Work environments have evolved with organizations now supporting a mixed mode work culture. In fact, most organizations have accepted hybrid working as the way forward, and it’s likely to stay that way for the long term. Employees have also become comfortable working from home, but in order to stay productive, they must secure a dedicated working space for themselves where they can concentrate and be creative without any distractions. Here are some ideas on what a proper work-from-home setup could be like.
A Cosy Work Space
First of all you need to choose a room or space in your house where you would feel comfortable to work. It should be a separate space, where you get less or no disturbance. Working from home isn’t easy, because of so many distractions. There can be so many people moving around, so make sure you choose a quiet area of the home that allows you to work in peace. If possible, choose a space where you get natural light, else make arrangement for adequate lighting.
A Desk with Screen Raiser
It’s better to get a work desk with enough table space and compartments so you can put all your work related docs or other things. Don’t forget to get a screen raiser for your laptop, as it is an essential equipment to keep your laptop at a height of your eye level. This way you can reduce any neck pain or future cervical issue.
An Ergonomic Chair
Sitting on a chair for long hours can be painful for your body. You should get an ergonomic chair that supports your body. Adjust its height to the level where your feet can touch the ground but your eye level should be at the level of screen.
Fast and Reliable Internet Connection
Without Internet, you can imagine the current work environment, so its important to have fast and reliable connectivity. Choose your ISP (internet service provider) carefully and make sure they have a reliable support and service.
A Powerful Laptop/PC
None of the above are of any use if you don’t have a good laptop. Since it’s not an investment you make frequently, it’s better to buy the right device. Here are few key things you should keep in mind:
Basic Requirements:
• It should be lightweight: As a professional, you will work from anywhere, so you need a laptop that is lightweight and easy to carry around.
• Powerful Battery: It must have a powerful battery that can deliver enough juice to work for hours without charging. This comes handy when you are travelling.
• Display: Get a display with FHD or higher resolution as well as brightness so you can work even in direct sunlight. Also look for features that can keep your eyes safe from blue light. Some laptops nowadays come with blue light protection. Dynamic brightness adjustment is another feature to look for. In this, the laptop automatically makes micro adjustments to the display according to ambient lighting.
• Sufficient Compute Power: Look for a laptop or PC that has sufficient computing power, a CPU with required clock speed and RAM that can support your software to run smoothly and let you do multitasking. Ample amount of storage is essential as well, so get a laptop with 1 TB or higher storage, depending on your profession.
• Security: While working from home, the last thing you want is to face a data breach of a malware attack on your PC. Your IT department will have a lot of difficulty helping you out remotely. So, you need a laptop that has sufficient security features to stay protected from the latest threats. Business laptops from HP have a lot of security features that keep it safe from malware down to the BIOS.
• Handsfree login and logout: When you’re sitting at home or working somewhere outside, then you might leave your seat and forget to lock your laptop. This can be a serious security concern, as someone else might install a malware program or steal some critical data while you’re away. Laptops nowadays have proximity sensors that automatically detect when you leave your seat and lock the desktop. Likewise, they automatically wake up and unlock when you return.
Collaboration Ready Features
As you’ll be working from home or outside, your laptop should be able to give you the right collaboration experience. This requires that you pay special attention to the webcam and microphone quality and features so that you’re clearly seen and heard in virtual meetings.
Look for a laptop with a high-resolution webcam. Laptops nowadays, like those from HP, come with 5 MP or 720p resolution webcams that offer many powerful features like low/high-light adjustment and auto framing.
Low/high light adjustment ensures that irrespective of whether there’s too much or too little light in the room, your video appears well balanced in a meeting. Microphones in laptops today have become smart. They support AI based noise reduction to remove all background noise. This ensures your voice is heard in a meeting irrespective of all the noise in the background (like a dog barking, the cooker whistle going off in the kitchen, etc.). Auto-framing ensures that even if you stand up and move around in a meeting, your video is still clear, in-focus, and centered in the video frame.
Similarly, there are technologies that make the microphone much more powerful. For instance, technologies like Clear Voice in HP laptops ensure that your voice doesn’t sound muffled even if you’re wearing a mask while talking. Dynamic voice levelling ensures that even if you’re pacing around the room within 3 meters of your laptop when talking in a meeting, the laptop automatically enhances the microphone’s voice gain so that you’re clearly heard.
Conclusion
When you have the right setup, you can work efficiently and easily. This comprises of the right table space as well as the computing device you use. The interesting thing to note here is that technology has evolved with time to make devices collaboration ready so that you have a smooth experience when working from home.
