In this article, we continue with theme of how you can use Microsoft Azure to keep your remote workforce dynamic in these times.
How you can use the Cloud to leverage your workforce in and keep them productive – continued
It will translate into a less employee turnover:
A common theme that has been mentioned in Part 1 is that of employee satisfaction. Not only can the utilisation of Azure help with this, but happy employees also mean less turnover, which in turn means less expense and administrative headaches for you. Consider some of these statistics:
- 73% of employees report a higher level of job satisfaction when they are able to work remotely;
- 53% of those employees that are currently working remotely are not considering leaving their present positions;
- 82% of employees would be more satisfied if they were allowed to have flexible, remote working options;
- 95% of businesses have reported that employee retention has increased by offering them the ability to work remotely. (SOURCE: 1).
Increased savings for your business:
If you have an on-premises IT infrastructure, you can spend a lot of money not only with keeping up with licencing requirements but replacing legacy servers and workstations. This will mean nothing but a negative Return On Investment (ROI) on your bottom line. But by using Azure, you can quickly and easily replicate them by making use of the Virtual Machine (VM) and Window Virtual Desktop (WVD) that are available. With this approach, your costs will be on an affordable and fixed basis, and you will never have to worry about securing them or even creating the backups for them. This is all done for you. But best of all, your remote employees will also be able to access these VMs and WVDs from wherever they may be with just a few clicks of the mouse. You can be guaranteed of 99.999% uptime, and no hidden licencing fees.
Your remote employees can work no matter what condition they may be in:
By using Azure to host your entire IT infrastructure, your employees on a theoretical level, will never have to report their presence to you at your brick and mortar office. This means that if they have the cold or flu, they can still continue to keep working, to the best of their abilities, without getting you sick or other employees. Consider these statistics:
- “75% of remote workers say they could continue to work in the event of flu, terrorism, roadway problems, and weather-related disasters, compared to 28% of non-teleworkers;
- Unscheduled absences cost US companies over $300 billion a year, or $1,800 per employee;
- Companies with remote work options report 63% fewer unscheduled absences.” (SOURCE: 1).
Conclusions
Overall, this article has examined in detail the various ways in which Azure can leverage a remote workforce, and how to keep them continuing to be productive. On a more technical level, here are some specific tools that you can deploy for your remote employees that are available on Azure:
User identity management:
You can create a primary account for all of your remote employees by using the Azure Active Directory, or Azure AD.
Multifactor Authentication (MFA):
Azure offers three different types of authentication:
- The use of smart cards that are either physical or virtual based which is backed with the appropriate certificate;
- Windows Hello for Business;
- Azure-based MFA.
Managing different environments:
You can use the Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) in conjunction with Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager to manage a wide range hardware-based device, running across a whole plethora of operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.
Ravi Das is a Cybersecurity Consultant and Business Development Specialist. He also does Cybersecurity Consulting through his private practice, RaviDas Tech, Inc. He also possesses the Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) cert from the ISC2.
Visit his website at mltechnologies.io
