Giving employees company laptops is a great way to allow for maximum productivity both in and out of the office. You don’t have to worry about software incompatibility issues – everyone will have the same make and model of computer. Employees who couldn’t work out of the office will now have the ability, regardless of whether they owned a computer in the past.

There are a few things that you have to do to your company laptops, however, before you can hand them over to your employees. By taking a few precautions now you can help avoid massive headaches and potentially expensive issues later on.

Antivirus/Antispyware Protection

One of the first things you’ll have to do before giving your employees their new company laptops is  install antivirus and antispyware protection software. On a personal computer, a virus could end up damaging personal documents or even compromise information like credit card or bank account numbers. On a business computer, a single virus puts your entire business at risk.

Likewise, spyware can greatly slow down a computer’s performance causing your employee’s productivity to decrease as a result. While you’re at it, set it to run automatically so employees don’t have to remember to run a scan.

Firewall Protection

Another must for any employee laptop is some type of  firewall protection  beyond the native tools offered by the Windows operating system. A firewall can help prevent unwanted intrusions onto the laptop via the Internet. Without firewall protection, malicious individuals could potentially access the information contained on the laptop or even use that laptop to remotely connect to your work network.

Care and Maintenance

Employees will also need to be instructed on the proper care and maintenance for all company laptop computers. Lessons should include information on both how to properly clean a laptop and how to take care of certain basic hardware and software issues by themselves. Teaching your employees how to take care of their laptop computers now will save you a lot of time and money in professional repair bills later on.

Backup Programs

All employee laptop computers should also have some type of  backup program  installed that archives all information to a cloud-based storage system on a frequent basis, ideally nightly. There are two main benefits of a backup program. The first is that all work that an employee does on the laptop will be safe and secure in a secondary location, even if something physically happens to the laptop. If it’s lost, stolen or damaged, all of the employee’s hard work isn’t gone with it.

Physical Protection

You should also provide some type of physical protection for employee laptop computers. This can include a protective outer case, a carrying case, a screen protector or some other type of alternative. Doing so will prevent damage later on.

You can’t just give an employee a laptop computer and expect everything to work out on its own. By taking a few precautions now, like making sure all of the necessary security software is already installed and teaching your employee how to properly care for their new device, you can be well on your way to the most productive workplace possible.

About The Guest Author: Dawn Altnam lives and works in the Midwest, and she enjoys following the business tech world. After furthering her education, she has spent some time researching her interests   and occasionally blogs about StorageCraft.

Executive With Laptop Photo via Shutterstock