions are however fraught with issues, such as being incompatible with applications and delivering a slow and inconsistent user experience via a lookalike operating system.

While VDI has come along way in recent years, such as modern cloud-based solutions, it still requires the specialist knowledge and resources of an in-house IT team to ensure it is fully consistent and readily available for each employee. With this in mind, how can businesses best utilise a VDI solution to provide that all-important employee experience on a consistent basis? Pulsant Cloud Desktop is the modern VDI that can address these challenges.

 Enabling consistency

In leveraging trusted Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops technology, Pulsant Cloud Desktop performs all processing in the data centre, ensuring a consistent level of performance for every user, even in the case of a low-spec or outdated device. Users also benefit from use of native Windows 10 and single sign-on capabilities, ensuring that they can access their work tools quickly and efficiently.

Looking at the case of commercial law firm Teacher Stern, the organisation required a new IT infrastructure to replace its ageing solution, and worked closely with Pulsant to integrate a remote desktop solution that was delivered via Pulsant Enterprise Cloud. The enhanced connectivity that resulted from the arrangement allowed fee earners quick uninterrupted access to systems and applications from any device.

Looking to find out more on how to ensure a consistent experience for your dispersed workforce? Download our guide: “Optimising IT for Remote Workers with Cloud-Based VDI”

The post Why a consistent experience is critical in a dispersed working environment appeared first on Pulsant.

While the rapid rollout of the vaccination programme has provided hope of a return to a pre-2020 world, the move to remote working due to the Covid-19 pandemic will be a mainstay for many organisations. In fact, 98% of people want to work from home for at least part of their working week for the remainder of their careers, according to a survey by the World Economic Forum. But to continue with a long-term strategy of a dispersed workforce in place and to reap the benefits it brings, businesses need to fully optimise the management and maintenance of their desktop platforms to support their employees.

In-house challenges

Deployment, configuration and management of desktop solutions can be a complex process, with considerations such as patch management, user support, updates and minimising latency between applications based in the data centre. Not only that, but the resultant ongoing maintenance of networking, storage and servers can prove to be an overwhelming responsibility for in-house IT teams. 45% of IT professionals who leave the industry do so because of stress, undoubtedly exacerbated by the pressures associated with the pandemic.

So what are the options on the table to help ease the burden on IT professionals while continuing to support the dispersed workforce? There are plenty of cloud desktop solutions on the market that can ease some of the burden, such as hosting a desktop solution with Azure, but this still involves comprehensive in-house management of the technology and specialist knowledge to ensure that it is fully optimised, which is where a managed Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution comes in.

The benefits of a managed solution

Opting for a managed solution with a service provider means that IT teams don’t have to worry about rack space, hardware breakdown or maintenance. Pulsant’s Cloud Desktop, in conjunction with Citrix technology, allows centralised management of the VDI platform, from configuration of the operating system to flexibility to easily scale up down depending on the number of users.

For organisations utilising a BYOD policy for remote employees, the solution is compatible with all major mobile OS systems and ensures a consistent user interface across each device, while users benefit from faster and more reliable access to applications with guaranteed availability SLAs and enhanced performance.

Security has moved to the forefront of IT teams’ concerns with workplace devices now being managed remotely. At the outset of the pandemic, 52% of organisations determined that they were only somewhat prepared in terms of security resource when making the shift to remote working. Pulsant Cloud Desktop ensures unnecessary security risks are mitigated and compliance across the workforce is maintained with a secure-by-design VDI, while the service is ISO 27001 accredited and UK-based.

Management and maintenance of the dispersed workforce can be a minefield, but Pulsant Cloud Desktop removes the risk and complexity that could otherwise result from an in-house strategy. Discover more in our comprehensive guide: “Optimising IT for Remote Workers with Cloud-Based VDI”

The post How to simplify management and maintenance of your dispersed workforce appeared first on Pulsant.

Enabling a high performance dispersed workforce

While Covid-19 has forced businesses to adapt to remote work, it is no longer seen as just a short term fix to helping businesses navigate the pandemic. Many organisations are now choosing to keep their remote working policies in place permanently or are moving to hybrid working models where employees can work flexibly between home and the office.

