One of the biggest challenges existing and new clients expressed amidst the shift to a remote environment is the IT side of on/off-boarding. Coordinating that new hires get their machines all set up, additional accessories are sent out, and in the other events returned in a timely manner. All of this from a logistical side introduces some challenges for all parties involved. Thus we at Network Right have offered multiple solutions to our clientele as to how we can help handle the pressures and shift to a remote on/offboarding experience. Check out our list below to see how we can help your business!
Asset Inventory Management & Shipping
One big piece of getting company machines out to new hires or a departing employee’s laptop is storing & shipping. We help ease the load by offering flexible solutions such as stockpiling client hardware at our offices to be ready to be prepped & shipped out as needed. As well as an ex-employees hardware to be wiped & stored in the event it ever needs to go out. Helping our clients manage their inventory of laptops, mobile devices, and so on it makes it easier to get new hires or employees transitioning sorted with less hassle.
We go as far as to help ship out the hardware on the companies behalf so your new hires have the best possible start experience they can from the IT side. To further help with efficiency if possible in certain environments we set up zero-touch deployments meaning we ship the hardware directly from a manufacture such as Apple and have software implemented so that their machine configures itself out of the box. Installing essential apps, enforcing security policies, and much more all automated.
IT Orientation Sessions
For certain clients, we have gone as far as setting up an IT orientation that either runs separately or in tandem with HR’s onboarding process. Developing a system based on a client’s environment to have their new hires get introduced to common IT practices, apps, and so on. All with the focus of helping new hires understand the essentials of their IT setup and resources within the company.
Offering things like:
- Video courses
- Powerpoint presentations via remote conferencing software
- Internal IT Documentation for new hires to reference
These sessions can also extend to that of terminations or off-boarding. Understanding the sensitive matters that sometimes arise, our team is readily available to connect with users and help do our best to make the transition process is seamless and secure from the companies perspective.
Remote Software Deployments
Dependent on a client setup we often aim to get some sort of remote desktop software to allow us to help users troubleshoot issues & or configure certain things on their machines on their behalf. Given the inability to meet in the office in some cases & resolve an issue for hires, remote software has proven to be a big productivity booster for our clients.
Documentation
As mentioned in the IT orientation section, never underestimate powerful and detailed documentation. This goes a long way in remote on or offboarding that may happen last minute. Allowing other members or departments to step in. We understand sometimes things happen at a moment’s notice and want to make it easy as possible to have resources of knowledge shareable across our own team internally & our clients. So we go above & beyond documenting our process on the IT end to ensure as things change & adapt in the remote environment, we can too.
Mobile Device Management
Something we preach highly amongst are clients is the need for an MDM. Read our entire article here to see in more detail what an MDM can offer your company. Where this comes into play for our role in remote on/off-boarding is multi-faceted
- Allows us to do zero-touch deployments (User unboxes new machine enters basic info & MDM handles the rest. Installing apps, enabling security features like a firewall or disk encryption, and much more)
- Allows IT to be able to remotely wipe or lock a machine in event of termination or to help the user wipe data prior to them returning their company-owned hardware & protect it in transit
- Automatically asset manage & digitally tag new hardware for new hires
Overall MDM software allows us more control over our client’s fleet of machines & how we both deploy & secure them post-off-boarding.
There are many issues that arose amidst the shift to a remote environment that physically being in the office allowed our teams to do. However with the right planning & tools in place we’ve helped many clients & their workforce ease in the transition to a remote on/off-boarding workflow.
