Author: Scott Steinberg
Date published: July 16, 2024
Your employee's internet speed for working from home can be crucial for your business. With hybrid working arrangements here to stay, it is in your organization's interest that remote work internet connectivity and security are indistinguishable from your main office. Limited work from home (WFH) internet capabilities can limit business productivity and performance.
For example, when remote work internet performance suffers, it can prompt frequent communications delays, recurring online lags or ongoing service interruptions. Unreliable or slow internet connections could jeopardize a meeting with a client or delay sending an important file. Just a few mission-critical business tools that require strong internet speeds include:
To see how fast your employees remote work internet speed currently is, use the free, user-friendly Verizon internet Speed Test online tool. It can quickly help you see how much bandwidth you need for the various apps and tools you use—and how the WFH internet speed of each member of your team stacks up.
Be sure staff take several readings at different times on different days from different locations when testing their remote work internet performance. It's important to be prepared for how internet performance can be impacted by family or housemates being online at the same time.
After computing your employee's remote work internet speed, compare results with the speeds advertised for their existing plan. Note that, despite what internet service packages promise on paper, actual day-to-day Wi-Fi speeds may be lower due to several factors—and below what your virtual workforce requires.
Many variables can inhibit wireless remote work speeds, such as:
Numerous remote work users. Multiple network users can cause network congestion. When choosing employee internet speed for working from home, it's important to use a dependable high-speed provider that offers internet service speeds robust enough to handle resulting traffic.
Outdated hardware equipment. Older routers, laptops and electronic devices' limitations often negatively impact internet speeds. Refer to device manuals to determine whether they align with current internet and network performance requirements or need replacing. Commonly referred to as Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ax is the newest wireless protocol released. It can help to boost remote work internet speeds for your employees.
Internet connection type. One of the best ways to run a speed test is plugging directly into the router via an ethernet cable.
The following bandwidth figures are only estimates to help you get a general sense of your remote work internet speed requirements:
Basic email - 1 Mbps
Cloud backup - 2 Mbps
Cloud-based services - 5 Mbps
Cloud computing - 2 Mbps
Data transfer - 2 Mbps
Email with attachments - 15 Mbps
File sharing - 5 Mbps/500 Kbps
General web browsing - 0.33 Mbps/333 Kbps
High-definition (HD) video - 4 Mbps
Instant messaging - 5 Mbps/500 Kbps
Online banking and bookkeeping - 2 Mbps
Online research - 33 Mbps/333 Kbps
Social media scheduling - 2 Mbps/200 Kbps
Streaming a webinar - 5 Mbps (HD video may require more)
Streaming an online training course - 5 Mbps (HD video may require more)
Uploading photos - 5 Mbps
Uploading large files - 2 Mbps
Videoconferencing - 4 Mbps
VoIP calls - 1 Mbps/100 Kbps
VoIP video calls - 28 Mbps
To ensure optimum internet speed for working from home, you may wish to calculate demand using the following steps and then double it to maintain high performance, even during busy times:
List all common online activities that your team engages in. Factor in possible future demands, such as a rapidly growing remote workforce or rising need to access more complex online apps.
Reference bandwidth estimates (see previous section) to determine how much bandwidth each activity commonly requires.
Ask each employee to estimate how many other people might be using the internet at their home during work hours and what types of tasks they might be undertaking.
Multiply the number for each task in step two by the number you calculated in step three to determine the total bandwidth needed for each employee.
It's not enough to pick the right home internet speed, reliability and security are also important factors to consider. Enterprise remote work solutions can combine fast, reliable and secure business-grade internet with the ease of simplified IT-management. Dual internet connections in the home allows for one router/connection for home functions and one for internet.
Learn more about how Verizon can bring together the tools and capabilities a distributed workforce needs to be successful.
The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.