How businesses manage their IT will need to change to accommodate these new working models. One of the biggest factors IT teams need to consider is enabling high performance across the business. Performance across the dispersed workforce can be a significant challenge, with users in different roles requiring different levels of compute power and access to applications that are unique to their requirements.

A Cloud Desktop, also known as a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or Desktop as a Service (DaaS) can help the IT team solve the performance challenges a business might face with remote or hybrid working. It does this by delivering virtual desktops and applications from the cloud on any company device in any location.

Improving performance with dedicated virtual machines

A typical Cloud Desktop helps to ensure high performance from the dispersed workforce by allowing users to access virtual desktops, applications and files. However, it is important to choose a solution that provides dedicated virtual machines for each user rather than users having to share. When users share virtual machines, the performance of one user’s desktop might be negatively impacted by other users demanding more computing power. Dedicated virtual machines ensure each user has enough computing power to perform their role uninhibited by technology issues.

Scaling up for more intensive user demands

Importantly, having dedicated virtual machines means there are no hardware upgrades required when a user needs to use a new application or their requirements call for a higher performance machine.  Virtual machines can be scaled up easily as and when they’re required, eliminating any delays in users being able to use the applications they need when they lack computing power. This also reduces the chances of the applications running inefficiently.

Reducing latency between desktops and applications

When it comes to running applications virtually, users can experience latency between the servers that are running their desktops and the servers running their applications. A Cloud Desktop solution that hosts the desktop infrastructure and applications in the same data centre can reduce this latency as traffic between the virtual desktop and applications take place inside the data centre and not through the connection between the data centre and the user’s device. This improves application responsiveness and leads to better overall performance.

Consistent performance with Pulsant Cloud Desktop

For many organisations, remote work is the future. Virtual desktops are the future of remote work and Pulsant Cloud Desktop removes the risk and complexity associated with managing a dispersed workforce by simplifying deployment, management and maintenance of multiple devices and remote workers through cloud-based VDI.

Find out more about how Pulsant Cloud Desktop can help your IT team simplify, standardise and secure IT in the dispersed workplace by reading our guide, “Optimising IT for Remote Workers with Cloud-Based VDI”.

The post Enabling a high performance dispersed workforce appeared first on Pulsant.

One of the many challenges 2020 has brought is the mass migration to remote working for businesses across the UK.  And with guidance on home working not set to change imminently and the benefits of remote working continuing to rise to the fore, many organisations now envision operating with some degree of remote working permanently.

However, with the shift to a more flexible and remote working, comes increased risks and reduced control. Employees are no longer accessing their desktops and networks from within the confines of the office environment where you can be confident data and confidentiality remains protected. So, the question then arises – what infrastructure do you need to provide your remote workers the freedom they need, whilst also retaining control?

Is VDI the answer?

There are many different solutions available to enhance and improve remote working, including VPNs and remote management tools to name a few. However, more and more firms are turning towards virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) as the answer. VDI is not new – it’s been around for well over a decade. But with the promise of benefits such as improved security, productivity and efficiency, it’s a solution that should not be discarded.

Essentially, VDI is a form of desktop virtualisation that allows users to log in to their own desktop from any device and any location. The desktop operating system is hosted on a central server in a data centre and the virtual desktop image delivered over a network to the endpoint device. This offers benefits such as improved efficiency and productivity, reduced costs and greater security and control.

The rise of VDI is largely being driven by organisations’ requirements to consider standardisation, control and management of services to a dispersed workforce. Virtual desktops can present a consistent, controlled desktop application environment, with data not residing on the local machine, but within the data centre.

Choosing the right virtual desktop for you

Many organisations have some form of desktop virtualisation already. However, the problem is traditionally most VDI solutions have been designed to support a small fraction of the workforce. Yet, with many companies’ whole employee base now working from home, organisations need a long-term solution that can provide a consistent and user-friendly experience for a wider user base.

The key to success when implementing VDI is to look for a system that is easy to deploy and use. The main goal of VDI is to simplify management, not add further complexity, so user experience is key.

