Remote work has become more popular, particularly during the recent pandemic. Both new and established organizations are transitioning to remote work, with the benefits of lower costs, increased productivity, and enhanced employee life quality due to flexible working hours and the ability to spend more time with loved ones. The transitioning, however, requires a well-meditated approach for effectiveness.
Invest in the Right Tools
Effective communication is one of the key aspects of a remote working arrangement. If you are looking to transition into remote work, a proper video platform for communication that allows workers to communicate audibly and in real-time is necessary. This will ensure that the workers continue to maintain and enhance their relationships. It would be best if you also availed proper hardware for all employees like monitors, CPUs, USB headset, and keyboards to continue working well.
For the safety and security of the communication system, you need to invest in antivirus and VPN systems and have them installed on the company computers. Modes of data storage such as cloud storage will also be paramount. Proper systems to maintain and respond to issues arising within the communication set-up installed should be considered. Setting up a cloud-based project management application will allow everyone to access the files and information they require at any time. These programs also let you manage work across teams and set target reminders. Trello and Basecamp are two of the most prominent project management solutions for remote teams. Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box are popular solutions for document and document management and sharing.
Develop a Proper Framework for Communication
You need to explore and properly plan how the communication will be going forward to help your team get on board with virtual communication. When you go remote, you lose a lot of direct contact with your employees and coworkers. There are few possibilities for a quick pullout, a morning coffee talk, or a brief visit to someone’s office for a question. This lack of consistent contact can significantly impact productivity, isolate employees, and even ruin initiatives. As a result, setting expectations and building a communication framework is critical. Regular check-ins between staff and stakeholders, in the form of brief sessions designed to stimulate discussion and provide updates on work progress, would be extremely beneficial.
As your team grows increasingly adjusted to them, you might search for ways to eliminate some of these sessions. It’s also crucial to ensure your staff has the appropriate online communications tools described before and that they’ve been properly taught to utilize them. An instant messaging solution like Slack is ideal for rapid queries, idea loops, and troubleshooting. It’s, however, not ideal for a comprehensive update that should be sent by email or added to a project management system as a milestone.
Maintain and Enhance the Company Culture
Employee engagement strategies is dependent on positive business culture. Many teams are concerned that becoming remote may harm the company’s culture. This does not have to be the case if project managers make an effort to keep it that way. With the extra funds saved from removing an office location, teams can design ways to preserve a strong business culture. Having a meeting space for client and team gatherings will be beneficial. There are several ways to sustain a business culture digitally, supplementary to a team retreat. Periodic video conferencing, achievement prizes and space for teammates to talk casually can all assist in bringing staff together.
Integrate the Company Hiring Policies
The hiring process takes on a different set of obstacles when working remotely. Management will need to adapt any hiring methods to incorporate virtual task demands and obligations, whether a business is starting from scratch or shifting to hiring only remote personnel. For example, focusing on a candidate’s personal qualities, such as autonomy and language skills, may be more vital to ensuring they’ll be a good fit for the team.
Conclusion
The future of remote work is most likely to expand as most employees prefer it and it helps businesses cut costs. Although the transition is not an easy process, there are a lot of success stories of remote working. Teams can successfully adapt to remote work with the correct planning and preparedness.
