Question:
Question 14: (Click here to View this Q&A Series)
Has there
been any trend in using personal residences as work relocation
sites?
Answer 1:
Yes, absolutely! There has been a significant increase in the number of companies that let "knowledge workers" as they are sometimes called work from home. Most companies have a portion of there corporate staff (approximately 10 to 15%) that can use their laptop (or a home computer) from almost anywhere and have high-speed acccess. In addition the use of Citrix servers has made many corporate applications very accessible. This is probably the case for at least 15 business (major corporations) that I've worked with.
None that I have worked with have gone to the extent of equipping them with more robust printers, paying for services or the likes of a portable generator. I understand that in earthquake-prone regions you'd have to make some considerations; howver, I haven't been faced with that decision.
I will say that having workers in remote locations connected via informal phone, instant messaging and eMail is more complex that most companies consider. You need high confidence in your messaging and collaboration tools -- ensuring that people will be able to communicate while in disaster-mode when they are working from home.
Damian
Damian N. Walch, CISSP, CBCP, CISA
National Practice Executive
IBM Business Resilience and Continuity Services
Answer 2:
There has been
a significant trend towards using employees' residences as alternate worksites.
This has been a logical choice as a result of the
trend towards flex-scheduling and managing remote employees by using E-mail,
netmeeting tools, and group conference lines to facilitate workgroup productivity.
I don't know of any companies that have required hardening of the home
environment. I'm also not aware of any companies that have considered
setting up multiple employees at one home. There are some social issues
associated with this such as who cleans the home several times a day?
I have seen some of our customers "zone" their employees in the recovery plan. The zoning attribute helps to identify employees in affected areas and identify which employees can actually support the company when a disaster strikes.
In addition to using employees' residences as an alternate location, here is another option to consider. Many companies that have established policies and deployed infrastructures to untether their employees from the office, have realized that they can deploy employees anywhere. They have made arrangements with VFW's, schools, churches, and other similar organizations to set up alternate sites. The companies typically agree to some compensatory agreement like paying for high speed internet access.
Good Luck, Dave Ziev
The responses reflect the views of the individual EAB member, and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, the DRJ, or the EAB as a whole.