The Covid-19 Pandemic has caused many companies to institute work-at-home requirements for their staff members. While this is an advantage for some, it can be challenging for others. If your home office space is less than ideal, here are some helpful tips that can help make your space function better for you.
Designate Your Space
Your home office should have a designated place. A spare bedroom or an infrequently used dining room may are good options. These may be more conducive to productivity than attempting to work from a corner of your living room.
Privacy Concerns
If you work in a highly regulated industry, working from home can be challenging. Many industries are subject to stringent security requirements that on-site locations work hard to meet. This is especially true for those employed in the healthcare industry. HIPAA regulations are not only applicable to a work location such as an office or hospital. They dictate how patient information is managed regardless of location, so if you are working with protected health information (PHI) from home, HIPAA still applies.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) could be referred to as the HIPAA equivalent in the finance industry. GLBA requires financial institutions to protect their clients’ nonpublic financial information. In the education industry, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) dictates that colleges and universities enact all reasonable efforts to safeguard student information, including how student information is collected and disseminated.
A home work location environment substantially increases the risk of a privacy breach. A home office environment may be hard-pressed to meet privacy requirements adequately. Your computer screen or printed material should not be accessible to view by others. While many people do have an office or study in their current floorplan, they may need more privacy to perform their job duties. Utilizing smart window tint can help meet privacy demands and allow you to work from home. It can be applied to any windows to keep others from seeing into your workspace without blocking light.
An additional advantage of smart window tint is its flexibility. Electratint provides “privacy on demand.” When you don’t need it, the windows or glass doors in a space can be returned to transparency and your workspace can serve other needs in your home. Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you have to work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Meeting privacy requirements while working from home doesn’t have to mean you entirely lose the ability to use that space at other times. When you finish your workday, so can your workspace.