How to Support Remote Employees When Downsizing Office Space

Leasing office space is a major expense that, before 2020, most companies thought of as a necessity. Now, more than two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way we work looks different than it ever had before. The sharp rise in popularity of hybrid and remote work models has left many companies paying thousands of dollars every month for unused square footage. It’s highly likely your company has plans to relocate, downsize, or even eliminate its in-person office space. It’s the practical financial choice.

However, decreasing or eliminating the amount of office space that’s available to you can present certain hurdles. What will you do with all your hard copy files containing critical organizational intelligence? How will employees receive mail? Is there a way to ensure everyone communicates effectively while working from home? How do you guarantee all employees have access to the data and information they need? How will onboarding new employees work? There are a lot of questions—let’s answer them one at a time.

What Will I Do With My Paper Files?

Your company’s records and information don’t need to be housed in a big room full of filing cabinets. The best way to facilitate your company’s transition to a remote or hybrid working environment is by digitizing your files. This means scanning in each file, capturing its data, and translating that into a digital format. Once everything is scanned and digitized, the now-digital files can be indexed and organized in their new digital document management system.

How Do I Give Everyone the Information They Need?

Once you’ve digitized your documents, you need a solution to store and organize them. A digital document management system enables easy storage and classification as well as effortless retrieval of files, documents, and other media types. These systems are available in a variety of formats, including SaaS, online, and cloud-based solutions. Digital document management systems have useful features like an intelligent search function and permissions settings that ensure that only the appropriate people are accessing each file. A digital document management system loaded with all your company’s files and programmed with the appropriate settings makes it easy for all employees to access the information they need.

What Will Happen to My Mail?

If the physical mail you receive to your company’s office is important to your business’s successful functioning, it may seem like that could be a hurdle to going remote, but there’s a simple solution: a digital mailroom. With a digital mailroom, all of your company’s mail is scanned, sorted, and distributed. Through the same digitization process as your files, the mail will be made searchable, indexed, and then routed to the appropriate recipients. You’ll receive the digital versions directly to your email inbox. A digital mailroom makes managing your mail much easier and ensures you’ll never miss an important piece of mail again.

How Will New Hire Onboarding Work?

The onboarding experience sets the tone for a new hire’s relationship with the company, so it’s critical that onboarding can be executed smoothly. When your workforce is remote or even hybrid, it can be hard to sync up to create that streamlined onboarding process. Robotic process automation, or RPA, is the perfect tool to augment your onboarding process and ensure its efficiency. RPA involves programming software robots to perform low-level tasks, like sending welcome emails, downloading software onto new hires’ computers, and completing paperwork. Every step of the onboarding process can flow smoothly when all your staff has to be accountable for is putting on a welcoming smile.

How Can I Implement These Solutions?

There are solutions available for every challenge that comes with working from home. Still, digitizing documents, implementing a digital document management system, and programming software robots is a lot of work that your team may not have the expertise or bandwidth to see through. That’s why we recommend working with an experienced digital transformation partner that can guide you through the process of going remote.

Scan-Optics is a leading digital transformation company with over fifty years of industry experience. Contact us to consult with one of our digital transformation specialists.