If you get this right, VDI offers a number of advantages including increased user mobility and ease of access, scalable computing power, consistent user experience and centralised security and control.

The centralised management system enables you to effectively monitor and manage the entire infrastructure from a single dashboard. Even when installing new components or configuring a multisite environment, there’s no need to log in to other remote servers. Less people are required to manage your IT estate and you updates, patches, and other maintenance problems can be simplifies, making IT jobs easier.

In fact, Teacher Stern recently described moving across to a virtual desktop infrastructure with Pulsant Cloud Desktop as a “monumental leap forward” in terms of its IT system stability.

“Moving from a remote desktop setup to a virtual desktop infrastructure was a monumental leap forward in terms of our system stability. With the support of Pulsant, we have been able to enhance performance, improve user experience and increase productivity, all while reducing our operational spend. The team have been great to work with, have excellent technical knowledge, and delivered a great service every step of the way.”

Andy Cecil, IT Programme Manager, Teacher Stern

Don’t be afraid to ask for a helping hand

Remote working isn’t going away and to remain competitive you need to provide your employees with the right IT to enable them flexibility in where and how they work. But making widespread infrastructure changes isn’t always easy – as well as the IT itself, you need to ensure you get buy in from stakeholders and employees are onboard and open to the new systems.

For busy IT teams that are already faced with a number of additional challenges posed by the new environment, switching to new infrastructure can feel like an added complication at a time when further change is best kept to a minimum. But with the support of a trusted partner, you can align your business objectives with VDI deployment models, implement the right technology for your unique needs and remove the burden from ongoing management.  As a result, you can maintain the benefits and feel of a office environment whilst capitalising on the benefits of a dispersed workforce.

To learn more about how you can balance freedom and control in a remote environment and capitalise on the benefits of a remote workforce, download our guide “Freedom and control: reunite your workforce” here.

The post Supporting a dispersed workforce: how to balance freedom and control appeared first on Pulsant.

For much of 2020, the world as we knew it changed. With unprecedented global measures governing our every move, it’s clear that the Coronavirus pandemic has touched everyone in some way. But when you’re an Olympic team that relies on co-located training, how do you overcome physical separation to stay in sync?

In the second instalment of our British rowing blog series, we sat down with GB rower Rowan McKellar to talk teamwork, training and keeping connected as a team.

A shared goal

At the end of the day, everyone has the same goal.

On a rowing team, you can be the best in the boat – but nobody knows. You either win as a team, or you don’t. Of course, we are all individuals with different personalities, and those do come into play. The key is knowing how to approach each person, so you can maximise the abilities of each member of the team and identify training practices that align to people’s strengths. To help us pinpoint personality types, our team psychologist gives us a test where everyone answers questions designed to identify certain traits. This helps the coaches understand how to best engage the team, as well as giving the athletes a better idea of how to interact with each other. Overall, having a good understanding of what people respond to – and what they don’t – really helps us work together as a team.

Throughout the lockdown, British Rowing has been a pillar of support. We had two phone calls a week, as well as whole squad meetings, which helped keep everyone on the same page and aligned with what the rest of the team is doing. And a lot of rowers live in the same area, as they often have to move to be near the rest of the team. I’ll often bump into other British Rowing teammates at the supermarket or whilst on a walk, so we feel that sense of closeness all the time. Quite a lot of team members even live in the same house – including myself – so they’re very good friends, which can help with that overall alignment.

Of course, if there’s disagreement in the team, it’s easier if you don’t have such a personal relationship! Falling out with your friends can be hard. But as previously discussed, people have different personalities; athletes can be quite headstrong, and this can cause clashes. When this does rarely happen, we all recognise that it’s often just situational frustrations. And the coach will often jump in to act as a mediator, which can be helpful!

Keeping team spirit alive

With social distancing a long term consideration, it’s important for athletes to try and keep up with what the rest of the team is doing. In British Rowing, there is a plan to train at home until September, which means at least we have a clear plan and we know exactly what we’re doing for now. Of course, as an organisation, we need to look at risk versus reward; we can’t go back to normal too quickly, especially when we’re in such close proximity in the boat. So, if we go rowing, it’s completely recreational at the moment.

