Without adequate technology and safeguards in place, your telecommuting arrangement can quickly become a catastrophe. It is important that you put in place policies to ensure that the telecommuter has been granted privileges only after the correct technology (as deemed by you) is in place, and that efforts have been made to ensure satisfactory levels of security.
Firstly, define an Asset Management Policy which states the minimum technology requirements an employee must fulfil before being granted telecommuting rights. These may include
1.Laptop and/or desktop PC configurations
2.Drivers
3.wireless router, USB ports etc
4.Printers, scanners etc if necessary
5.Softwares and updates
Ensure that drivers and other softwares have been installed correctly, and certified by your organization’s IT staff before the job commences. The policy must also include what to do in cases of emergencies, as well as shipping requirements (if the equipment and/or software is provided by the organization). To draw up your own policy, you can draw on the Asset management Policy Template provided in the toolkit.
Once established, the telecommuter must also know the level of technical support she or he is entitled to, in the form of a Technical Support Policy. This must set out
1. Help desk support, which an employee can call and report problems
2. Tier II support. This is especially difficult, for while it is easy for IT staff to go over to an employee’s desk to help with problems, going over to wherever the telecommuter is might involve a whole day on that job, an undesirable cost.
Hence it is important to have a policy that defines what technical support a telecommuting employee can expect. To draw up your policy, do refer to the Telecommuting Technical Support Policy Policy.
Finally, you need to have a policy to ensure that all your interactions with the telecommuter happen securely across the telecommunications network. Ideally, the policy should include the following points
1. A statement of when and where security requirements apply
2. Requirements for appropriate antivirus, firewalls and other protective software to be installed
3. Standards for setting and changing passwords
4. Compliance and failure
To draw your policy, you can make use of the Telecommuting and Networking Security Policy, which sets out the steps in detail.
