What’s the best tech setup for working remotely overseas?
While COVID-19 drove most Australian employers to adapt to employees working from home, what are the extra precautions you need to take when an employee wants to work remotely from an overseas location? That’s the question we asked ourselves recently when our Executive Assistant, Annaleise Easlea, proposed remote working from Sri Lanka to pursue a long-held travel dream. Here are our top tech tips to help if you’re in the same situation.
Agree on time zone and working hours
If you have an employee working in a different time zone, you’ll need to be very clear about agreed hours. If the employee is in a high-contact role like Annaleise where she needs to attend a lot of meetings and take phone calls, it’s best to keep working Australian hours. In Annaleise’s case, we agreed she’d work 4am – 1pm Sri Lankan time, which allowed her lots of freedom to nap and explore later in the day.
Ensure security and productivity
With a highly mobile employee in a foreign country, you need to be confident you’ve taken the right precautions to protect company data and ensure productivity. We recommend:
- Windows 365 with Windows Virtual Desktop which allows the employee’s Windows environment to be streamed to a web browser, providing instant access to apps, content and settings. There are numerous benefits to this approach. First, your employee isn’t tied to any item of hardware. They can log on from any device, anytime. Second, your data stays in Australia. Your employee isn’t keeping any data on their device, which becomes particularly important when travelling. Third, when your employee has a poor internet connection overseas, drop outs will be compensated for by the Australian connection and work can still be saved or uploaded.
- Keeper to ensure your employee uses strong, unique passwords on every app and website, therefore reducing the risk of a security breach.
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to provide anti-virus and advanced threat protection.
Please note that we also recommend having an IT security expert provide advice that’s specific to your business and situation.
Anticipate authentication
It’s likely your employee will use a local SIM card if they are living overseas. To avoid relying on SMS authentication, we set Annaleise’s default two factor authentication to run off the app, which meant she could even get an authentication code when in flight mode.
Get the gear
Travelling abroad is quite different from working from home. You may not always have access to power or predictable tech. Some of the items we sent Annaleise overseas with included:
- High powered charging for multiple devices – such as this portable power bank from ROMOSS. With Annaleise in Sri Lanka, power outages were a common occurrence, and these devices gave her flexibility to keep her laptop and phone powered up, especially if she was working from cafes or other unexpected locations.
- Multi-media adaptor such as this one from Satechi to allow easy connection from a laptop to other devices and accessories, such as a travel screen and keyboard/mouse.
Enjoy the ride
While Annaleise cut her stay short due to the political environment, she was satisfied she’d fulfilled a dream to live a different way of life. In her words: “I found a room in a beautiful big house with my own desk and purchased a SIM card as soon as I landed so I could work straight away. After working until 1pm Sri Lankan time, I’d have a cheeky nap and then venture on my scooter to catch up with friends, head to the beach for a swim or surf, grab a smoothie bowl, or watch a band play. The best part about my setup was that I could work at my desk, look out the window and watch monkeys run along the fence line.”
From an employer’s perspective, enabling overseas remote working lets you retain valued staff while gaining the satisfaction of seeing them live their dream. We believe it can be a win-win situation when done properly and we’ll be supporting Annaleise on future adventures.