Whilst we are training apart, we’re staying in sync by keeping in touch via regular meetings. We have Zoom calls each week; sometimes we have coffee mornings. We also do yoga twice a week, which helps to give us all a bit of structure! The most important thing to note is that nobody is taking their foot off the gas when it comes to training. The Olympics might have been postponed, but the only thing that’s changed is that we have an extra year to prepare.

Above all, we’re a close-knit team – so we’re making sure we keep working together even though we’re apart. We’ve just got to deal with the situation and come out of the other side stronger!

The post Staying connected as a team appeared first on Pulsant.

It’s safe to say that life has changed exponentially since the beginning of the year. Not only are societies still enduring the effects of an unprecedented global pandemic, but for the first time since World War II, the Olympics were postponed.

Of course, 2020 should have been a summer of sport. But as we come to terms with these cancellations, there’s one particular topic that’s been at the forefront of every athletes’ minds: resilience and overcoming adversity.

With that in mind, we caught up with Olympic rower John Collins, who gave us the lowdown on adapting to changes, bouncing back, and how he and the British rowing team stay resilient through adversity.

Turning threats into challenges

Resilience is a form of mental toughness.

To use a sporting metaphor, people often approach difficult situations by taking a ‘mental backswing’ first; but being resilient is about having the capacity to whack the ball without needing to take that backswing.

In athletics, as with anything, life will throw a mixture of ups and downs at you. Depending on your mindset, failures can weigh heavy, or you can use them to move forwards. The key is in turning a downward spiral around. It can even come down to something as simple as the language you use. If you look at failures as opportunities, or threats as challenges, it can make a huge difference to your mentality – as well as your physiological response. It’s easy to sit on the start line and worry that that single race will affect the rest of your life; but really, it’s just another race. By keeping things in context and rationalising situations, you can turn a stressful situation into an exciting one – and by embracing this change in mentality, you can then modify how you approach obstacles going forwards.

Sometimes curveballs can actually improve things. I faced a situation where the order of my boat was swapped around, and it took me by surprise; but it was actually a fantastic change, and my doubles pairing went from strength to strength. Change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.

Putting up a fight

Sometimes the biggest opportunities for personal growth come from the biggest ‘failures’. When something really hurts – for example, if you are expecting to win a medal, but you come fifth – it’s easier than dealing with the disappointment of a near miss because you feel so far from achieving what you thought you could that you’re actually more motivated to do things better the next time around.

The key to staying resilient is to roll with the punches, dust yourself off, and keep going. Recognise the opportunity to improve and regain that momentum. But if you know you’re facing an unavoidable negative outcome, change your mentality. Stand up to it and recognise that it doesn’t matter if you fail, as long as you put up a fight.

When you’re an athlete, you can experience small failures every day, whether its an off-moment in training, deviating from your diet, or losing at an event. What helps you bounce back is thinking about it as a victory every time you overcome a failure. To really fail, you have to let the minor setbacks get the best of you. If you can pick yourself up and keep going then in many ways you’re already winning.

Adapting to change

The most successful people are usually those who lack a fear of failure.

Most people are put off by failing, and ironically, block their own success by trying to avoid failure at all costs. Of course, you can’t succeed at everything, every time. But by being tenacious, and trying again and again, you dramatically increase your chances of succeeding. It’s about rediscovering a willingness to take a dive over the edge; pushing limits to transcend what you thought was possible. And that’s how you break barriers. To overcome adversity, you’ve simply got to change how you view it. After all, nobody ever looks at another person and thinks they’re failing; they see someone who’s trying hard.

The pandemic has, of course, forced us all to adapt to a new normal. As athletes, we’re no different. Personally I’ve been combining steady training and hard training through lockdown; making the easy stuff easier, but doing more of it; and really going hard at the more difficult things. It’s about trying to find limits, and nudge past them – and I’ve found that my limits are a little bit further than I previously thought.

