How to Know If Remote Work is Right for Your Business
Who Can Transition to Remote Work?
The remote work model adapts well to businesses in industries such as information technology, customer service, and marketing. Even though going a hundred percent remote is not something that will work for all businesses, companies from other industries could make certain parts of their operation adapt to this model. Most companies have a few roles that can work remotely. Manager roles could change to this model a few times a week and conduct meetings and training from home.
Most digitally oriented work can be done remotely, so you could consider offering remote work to departments that are involved in those tasks —think of social media, payroll, accounting—or outsource digital work to businesses or contractors that work remotely.
Embracing Remote Work During the Covid-19 Crisis
If remote work protocols were not part of your company’s culture before Covid-19, transitioning into this work model can be more complicated, but not impossible. You can keep your business operating remotely to a certain degree, even if your physical doors are closed. Here are some tips you may find useful as you and your team learn to adapt to a new way of working.
Overcommunicating is Better
Working from home may feel like visibility and accessibility are impaired. That will only happen if communication is not consistent. For remote teams, it is better to overcommunicate. Otherwise, your employees are likely not to feel validated, informed, and much less empowered to do their job. Reply promptly to calls, emails, or chats to minimize the anxiety that comes from the lack of face-to-face interactions.
Maintain an Active Connection
Communicate via phone calls, video chat, email, or a company dedicated chat application to avoid invading your employees’ personal space and devices. Apps such as Slack or Zoom offer chat, voice, and video call features that help you stay connected. G Suite is another great option that offers business email, cloud storage, word processing, spreadsheets, and more.
Keep Your Business Going
Being on top of productivity and progress on projects and tasks is essential, whether you’re onsite or at home. Tools like Monday.com or Trello can help you manage your projects with ease, but there are lots of other great project management tools you can consider.
Work on Employee Engagement
Not everything has to be about work. Even when you’re remote, you still need some casual interactions with your team members to help you stay engaged and develop a trust-based relationship. Try setting up a virtual happy hour once a week where you share cocktail/mocktail recipes, talk about your week, and do fun things like play trivia or guessing each other’s video conference backgrounds. Host a virtual pet day or a viewing party of a series or movie you all enjoy. There are many viewing party apps you can choose. Just having a space on your calendar where you can have informal conversations with your team is a great way to continue to grow your relationship. Even if you can’t become 100% remote, you are likely to have roles or departments that can adapt to this model, which helps you give continuity to your business now, and in the face of any event that might risk putting your operations on hold
