A guide to sharing files with a remote team
Workers can feel some degree of nerves when sharing files with remote colleagues. That sense of anxiety can increase somewhat when the data is sensitive.
Of course, remote working is becoming increasingly common. There was much speculation about whether these practices would stick post-pandemic, but many businesses have indeed made permanent changes. Remote file sharing is no longer a temporary workaround but a permanent fixture of the modern working world.
Consequently, companies shouldn’t be proceeding with these efforts on hopes and trust alone. Robust procedures need to be in place, and workers should be more thoughtful and responsible when exchanging their data, even among well-known colleagues.
Below is a quick guide to help workers share files with their remote teams more effectively.
Compress the files
If remote workers collaborate on large-scale projects, the files they send can be enormous. Soon enough, things can spiral out of control, and file sharing systems can refuse to send out the data on account of its size alone.
Surpassing these limitations can be done online via a quick and easy process. For example, workers can compress their PDFs fast by dragging and dropping their files into a dedicated online tool. The document is then much simpler to store and share, and working with it further can become more straightforward as well. The file size can be reduced with any web browser, including Google Chrome, and the image quality isn’t lost either.
Having these solutions to hand can bring peace of mind to remote teams. Compressed files also use less storage space on hard drives and take less time to send to others. Their use can also encourage goodwill amongst them, as they will take the time to make one another’s working lives a little bit easier. It’s being considerate, as well as efficient with file-sharing.
Utilise a single file-sharing platform
Business and team leaders should collate all of their files from every database and hard drive at their disposal and deposit them. That way, the logistics of this undertaking become much more manageable.
Colleagues will be able to help new starters get up to speed as processes become consistent and familiarity is built quickly. Using a single platform can also enhance communication, as every worker will know where to find each other’s work. Should an employee make a mistake, it can also be quickly rectified by a colleague.
Using a single platform can also assist in improving an individual’s work life balance. After all, remote teams may feel tempted to have their personal and professional information sitting alongside one another in digital spaces like My Documents. Such practices can be quite sloppy and lead to confusion, errors, and other stressful circumstances, so it’s best to have firm distinctions over where work information belongs.
Sort names and permissions
Shared team folders can quickly become messy if there aren’t any standards being set. Consequently, business leaders need to have acute control over these digital areas.
Developing folder permissions should be a straightforward process. Not everybody needs access to every department’s data. Tech administration staff can quickly assign permissions to relevant workers. It can help regular employees too, as they can access the files that they need immediately without continuously taking wrong turns.
It may also be helpful for remote workers to survey their team to see how they proceed when sharing their files. Do they create separate folders for any projects they are developing? How do they decide what to name folders and files? Are coworkers unnecessarily saving multiple versions of files? Teams need to be on the same wavelength without breakaway colleagues disrupting the status quo, so feedback could be crucial in eliminating chances of confusion.
Upscale employee training
It is not enough for one or two workers to be diligent with competent file-sharing practices. One weak link in the company can compromise security and lead to enormous data leaks.
Many entities out there are bent on stealing data, and organisations have enough to contend with in dealing with things like ransomware attacks. To suffer data breaches from internal oversights and mistakes can be enormously crippling.
Therefore, workers need to be equally trained in file-sharing best practices. They should be able to be taught how to use the most optimum file-sharing platforms available and have a holistic overview of the different data types they’re charged with securing and organising.
Additional encouragement may be required too. Though workers are trained to use file-sharing platforms, they may not always gravitate toward it naturally if they’re used to doing things another way. Regular reminders should be served, alongside new training opportunities should new systems and file handing practices be implemented.
Conclusion
Sharing files with workers doesn’t need to be a convoluted process. If firms adopt the right measures, numerous aspects of one’s professional life can be improved; heightened teamwork, work-life balances, communication, and even career enrichment through training. File-sharing in a remote working arrangement makes all of this possible, and companies should make the most of such circumstances wherever possible.