However, when it comes to resilience as an athlete, you also have to recognise that motivation is not a consistent thing. Some days, it’s difficult to get motivated; and that’s okay. But when you have motivation, use it to do more. That way, the quality of your training will stay the same. It’s about adapting to a new situation – to a new environment – and recognising that it’s impossible to stay too rigid when you’re in a completely unprecedented situation.

Putting a positive spin on things

Of course, we’re all disappointed that the Olympics has been postponed – and as an athlete, this can be a real blow if things have been going well. But at the same time, lockdown has definitely presented opportunities. Athletes can experiment with the way they train, using methods that work specifically for them rather than being coaxed into more universal training approaches – and they can try new things without an audience.

Amongst athletes, the universal feeling is that this lockdown has been a big opportunity. An extra year will make us a lot stronger; it’s a massive learning experience and a chance to reflect on what works for us individually as well as a team.

The post Resilience in rowing appeared first on Pulsant.

For top athletes, finding motivation in circumstances outside of their control is vital. 2020 has forced sportsmen and women to come to terms with the most significant disruption to the worldwide sporting calendar since the Second World War, which has been a challenging, but unavoidable facet of their lives. Athletes affected by the disappointment of the postponement of major events, such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, have needed to dig deep to find the motivation to keep on pushing ahead with their punishing training routines.

For the third instalment of our British rowing blog series, we sat down with GB rower Becky Muzerie who opened up about the keys to staying motivated, overcoming motivational dips and what inspires her to succeed.

The power of preparation

Mental preparation is just as important as the physical for success.

For me, self-motivation is simple. It’s all about reminding yourself why you are doing what you do, understanding the great privilege of the opportunity you have and drawing on inspiration from the hard times.

In preparation, finding perspective is all important. As an athlete the many occasions you suffer lows from missing out on selection, or being injured, make the highs of participating in big events all the greater. To fill myself with confidence the night before a race, I often remind myself of all the things I have achieved in the months preparing for the event.

Supporting each other is a great part of the camaraderie of team sports, However, when that support is not available you need to be able to rely on yourself. In our 2018 eight, a teammate who gave motivational speeches before each race provided a tremendous boost in confidence. But sometimes when such support is no longer there you have to leave your comfort zone. This can mean stepping up and taking a leadership role, even if it doesn’t come naturally. This was the case when we later raced without that crew member, which provided an opportunity for me to take up the mantel and spur the crew on before the race, something I’d never been confident enough to do previously.

Many athletes, including myself, often find motivation peaks straight after a big race or event. Following a win or a good performance it is normal to get excited about the next goal and you want to jump straight back into training again. Sometimes it is better to give your body a break and it is always worth making time to review what has happened, good or bad and sitting with that emotion before moving on to the next challenge.

Overcoming adversity

During periods of low motivation, half the battle is just getting a training session started.

Having a routine with quite limited time slots to do training sessions is a great way to overcome motivational dips. You just have to get on with it because it becomes a matter of now or never!

The amount of mental energy it takes to get back on the rowing machine can be exhausting, but you’ll often find that once you begin, it gets easier. It’s like going to the gym or for a run – the thought of getting ready and driving all the way there is the biggest demotivator, but it’s not never as bad once you’re there.

With the Olympics now feeling so very far away, I’ve set short term goals to focus on. This attitude has helped me to keep on taking the next stroke during the long lonely sessions.

If you are feeling low, it is important to remind yourself that training is a choice. Personally, I have chosen to dedicate this period of my life to trying to be the best I can at rowing. You don’t want to look back and have any regrets about skipping sessions when you didn’t need to.

Finding inspiration in sport

Sport is an integral part of a healthy society. On an individual level it is fantastic for our wellbeing, both physical and mental. On a group level it provides a social benefit for people to learn and work with others. And on a national level, sport has a unique power to bring a country together.

I am driven by the idea that I might be able to inspire other people to take a risk and follow their dreams, in or outside of sport. This is what motivates me to push my limits beyond what I thought possible in order to reach my goals.

Afterall, success in sport is just like success in every walk of life – it’s all about striving each and every day to become the best version of yourself.

