The Tools and Equipment Remote Workers Need to do Great Work at Home

Table stakes for doing great work are the right tools and equipment.

Everybody know this, it's the reason everything is provided for you in an office.

Without those things, you won't be as safe, comfortable, or productive as you should be.

Has your company given you those things at home?

The reality is that most companies haven't taken adequate steps toward doing this.

They still view remote as a perk they are generously giving to their remote workers.

While working remotely is a massive positive for workers, the reality is that companies benefit as much if not more than the workers who are operating remotely.

The right tools and equipment isn't a nice to have, it's essential

This is about health and safety in the workplace. Without the right setup, it is inevitable that remote workers will get back, neck, or other forms of repetitive strain injuries.

Companies have a responsibility to take care of their workers.

They should have no excuses – remote lets them save a fortune

By redistributing office space to workers homes, companies save $20,000-$50,000 a year per worker who is no longer working from an office full time. For companies with 1,000 workers that equates to a reduction of real estate expense by $20m-$50m a year.

To provide the best possible remote working set up at home costs companies $2,000 a year.

A great remote setup is 10X less expensive for companies than office space

The challenge for companies is figuring out exactly what their remote working package should look like. What products and services should be included in the offering? It difficult to manage this and handle all the logistic elements of getting this to our remote team,

Should we provide materials directly or should the give their teams a stipend?

A stipend seems like a good choice but the reality for companies is that it does nothing to mitigate against the injury risk at home. If your organization has no oversight of the exact tools and equipment that workers are using there is no way to know if they are adequate.

What product should be included in the package?

1. Desk – preferably an electric sit and stand model
2. Chair – ergonomically correct and regulator compliant
3. Hardware – desktop or laptop, provide a dock with laptops
4. Monitors – typically more than one is needed to be most efficient
5. Separate keyboard and mouse – using a laptop keyboard is not good
6. Headset & microphone if you care about the quality of communication

These products are the minimum every remote worker needs

Some optional extras that we hear companies are providing to their teams:

1. Ongoing culture and experience, i.e. coffee machine & bean subscription
2. Games consoles, peloton bikes, tshirts, mugs, other items of swag
3. Remote worker insurance protecting teams working at home
4. Snacks, food and other things people get in the office

My company would love to do this, how can we?

Firstbase is the Physical OS for remote teams.

Our platform lets companies supply and manage all the physical equipment remote workers need to do great work at home as a monthly subscription.

We handle everything; from IT installation, deployment of goods, maintenance, ongoing culture and perks, collections when a worker leaves through to upgrades at the end of the product lifecycle.

Sign up for a demo of Firstbase here