home office | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 04 Dec 2017 15:59:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png home office | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Technology Makes Remote Working Feasible and Scalable https://www.kitguru.net/professional/professional-featured/larry-alton/technology-makes-remote-working-feasible-and-scalable/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/professional-featured/larry-alton/technology-makes-remote-working-feasible-and-scalable/#respond Mon, 04 Dec 2017 07:46:07 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=356605 Some people love it, while others prefer the structure of an office, but one thing is clear: remote working is gaining steam and there’s nothing holding it back. In fact, the presence of new technologies has allowed remote working to soar to unanticipated levels. The State of Remote Working According to a report released this …

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Some people love it, while others prefer the structure of an office, but one thing is clear: remote working is gaining steam and there’s nothing holding it back. In fact, the presence of new technologies has allowed remote working to soar to unanticipated levels.

The State of Remote Working

According to a report released this summer by Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs, the number of telecommuters (or remote workers) in the workforce has increased 115 percent over the past decade. This equates to 3.9 million workers, or approximately 3 percent of the entire U.S. workforce.

“Remote working has become more prevalent, specifically in the mortgage and real estate industry, human resources and recruiting, and accounting and finance. Each industry saw remote job listings grow more than 20% last year,” Kathryn Vasel writes for CNN Money. “Employers in the Northeast, particularly in New England and Mid-Atlantic regions, are the most likely to offer flexible workplace options, the report found.”

Family demographics are one factor in the shift. Middle-class families are going from having one parent working a full-time job and another staying at home with kids, to two working parents (with one or both telecommuting from home).

You can also point to changing attitudes of employers as a factor in the rise of remote working. More employers are comfortable offering remote working job positions to new hires and many are doing it in the upper levels of their companies. Whereas work-from-home positions once had a stigma of being low-level, many of today’s most successful professionals don’t work in a traditional office. In fact, the report shows that the average yearly income for telecommuters is $4,000 more than non-telecommuters.

Technology Leading the Way

While family demographics and changing employer attitudes certainly have a role in the rise of remote working, it would be foolish to attribute all of this growth to these factors. Technology is arguably the most integral factor in this shift.

Historically, the biggest strike against the feasibility of remote working has been the lack of options. Employers want accountability and connectivity, while employees need the ability to actually perform at the same level outside of the office as they can on company property. Over the past decade, technology has addressed these needs in very practical ways. Here are just a few of the advances making remote work feasible and scalable:

  • Remote IT support. For many companies, remote working was held back because they feared the lack of IT control. Today, software like Dameware Remote Support allow for internet proxy connections that enable remote support of employee devices. This eliminates the traditionally cumbersome process of dealing with remote IT support.
  • Enhanced collaboration tools. Remote communication is also made much easier with the help of advanced collaboration tools. Slack is one of the top tools. It allows teams to streamline workflows regardless of where people are located.
  • Location and time tracking. One of the biggest issues employers struggle with is trusting employees to get their work done. With tools like Time Doctor, this is no longer an issue. With features like time tracking, screen monitoring, and app usage monitoring, accountability is no longer optional.

This is just a small sample and three practical examples of what sort of technology exists on the market. There are hundreds of other tools in dozens of other categories that are simultaneously being leveraged by companies and their employees to make remote working practical.

Looking Towards the Future

It makes a huge difference when you have the right technology in place to smooth over what have traditionally been points of friction. As we continue to move forward, look for additional technology to make remote working even more feasible, scalable, and popular.

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Despite calls for change, Snooper’s Charter to be rushed through https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/despite-calls-for-change-snoopers-charter-to-be-rushed-through/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/despite-calls-for-change-snoopers-charter-to-be-rushed-through/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2016 11:04:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=285707 The Investigatory Powers Bill, Theresa May's revamped “Snooper's Charter ” as it has so often been termed, is set to be published in full later today, re-introduced to parliament on the 14th and voted on by the 22nd. This is far faster than it was ever meant to be pushed through and is taking place …

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The Investigatory Powers Bill, Theresa May's revamped “Snooper's Charter ” as it has so often been termed, is set to be published in full later today, re-introduced to parliament on the 14th and voted on by the 22nd. This is far faster than it was ever meant to be pushed through and is taking place despite the fact that three separate parliamentary committees have raised 123 issues with it.

May has been trying to introduce increased surveillance powers for Britain's intelligence agencies for years. She previously attempted to push through a Draft Communications Bill in 2013, which contained many of the provisions of the Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB). It was shot down by then coalition leader Nick Clegg, but since then she's come back harder than ever.

may

Source: Home Office/Flickr

The IPB would enshrine in law the collection of “internet connection records,” which certainly relate to browsing history, though its vaguery suggests that it could also be used to collect messaging history and similar content. While it does protect these records from unlawful viewing, it does provide special circumstances where a warrant is not required.

This is a major point of contention for all three of the parliamentary committees that have analysed the bill, among almost 100 other concerns, including the lack of oversight, invasions of privacy and the sheer cost of implementing such mass surveillance on a permanent scale. Estimations from ISPs we spoke to suggested that it could cost in the tens of millions of pounds per ISP, with no word on whether the government – and by extension, the public – would foot the bill for that.

shrug
Considering all of the Leo memes lately, it seems only right he explains May's position on committee concerns

As well as using the French terrorist attacks of last year as a springboard for this legislation, May has argued that the reason these concerns should be brushed off, is because internet browsing record collection, currently enabled under emergency legislation, is set to expire at the end of the year. However, as pointed out by fellow Conservative David Davis (via the Independent), that could quite easily be extended to give more time for the bill to be worked on.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: With the bill set to be published in full later today, it seems clear that May is not planning to listen to concerns. Fortunately it seems that there is cross-party opposition to it so passing it through will be difficult, but it's worrisome that so little concern is being paid to intelligent criticism of the bill, from a technical, legal and moral standpoint.

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60% of UK’s office-employees to work from home within 10 years? https://www.kitguru.net/channel/stephen-dougherty/60-of-uks-office-employees-to-work-from-home-within-10-years/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/stephen-dougherty/60-of-uks-office-employees-to-work-from-home-within-10-years/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:14:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=80097 With continual technological advancements in the workplace, more than half of the UK's office bound employees could well be working remotely (ie. from home) within the next decade. A study carried out by LM Research toward the end of last year points to this scenario after 5000 directors and business-owners from UK companies comprising over …

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With continual technological advancements in the workplace, more than half of the UK's office bound employees could well be working remotely (ie. from home) within the next decade.

A study carried out by LM Research toward the end of last year points to this scenario after 5000 directors and business-owners from UK companies comprising over 100+ employees were surveyed. The report also noted that many businesses are already making plans to support the changes by setting up extremely high internet bandwidth connections that will allow for heavier loads in the future.

Some companies are already jumping all over the idea of a home-working ethos, including UK mobile network O2 which made allowances for 3,000 of its employees to start work from home during the days earlier this month.

Tony Grace, Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Media Business had the following to say :-

There’s a change coming to the way we work. Remote working isn’t anything new, but with technology providing the right tools for the job, the acceptance that it will soon be the norm is.

Businesses are already getting fit for purpose by investing in cloud-based software, virtual private networks or investing in new tools such as Unified Communications to ensure that remote teams remain connected and engaged. The growth in video and social media across corporate networks is also supporting this migration away from the traditional office confines; the importance to underlying network infrastructure once more comes under the spotlight.”

Via: TheNextWeb

KitGuru says: Providing companies can administer an effective procedure in monitoring the quality and quantity of work, this outlook is a positive one from many angles, including an alleviation of the amount of congestion with London's public transport system.

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