The transition to remote working has not been easy for anyone, but we have the tips to get you started as smoothly as possible!
Building Trust
Above everything else, shifting to a remote workforce demands a different mindset. Leadership must focus on trusting their employees. This includes entrusting the decisions made by teams and individuals, offering more autonomy, seeding better transparency through improving communication skills, and holding people accountable for their results.
Keep in mind that trust is a two-way street. Leaders need to trust management, but employers also have to trust their employees and feel confident that they can move the company forward.
Leading people is less about checking on their presence or work results than it is about creating an environment in which employees want to do — and are rewarded both intrinsically and directly for — the best work they’re capable of doing.
Work Communication Platforms
Set up a communication platform specifically designed for work. Choose between Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Hangouts for Work. Each platform is well designed and provides all the features you will need to manage your work. Here’s all you need to do to get started:
- Create conversations channels for every department and project.
- Create a team chat for general messages.
- Establish the rules—all work-related conversations must be conducted on public channels and not on DMs.
- Over-communicate. It’s vital to be on the same page, and by explaining everything thoroughly, you can cope with changes, clear roadblocks, and celebrate wins.
- Set up a system to track work results and work hours.
Project Management Tools
A project management software is a perfect solution for more transparency. That way, everyone will be able to keep track of their own tasks and to see what others are working on. Since there is less direct communication, managers may also find it hard to monitor work.
Weekly Meetings
Once settled, you should ask your managers to check in weekly with employees to see if they have any challenges. This can also be done in the daily standup at the end of each day.
Going remote won’t be easy for employees that are used to working in an office environment. Make their transition easier by encouraging them to express their problems and needs.
Updating Engagement
Think about the ways that you can keep employees engaged and empowered. This could mean organizing training sessions through online webinars or helping employees with new tools, such as virtual whiteboards. Find out what your team members need in order to be most productive by consulting with them.
Considering Compliance and Security
How are you going to keep your employees as secure as possible when working remotely? Do you plan to use a VPN or tools like multi-factor authentication in order to prevent data breaches?
Tracking Performance
How will you know if your remote working employees are successful? Which parameters are you going to monitor? Will you be focusing on the number of work hours or the number of tasks that employees complete?