Business vs Quarantine. How to Flawlessly Switch to Working Remotely?
Sometimes we may be faced with unexpected situations that change our plans dramatically. Thus, society should be flexible to be able to adapt to new conditions. Especially when it comes to business affairs.
And as you know, human labor is still the most significant aspect at the time of the digital era. So how to protect human resources during the quarantine? The most affordable way is to make them work remotely.
Hence, we’d like to describe essential tips that might help you upgrade your business with the lowest loss.
Make a Plan
The very first thing to do right now is to simulate the current situation and come up with a step-by-step plan. Your objective is to reorient all the processes so that work doesn’t get stuck. What are the duties of the accounting department? How do sales managers perform their tasks? How to support each employee so they could seamlessly work outside the office?
Go through all of these stages that may affect your company. It’s better to make up a detailed checklist when you start working from the home office and then run all internal processes through the list immediately. This way, you will definitely find your weak points. If so, you will be able to find a solution in advance, instead of watching problems are accumulating.
So you’ve got a plan. The next must-have step is to tell your employees how the entire team works as well as how each member should be working in a team. So double-check that everyone understands their responsibilities properly.
What to do next?
Recreate the Office Online
One of the serious risks when switching to a remote format is a communication failure. No matter how many online chats you provide, people who’re accustomed to working with the team at one office and being able to communicate in person, they might feel uncomfortable at first.
To prevent this from happening, you should arrange a sort of online office – a single webspace, where everyone can not only communicate, but also perform all their tasks. Technically, this can be done in some kind of teamwork services like GitHub or Slack.
The proper atmosphere is also crucial when working from home. If a staff meeting has been a common routine, don’t skip it, you should just reorganize the meet-ups. Make sure you provide video communication as well, so everyone absorbs not only the information, but they could also see co-workers’ emotions and mood. Additionally, you can consider arranging virtual coffee breaks, so the team could go off-topic.
At the time of adaptation to working remotely, think over tete-a-tete calls with your employees for whom you are the responsible leader. And ask the top managers of the team to do the same thing. This will help you understand better what is happening with your employees, answer their questions, and give them feedback as soon as possible.
Apart from that, advise your workers to arrange their home office to stay fit during their working hours. If possible, consider investing in ergonomic furniture like a standing desk converter to boost their productivity as a rocket.
Assign Roles to Your Members
No doubts, a company, which has been working at the office all the time, may find it extremely challenging to start working from home. It’s a non-conventional situation, where employees are more likely to have additional tasks, as well as their roles may be changed. Thus, it’s vital to split the duties and responsibilities from the very beginning.
If you have several departments with various managers, it’s better to team them up into a so-called “anti-crisis headquarters” and designate the areas of responsibility of each department.
First, discuss the current tasks that are still being carried out. Then pay attention to the new ones that have arisen in this situation. Everything that you decide together with the heads of departments should be explained to the rest of the team. Thus, each employee knows the company’s major strategy, and who they may contact, apart from top managers, in case of acute emergency needs.
Maintain Engagement and Information Accessibility
It’s substantial to inform the team about all changes related to the company’s work as a whole. And everybody who is involved in individual projects should be aware of their projects’ prospects.
Remember that people who suddenly start working from home may feel less engaged, and this may affect their productivity and hence, worker’s results. Besides, team leaders who are not used to managing employees remotely may forget about some crucial details because of stress. Therefore, ensure that everyone has equal access to important data.
Bottom Line
Reorganizing business may be challenging and even intimidating, no matter you’re a novice or expert. That’s why you need to think wisely over your new strategy before applying it in real life.
If there are employees working under you, you should also come up with ideas on how to ease their process of switching online. And while doing it, keep in mind that thoughtful decisions lead to incredible results.