The post Staying motivated through tough times appeared first on Pulsant.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the UK, many businesses have rapidly transitioned their teams to work from home successfully.

But now the transition phase is over, we are entering a period of sustainment; where the focus is no longer on just ensuring systems and processes work, but that they are optimised, secure and compliant. But what does this mean for your business?

This best practice guide explores the key challenges you’re likely to face as a result of sustained remote working and provides advice on steps that can be taken to protect data, safeguard your business, and keep IT systems running efficiently for the duration of this crisis and beyond.

The post Preparing for sustained remote working appeared first on Pulsant.

Despite being a few weeks in, the switch to remote working will no doubt still feel new and testing for many businesses and their employees who may be experiencing both its benefits and challenges for the first time.

However, while the environment may be new for many, it is possible for organisations and employees to remain productive and provide the same level of service their customers have come to demand.

But to ensure the employees feel comfortable and able to work from home effectively, there are three main elements organisations need to consider – the practical elements of communicating remotely, maintaining motivation and health and wellbeing. In this blog, I share how we at Pulsant are approaching the new working environment as well as some key advice on how to help your team stay motivated, connected, fit and healthy.

Embracing remote working

As a HR team at Pulsant, we are fortunate in that we already work across the organisation’s various offices so we are used to connecting with colleagues remotely across multiple locations. However, outside of our team, everyone has been excellent at quickly adjusting to their new home office environments.

Following the shift in working practices, one of the most important measures we have introduced is enhancing communications. Staff are encouraged to use video platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom for visual interaction, instead of the telephone and this is helping to boost morale and foster collaboration. In a single week recently, I spoke on video to more people than I have ever spoken to in a week in the business. People are making an extra effort to collaborate, engage and ensure everyone feels as included as possible.

When it comes to video conferencing etiquette, we have found that people just need to grasp the nettle. Understandably, some people are a little shy about showing themselves and their home on camera, so it’s about making those employees feel like it’s a safe environment and reinforcing that we are all in it together. The more employees are encouraged to participate, the less unfamiliar it feels.

Maintaining motivation

It’s also important to recognise that everyone’s home situation is different. Some, like myself, are surrounded by people and dogs. Others who are used to working with others around them have suddenly found themselves all on their own. It is vital that all circumstances are considered and steps are taken to ensure colleagues stay motivated and connected throughout this period. Some of the best ways to do this are:

• Make sure to ask about employee / colleague wellbeing as well as work and keep different communication channels open.
• Inject as many social and fun elements into the business-as-usual work as possible to try and keep up a similar environment to the office.
• Encourage people to offer their support to teams across the business. We’ve seen an upturn from people in quiet areas volunteering to help out where things are busy and wearing different hats for a while, which has been an enormous help.
• Provide daily updates at team level and company updates at least once a week. At Pulsant, we have an information resource centre people can access at any time. We have also been sending out more online communications, so people know exactly where they stand and what the situation is.
• Employ morale boosting initiatives – ensure that people feel engaged and able to discuss any concerns about working from home. Create a platform for those ‘in the kitchen making a coffee’ type office situations. For example, we have set up a Pulsant Team with a virtual café, a pub and a gym where colleagues can meet and socialise.

Don’t forget health and wellbeing

Regardless of different situations, we are all working outside of our comfort zones at the moment and will be for a while to come. In these circumstances, maintaining our health and wellbeing has never been more important.

For me, I prefer to work out in the morning, so I use the time I would have been commuting to do exercise. It helps me make that transition from a domestic mindset to a work focussed one. However, regardless of what time of day works best, staying active and taking time away from work is crucial and organisations should be encouraging and helping employees to do so where possible.

While it may have seemed unfamiliar at first, we’re slowly all adjusting to our new temporary way of working and taking some of the steps above can help ease the discomfort. This period has certainly highlighted the requirement for organisations to be agile and adapt to different working environments and hopefully there are elements we can learn from and evolve after the crisis has passed.

For more information on advice on how best to support sustained remote working download our short guide here

The post Embracing remote working: achieving business as usual appeared first on Pulsant.