5 IT recommendations for returning to offices and workspaces after the COVID-19 pandemic

We published these recommendations in June 2020, when companies were preparing to return to the office in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is over, but some of the changes it brought have stayed: hybrid work, split between the office and home, is common in many companies, and documents, signatures and meetings have largely moved online. Below, you’ll find the five recommendations, updated for 2026.

What has changed since 2020?

The pandemic forced companies and employees to rethink the way they work. It also made visible how much employees and companies are invested in each other’s well-being: companies need people, and people need companies.

In 2020, some companies, such as Twitter, announced indefinite work from home, and most were rewriting their internal rules: working in shifts or in alternating teams, extra cleaning and hygiene measures, reorganized open-plan spaces. Since then, most companies have found a balance: a few days at the office, a few from home. We also wrote about this way of working in the article Is the hybrid work environment the new normal?

IT has remained the backbone of any business. It’s the part of the company that supports every department and that can make a business more competitive or less competitive, depending on the solutions chosen. Hybrid work requires the same data and apps to work just as well, and just as securely, at the office and at home.

The 5 IT recommendations for the office and hybrid work

1. Reorganizing your IT infrastructure for hybrid access

The hybrid way of working, from the office as well as from home or other locations, has become the standard in many companies. Your IT infrastructure must be designed so that data and apps are accessible from anywhere, with the same way of working for everyone and with security procedures that help employees recognize and report threats.

In practice, this means:

• two-step verification for email, cloud documents and the VPN;
• access to company servers only through a VPN, not through ports open to the internet;
• centrally managed laptops: automatic updates, disk encryption, antivirus;
• backups of the data on computers and in the cloud, for example with Backup as a Service.

You’ll find more about equipment used at home in the article on mandatory security measures for work laptops used at home.

2. Digitizing and automating document-based processes

Before 2020, companies had tentatively started to digitize: invoices sent by email, documents kept in email archives (an inefficient method, but a common one) or company-wide intranets. During the pandemic, printing documents was also discouraged to reduce physical contact between departments.

Since then, digitization has become partly mandatory: in Romania, invoices between companies have been sent through RO e-Factura, the national e-invoicing system, since 2024. Document management, electronic scanning and archiving, e-signature and encryption solutions are no longer just a business advantage, but the normal way of working, which partners expect too.

3. Training employees to use IT

The company whose employees are best prepared to work with collaborative software and platforms has a competitive advantage. If employees understand how information is organized in the company and how they can access it, efficiency goes up.

Training now covers security too, because many attacks start with a deceptive email, not a technical breach. An employee who knows how to check whether an email is spam stops many attacks before they start.

Companies that provide IT services can offer a helpdesk for employees, from information about IT procedures and processes to workstations that run properly.

4. Meetings via video conferencing

Video conferencing has stayed on after the pandemic. Online meetings are often shorter, and participants can quickly get back to what they were working on. Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet are used daily, and meeting rooms are being equipped for hybrid meetings: a camera that covers the whole room, good microphones and a large screen, so participants at home can hear and see as well as the people in the room.

For Teams, we’ve put together some productivity and collaboration tips for Microsoft Teams.

5. Monitoring and access control solutions

Another challenge is keeping unauthorized people out of the workspace. Sometimes a video intercom or an entry card is enough; other times, you need a full access control system, with a visitor log. In 2020, there was even talk of facial recognition and temperature checks at the entrance.

Any solution must take the GDPR and current legislation into account. Video footage is personal data, and biometric data used for identification (fingerprints, facial recognition) belongs to a special category that can be processed only under the strict conditions of Article 9 of the GDPR.

Access control also means access to data: a separate wireless network for visitors (see how to secure the office wireless network), access rights only for those who need them and accounts closed as soon as someone leaves the company.

RezolvIT prepares computers and accounts for new employees and closes access for those who leave. If you want to know what needs to change in your company for hybrid work, request a free IT audit.