It was only a couple of weeks ago that Twitter sent a memo to all staff allowing them to work from home "forever". A bold move, not least for such a huge, global organisation. 

This has, however, sparked many small businesses to review their current working practices because of the knowledge gained from the pandemic and the forced lockdown. Many small businesses have suddenly realised that allowing your employees to be self-sufficient and showing trust in them to do their jobs without supervision has led to a more efficient way of working meaning productivity has flourished. Could this be the future for many small businesses? Could removing the cost of offices and utilities, saving thousands of pounds a year, be the saviour of SMEs during the upcoming recession?

There is some cause for caution, however. Full-service IT consultancy ILUX [1] commissioned some research with home working Brits and found that workers were silently suffering working from home, due to poor IT systems and access to business data.

Of the 2,000 home workers surveyed, over two thirds (68%) felt their systems were frustratingly ‘not adequate' for the job they're expected to do. In addition, nearly two thirds (65%) said they didn't feel that they had the support they needed with their IT, therefore hampering their productivity. 

As SMEs it is vital that home workers feel supported by their companies and that systems perform as they should. In a recession, a loss of productivity could be devastating to the future growth or survival of a company. 

James Tilbury, Managing Director of ILUX reflects on this: "Being an SME ourselves, we've also been forced to remote work and adapt our working practices to comply with social distancing, so we are very aware of the issues of suddenly entering lockdown. However, as IT professionals, we had pre-prepared for the possibility of having to close our office. We performed a test day to ensure the system was robust. Many SMEs would not have had the time or expertise to do this, hence the results of our recent survey. With appropriate IT support, any issues of any nature, can easily be prevented."

Issues with IT can generally be easily resolved, and technology allows for users to be supported remotely. As we slowly move towards a new working way of life, it is predicted that many SMEs will continue to adopt additional remote workers, some with their entire workforce, something ILUX has done:

"I have decided to move my workforce to remote working.
My team are performing better, efficiency is up, and the team are happy and motivated. If you are thinking of moving to a more permanent remote solution. Instead of upgrading to a larger office, as planned, we're keeping our current office as a training centre, meeting spot and technology hub. Anyone looking to do the same, I would advise speaking to a professional IT consultant and consider ongoing support. It's one less stress and offers security, efficiency and professional recovery if something goes wrong."

For more information visit ILUX [2] who offer IT support 24/7 and Business grade home office set up