7 Ways MSPs Can Manage a Remote Workforce

In the wake of the prolonged pandemic, we are redefining life, our culture, and even the way we work. The pandemic and the long lockdown phases brought major changes in our lives in a myriad of ways. Now home feels less like home and more like an extended office environment. Organizations all across the world are finding ways to increase the productivity of employees who are working from home. Remote work culture is no longer an unknown word, now it's a part of most employees' work life. 

MSPs are also revamping their remote working culture in order to better respond to market situations while maintaining operational efficiency. They're changing their culture to line it with the company's expectations for employee productivity, connectedness, and providing a decent work-life balance.

Remote Working Culture

Work-life balance is one of the driving factors that encourage people to take up a job. Considering we are currently facing The Great Resignation, organizations now focus more on giving a good experience and ample time to spend with their loved ones.

Now a toxic work culture scares people more than unemployment. Remote working culture is a blessing for people as they can spend more time with their family and cherish their life. But it also exhibits some challenges. For instance, connectivity and communicating ideas had become a challenging task. While working with many people, conveying and accepting ideas has become more difficult compared to in-person conversations. MSPs are revolutionizing remote workforce management without compromising work efficiency. 

7 Remote Workforce Management Tips for MSPs

MSP being a technology-enabled mechanism, requires proper connectivity and seamless communication to ensure error-free working. There are some core strategies that MSPs should adopt to make remote workforce management truly productive.

1. Outsource On-Demand Technical Resources

Opting for on-demand technical expertise can save MSPs money and time along with leveraging reliable expertise without the burden of recruiting or training someone remotely. 

When you hire a dedicated technical source, you not only get resources with the exact specifications needed for your project but also out-of-hour support as well. This can be much more productive than recruiting and training additional engineers or staff for your requirements, especially for NOC and help desk services.

2. Create Seamless Communication

A technical team requires proper and smooth communication across the team and all the members to ensure reliable outputs. Since it requires on-demand solutions and tools, good data transfer, and communication is inevitable to develop robust and trustworthy solutions.

MSPs now encourage video calling and teleworking to ensure the team members are conveying the right ideas to team members. In the development of new technical solutions, they encourage people to work in teams over long video calls to make sure the product is of standard quality. 

3. Think About Network Connectivity

Even though we are living in the digital era, connectivity is still a problem for many. People who reside in the rural areas or countryside always face problems with internet connectivity. With the growing adoption of remote working culture, the prominence of internet connectivity also increased tremendously. For remote working, having enough internet capacity to use digital tools and a well-established smooth connection to work is critical.

If people are dealing with a virtual private network, then the bandwidth required to connect the systems are high. Hence the IT infrastructure of an organization should be robust for smooth remote workforce management. To increase their bandwidth, companies should examine what professional guidance they can give to their employees.

4. Create Social Connectivity

When you are in a team, you need to understand and respect others' point of view in an unbiased manner. Virtual meetings are not enough to build a good professional relationship with others. Hence social connectivity is important to enhance the productivity and efficiency of teamwork.

When working remotely, within the four walls of your room, social connectivity is critical since feeling isolated can create an impact on your morale and level of commitment. This loss of commitment will perhaps result in a decrease in productivity and eventually getting tired of the work.

To achieve a good workforce, MSPs are focusing more on activities that could bring more social connections between team members. 

5. Use Software Training

A strong technical foundation is required in the field of cyber security. So it's essential to give a level playing ground to all members to make sure the deliverables are up to the standard. A remote workforce management system should ensure that all the employees are trained for their particular tasks to build trust and customer loyalty.

A well-rounded software training enables the team to work with ease and be comfortable with all the technical aspects of providing network security and data protection. Organizations can evaluate the performance of the employees after training and provide them with additional training if required. 

6. Give Access to Tools

Working in a cyber realm means there are numerous tools that you need to work with. Building and maintaining a trust between the employees and the organization is extremely important in remote workforce management. It is necessary to give access to tools to fulfill their task. It is necessary for organizations to make sure that the access is provided on time without any delay. 

7. Ensure Proper Planning

A good and winning target allocation is extremely important in remote workforce management. Since there is always a screen between an organization and its employees, it's important to allocate long-term and short-term targets to evaluate the performance of employees. It's important to keep a tab on the efficiency and productivity of employees and give advice and suggestions if they are showing any kind of latency.  

MSPs Are Evolving in the Post-pandemic Era

Remote workforce management is the top priority of all the stakeholders in recent times. All these factors can help MSPs build a resilient and robust workforce without spending a lot of resources.