The industry is changing; white-collar workers are increasingly performing their duties from home, helping cut costs and aiding productivity. However, any company looking to implement remote working into their long-term strategy must consider asset management.

Small Biz Trends explains that 70% of US citizens will likely work remotely in some form or another by 2025. The pandemic last year forced the company’s hands in terms of allowing people more autonomy by working from home. However, the result hasn’t been an outright disaster, instead, many big players have realized the inherent benefits of such practices. It results in reduced costs, such as office space and utilities. It also creates an opportunity to take advantage of skills from elsewhere in the country.

In terms of employers, asset management is not just the management of people but also their company-owned items such as laptops, vehicles, and cell phones. If workers are onsite, you can access the assets at any time. However, in remote working it is not quite easy.. At the basic level of asset management, team building is a core issue, as we explained in our article ‘Build Remote Technology Teams in 3 Steps’, but that really is only part of the asset management strategy a company of remote workers needs.

Ownership Issues

One issue that remote working flags up in asset management is the classic ‘personal vs. work issue’ debate. An employee will not usually be expected to use their own computer for work purposes, but it may be unavoidable. For instance, if the work computer suffers a malfunction, but the employee is required on a Zoom call, why wouldn’t they use their own machine? That said, a company should avoid the temptation to expect such things to become commonplace. A prime example of sales reps is managing a PC or laptop off-site. This depends on the working strategy facilities put into place for regular checks during scheduled office time.

Remote Procurement

Remote working has created a great impact on Procurement, another aspect of asset management. However, asset procurement need not be adversely affected by remote working. By implementing the right systems, it can carry on unhindered. The key here is to ensure your team is on board with any new processes, so communication and mindset are vital. If you can get your procurement team on board with the right processes, then the only challenge is changing people’s outlook, not the physical implementation of asset procurement.

Fleet Management

Fleet management is not essential for remote workers, as a fleet by definition, is away from your site most of the time. However, that is only a fraction of the problem. You may be working remotely but still need access to a vehicle, for instance, if you are a rep for a company in a different state to the company base. Fleet management is defined in a Verizon Connect article as ensuring optimal utilization, fuel consumption, and vehicle maintenance. Usually, a standard tracker is used to achieve this. However, you will still need someone to monitor the fleet use. Most companies do have fleet management already in place, which may be suitable to take over the remote worker’s fleet too.

Tracking

The big problem that faces companies offering remote working is tracking: tracking devices, monitoring work patterns, and managing accordingly. In the literal sense, tracking physical assets should not be a problem in the digital age – most devices will have GPS (phones) or some other form of tracker fitted as standard, much like vehicles. Using tracking software is a bit different. A smaller business can see when Excel is in use, but some may feel using a time tracking tool, such as Time Doctor, is a suitable way to go.

Maintenance of Inventory of Assets

Even before there was a shift in working patterns, a lot of asset inventory was done remotely. How often should you update the inventory? How much the asset should be present at the time? If we’re talking about something physical like a phone or laptop, it is most likely out in the field rather than at a specific location. Giving the accessibility of the right software, you can easily manage asset inventory just like any other aspect of remote working. Remote working patterns should not affect asset inventory with a good tracking system.

Repairs and Maintenance of Assets

In remote working, repair and maintenance may seem a challenge; but it’s not. A properly established network of pre-designated vendors can carry out Repair and Maintenance remotely. If the company doesn’t have a vendor at the location the team member is based, it can find reliable ones at a time when a need arises. For the primary repair step, you can assist a team member by email or phone call. With all these, we don’t require team members to connect at a physical location for asset maintenance or repair.

Conclusion

Remote working shouldn’t create many problems for a modern, digitally aware company. You can easily track and manage the physical assets. Perhaps that should be standard at bigger companies anyway. Whether people are onsite or not, you need to monitor software licenses and so on. Essentially, most asset management works as if it were remote – items are in different buildings, on other floors, and the difference between that and being in a home is negligible.

As for managing people’s assets, a good company should already have a strategy in place for that, as we’re 18 months into the ‘new world’ as it were. The important thing is to remember that people are assets, just as much as laptops, vehicles, or cell phones. Once you have grasped that, you should be fine.

Piece specially produced for ajackus.com

Produced by: JBurkhart