Resources

The health of our clients and our employees is of the utmost importance, and we know you are depending on us to help keep your business running. We take our responsibilities and commitments seriously. To that end, our goal is to maintain service levels as much as possible.

NST is taking the following measures to continue our services and prevent the spread of COVID-19:

• Most NST staff members have been directed to work from home. We are performing limited onsite work, and our Stamford office will be minimally staffed during business hours.
• We divided our staff into 3 teams who are directed to work in different places from the people in other teams, limiting physical proximity as much as possible. Members of each team have cross-capabilities and can stand in for other teams, so operations will continue if a team becomes sick.
• To protect our clients and our staff we will try to practice CDC-recommended “social distancing” of 6-feet, minimize meeting sizes, and use remote screen sharing/conferencing from different desks even when people are in the same site location.
• Staff have been directed to wash hands or use hand sanitizer before and after using a client keyboard or conference room keyboard;and use disposable gloves when possible.
• Our staff has been directed to self-quarantine if experiencing flu-like symptoms until advised by a doctor, or if exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case even if not feeling symptoms.
• Our staff has been directed to avoid public transportation or large gatherings.

NST will follow government mandates and CDC guidelines as they evolve to avoid transmission of COVID-19. We may exercise additional cautions at our discretion.

We Are Here to Help

Many of you will be spending more time working from home in the foreseeable future and we know that you will be relying heavily on your computer and network resources to do so. We are happy to assist with advice and support as needed.

We will communicate further changes and continue to offer technology suggestions to assist you to get through these unprecedented times.

Larry Furst
President

If you’re working from home:

Some of you already have personal work from home routines and know yourself well enough to do what works best. Working from home does present a unique set of challenges.

The following is a best practice list we’ve assembled from various sources for guidance on remote work in the long term.

Do:

• Get dressed for business, even if you’re working from home.  How you look affects the way you feel and conduct yourself. Look professional.
• When making video calls, be mindful of the other person’s view. Check your camera angle, background and lighting. (No backlighting, piles of clutter etc.)
• Create a dedicated workspace and let your family know that you are unavailable during work hours
• Download collaboration and VoiP on the devices you use for work, make sure these tools are always on during work hours, and you can be reached during business hours
• Avoid postponing or rescheduling meetings
• Convert meetings to Video Calls.  Standardize on the tools your company will use for internal communication and how you’ll communicate with your customers
• Make a schedule and stick to it.
• Communicate proactively If you need to step away from your computer for an extended period of time. Scheduled events should be on your calendar.
• Keep active.  You could take the time you would otherwise commute to exercise.  Stretch periodically, take a walk at lunch time, get away from your desk every so often

Don’t:

• Try to work all day without regular breaks — your productivity and motivation might suffer
• Neglect to check in regularly with co-workers — it’s important to make yourself ‘visible’ even if you aren’t in the office

Tips and Tricks for All Employees:

1. Set regular working hours, establish a routine, and stick to it

Treat wherever you are working from as your office. Treat your routine with respect by getting up early, getting dressed the way you would for business and finding a position where you feel most energized. Try to avoid distractions once you sit down to work. (Yes, you may have your television sitting right there, but if you wouldn’t watch television in the background at the office, then you shouldn’t do it remotely.) Even try to stick to the same lunch schedule as you would at the office as it helps train your brain to think of the day as working time.

Set a schedule and to-do checklist for how you want your day to go. Review it and your calendar throughout the day to make sure you are on track.

2. Remain visible within your team even if you aren't actually visible

When there’s nobody sitting near you, it can often seem like you are alone in your work. That doesn’t have to be the case. Prioritize communicating with your teammates whenever possible. If you have to ask a small question, don’t be afraid to send a quick Teams message about it. Often digital tools can have a chilling effect on communication because the issue has to feel “important enough” to put it in writing. Try not to think of it that way. You’re still a team no matter where you are.

In telecom-based meetings, speak up and share your thoughts during discussions, and always try to participate in group discussions over chat. Check in with your colleagues at least a couple of times per week, whether by email, phone, Teams, Skype.

3. Plan your workflow

• Get the highest priority tasks out of the way first so you can save the rest of your day for less urgent matters.
• Plan your day around your own natural cycles: do the hardest work when you have the most energy
• Plan for yourself rewards and breaks throughout the day to give your mind time to rest
• Respond to requests as you would in the office: be responsive, manage expectations, and budget time for it amongst your other tasks

4. Create a productive workspace 

Choose a space that lets you feel like, “it’s time to work.” Try to stay away from couches, beds, or reclining chairs as your brain is more likely to associate those with relaxing. Dedicate a specific space or table to work from and attempt to work while sitting completely upright. You are likely to feel more alert, more confident, and more organized.

It’s also important to move your feet from time to time. Sometimes standing or walking around can have a big impact on morale and productivity, so attempt to budget in time to move as well.

5. Take regular breaks

Your brain needs breaks too. Don’t get lost in the screen too much and try to power through the whole day. Give your eyes time away from the screen. Schedule a 15-minute break to go for a walk outside or pick up around the house. It will make you more productive when it is time to focus on work again.

We hope we’ll all return to regular work schedule in the very near future, but in the meantime, your team will find a way to work together successfully and make it through this challenge together.

If you are hosting or managing Zoom meetings, you can secure them to prevent disruptions and keep your company information confidential. Here are eight security measures we use and recommend:

1. Require a password. Did you know you can require a password for your Zoom meetings? This feature shouldn’t be a surprise; but many meetings have been left open and the link shared publicly. This is practically inviting disruptions from Zoom-bombers and other unwanted guests. Give your invited participants a password, and make sure it isn’t something obvious like… “Password.”
2. Enable the waiting room. Know who is your meeting! Passwords can be shared without your knowledge. The “waiting room” feature allows you to see who is trying to join your meeting before granting access.
3. Disable collaboration features. Unless your team is working together to review and edit a document or design, disable the annotation, whiteboard and remote-control settings. For most everyday meetings, these features won’t be needed.
4. Disable recordings. Unless you regularly record in-person meetings, you probably don’t need to record Zoom meetings. Disable recordings if you don’t need them.
5. Use chat carefully. Do you need the chat feature or can you unmute participants (see #6 below) as needed? While chats may appear hidden or private during the meeting, they can be seen by all at the end of the meeting in a review feature. If using chat, remind meeting guests that their comments will become public to the group.
6. Mute all participants. Have participants use the “Raise Hand” command and unmute individuals as they need to speak.
7. Remember to end the meeting when done! If you’ve done the previous steps, leaving your meeting open doesn’t present a huge risk. Closing the meeting, however, frees up your meeting code for the next session.
8. Update to the latest version. Zoom will inform you if there’s a software update available. It’s always a good idea to update to the latest version that may include security fixes or product enhancements. After you’ve updated your Zoom version, review your settings to verify they weren’t over written with the latest update.

Alternatives to Zoom

Zoom is not the only easy-to-use teleconferencing software! Here are a few others that businesses use regularly:

1. Go-to-Meeting
2. Slack
3. Teams (part of O365)