How to Implement Remote Work Effectively

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many businesses to a standstill. Industries heavily reliant on human contact have had to cut back on operations in order to keep their staff safe. Meanwhile, major supplies risk running out while logistics departments have to manage with fewer resources than they need. While this is the case for some businesses, others have found that remote work (working from home) holds immense potential for the continuation of business. Here is how to remain productive while working from home.

Designate a Workspace for Remote Work

For remote work to be effective, it is important to create a workplace environment at home. What this does is it creates a psychological connection to your real workspaces at the office. When you move to your dedicated workspace, you become instantly tuned in to work.

Secondly, having a dedicated workspace ensures you have all the things you need at hand. No need to start running around the room looking for an extra pencil or stapler. If you need to print out documents, have a printer close by. More importantly, try as much as possible to position your workspace so very little of the room is visible during a video call. If possible, find the quietest corner in the house to avoid distraction. It is also important to have an agreement with family members so you have a few hours to yourself each day.

Remember, working from home doesn’t mean staying in bed all day long. Wear noise-cancelling headphones if you have to, but don’t spend the entire time on YouTube.

Use the Right Tools

You will find that working remotely creates a unique challenge in the types of tools you use. While it is easy to walk into a colleague’s office to make a request, you would need new tools to create the semblance of physical contact.

Collaboration Through Face-to-face Meetings

Where there is a need for a face-to-face meeting, Zoom has proven to be useful even when working from the office. A free alternative is Google Hangouts which allows video conferencing for a team of up to 25 members. Alternatively, businesses can rely on Skype for their video chats.

For remote access and desktop sharing, TeamViewer is a great option. Not only is it free to use for non-commercial purposes, it is available to use on both Windows and iOS platforms. TeamViewer has very little installation requirement and is easy to use. The application can be used for file transfer as well.

Collaboration Through Messaging

Where teams want to have a conversation without clogging their mailboxes with dozens of emails a day, Slack offers the perfect alternative. Its Teams features is applicable across departments, projects, and even geography. You can have a Slack group for members in East Africa or employees in Kenya working on a specific project. Because Slack integrates well with DropBox and Google Docs, it is easy to share files for easy collaboration.

Collaborating on Tasks – Project Management

It is important that your team stays on top of projects and tasks to ensure maximum productivity. Ideally, you would want to rely on your ERP system for this purpose. However, where you do not have any ERP system in place, you could very well still benefit from existing free tools and solutions.

You can make projects and tasks shareable on Google Docs for all your team members to make inputs. It won’t be as intuitive as a purposefully designed ERP system for project management. But you can get the wheels moving nonetheless.

Asana is one of the most popular tools for online project management. With a simple interface and versions available for desktop and smartphone devices, Asana works perfectly for managing remote work. Asana helps with workflow management as well as task management.

It is also important to understand the internet resources available at your disposal. With more people working from home, many ISPs are reporting a surge in peak internet usage. This means connections might be slow in certain neighbourhoods. To get around this, voice calls might be better than video calls. It also pays to have alternative internet service subscriptions from different providers to fall on.

Use the Best Security for Remote Work

The single most important factor to consider during this period is the security of your company files. Chances are most workers would have to work with their personal devices – laptops, home computers, and smartphones. This means staff would be accessing sensitive company data on generally less secure devices, posing a risk to your business and your clients.

To stay safe, it is important to implement minimum security protocols across all relevant devices. All staff working from home should implement anti-malware and anti-phishing strategies by installing and implementing the latest patches of endpoint protection software. Ensuring uniformity in applications makes it easy to sync updates. Also, all staff should be reminded to set and regularly change passwords on their internet routers.

Build a Sense of Responsibility in Remote Work

It is important that members of your staff understand the need to be invested in the fortunes of the company. Now more than ever, staff attitude can make or unmake your business decisions. As a business, your staff should know that you can still depend on them to fulfil their duties despite limited space and resources. At the same time, they need to understand that they are still responsible for providing services to clients.

Be Health-conscious

Working from home might provide the perfect excuse to remain seated throughout the day. Fulfilling your responsibilities while lying in bed might seem like the perfect work-life balance; but it is not. It is important that you take care of your health the same way you would if you had to go to the office. Don’t sit for long periods at a time. Take breaks to walk about or stretch to encourage blood flow. If before you were working in a small cubicle, working remotely should give you enough room to incorporate small stretching exercises into your daily routine.

In the case of a viral pandemic, make sure you disinfect and sanitise all surfaces you come into contact with. That includes your workstation, electronic devices, etc.

Wrapping Up

Working from home is not an excuse to skimp on your responsibilities as a company. Rather, it is an opportunity to let your business clients know that you will be available to serve them whatever the situation. Where remote work becomes a necessity rather than a choice, as in the case of a pandemic, it is important to help workers make the transition by providing fully or subsidizing the purchase of home office tools and resources. Regardless of what industry you are in, it is important to put in place the necessary tools to enable your remote staff function efficiently and productively.