Whether you’re a small team with only a handful of employees or a larger organization with several teams to coordinate, you cannot avoid the overwhelming consensus that remote working is here to stay. Somewhat surprisingly, many businesses have proven that their work rate and productivity haven’t been affected by their staff working from home; in fact, there are cases in which staff are working harder from home than in the office. As such, here’s how you, too, can embrace working from home to truly boost your business’ performance in the post-pandemic world.
Training Modules
First up, you need to make sure that your staff are acquainted with all of the software that they’ll be using when they’re working from home. When they’re concerned about how to use the software and getting frustrated because new systems are opaque to them, you’ll find your staff productivity dipping immediately. Motivation is based on capability, and so it’s your responsibility to equip your staff with the skills to succeed when working remotely.
New Software
Married with this first step should be your IT professionals and HR team’s look into the world of remote working software. What is out there that you can use to coordinate work from home? How can you monitor and evaluate your performance in the ‘new normal’ compared to your performance in the latter quarter of 2019? When you onboard new technologies and software solutions, you need your staff to be able to use them instantly – which is where the extra training comes in.
Oversight
While you shouldn’t expect your staff to take working from home as a free ticket to slack off their work, you should be able to monitor their work rate. More importantly, perhaps, you need your staff to know that you’re monitoring their work rate. This will incentivize them to work harder. It’ll also give you a critical window into how you can improve their working habits at home. Microsoft Teams Analytics software is an excellent way for managers and HR professionals to coordinate and monitor workers when they’re accessing your documents and communicating remotely in the future.
Team Meetings
While you should be able to trust your staff to know their duties in the workplace, they must also be able to communicate openly and freely with one another, and with their managers, each week. Most companies are in the habit of starting the day with a team meeting – a conference call during which you can offer feedback and guide your team to better working habits. This is something to bear in mind when setting up for remote working.
Teething Issues
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that your remote working professionals will not take to their duties efficiently straight away. There will always be delays and confusion in the first weeks of setting up a remote working system in your business. But, if you’re able to confer with your team, highlight and deal with problems, and be empathetic to the new challenges of remote working you should be able to overcome these early issues in a matter of weeks.
This guide will help you embrace the benefits of remote working speedily in the ‘new normal’ that COVID-19 has brought about.
