Switching to remote work (if you didn’t plan on doing so)
COVID-19 has caused a spike in remote work. With this spike comes growing concern about how effective remote work can be and how remote work can apply to industries where in-person work is required.
Remote work isn’t something new. In fact, working from home has grown 173 percent since 2005. Companies, such as Best Buy, have experimented with remote work over the past decade and have realized that working remotely for two or three days weekly works more effectively than working remotely five days per week.
In-person interaction and collaboration are still necessary for sustainable results in some environments. Many fully distributed teams seem to be doing wonderful, though, so what’s the secret?
Keep your employees safe and help them work effectively
Your team is probably already grappling with the reality of forced remote work. Some team members may embrace it, others may be longing for the day when they can return to the office.
Health and safety are paramount. However, business growth also matters. The fact is that you can’t change the cards you’ve been dealt. If you want to encourage business continuity and success over the next few months, it’s important to find the most effective strategy for remote work.
The C-R-O-O-T remote work strategy provides a viable solution. Here’s how it works.
C- Create a Seamless Onboarding Process
Change is hard. Chances are that your team consists of people with varying levels of technical skills. Subscribing to the numerous online productivity and project management tools available is great. However, several hours of productivity will be lost if your team doesn’t understand how to use these tools.
The moment your company decides to transition to remote work is the moment the ICT (Information and Communications technology) team should step in to develop and implement a training and onboarding plan. Your company may not have an ICT team. That’s okay. You can also rely on the ICT expertise of your more tech savvy employees.
A good onboarding and training program includes:
- Easily accessible material that clearly outlines the company’s remote work policies.
- Scheduled virtual training sessions with various company teams prior to the full roll-out of remote work.
- Opportunities for team members to request further assistance if necessary.
- Feedback on the success and failures of the new remote work paradigm. This feedback is useful for improving the onboarding process.
R- Register for the Right Communication and Productivity Tools
One of the reasons Best Buy’s remote work experiment was stopped in 2013 was the freedom corporate employees had to do work however they wanted as long as they met their deadlines. Remote work doesn’t mean there’s a free-for-all. Instead, there should be communication and productivity protocols to ensure efficiency.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the first technology must-have for effective remote work. All work should be shared securely. A VPN facilitates a secure connection between the company’s internal network and the team member’s remote network. All employees should be required to sign into a VPN before logging in to work and/or using any of the chosen communication and productivity tools.
Options for other remote work software you’ll need are provided below. You should research these tools to determine which works best for the unique characteristics and needs of your team.
4 Best Communication Tools for Voice and/or Video Calls
4 Top Productivity Tools for Remote Teams
4 Top Time Tracking Tools
4 Top Document Signing Tools
O – Offer Continuous Feedback and Accountability Checks
Remote work presents a new set of challenges that didn’t previously exist in an office environment. Some team members face the surmounting pressure of having to teach their children from home while still completing work duties. Others may have family members who are ill or have fallen victim to the coronavirus.
Your team members are facing their own challenges in this unprecedented time. Therefore, your feedback and accountability checks, while necessary, shouldn’t be burdensome. One possibility is to schedule one-on-one meetings with each team member at the end of the week to track progress and provide feedback on work submitted throughout the week. This beats them getting a daily message that leaves them feeling pressured and overwhelmed.
Conversation Tips for One-on-One Meetings
- Start by highlighting the good things the team member has done. Commend the great effort and encourage this progress in the right direction.
- Provide task-based feedback. Don’t attack the person. Instead, provide a critique of the elements of the task, skill or project that need to be improved.
- Provide actionable resources and tips that will help the team member effectively complete the task.
- Show that you care by enquiring about the team member’s personal needs and struggles.
- Provide mentorship and growth opportunities where possible.
O- Offer Incentives Through a Rewards Program
The value of an engaged workforce hasn’t dissipated with the advent of remote work. Gallup reports that a highly engaged workforce results in a 21 percent increase in profitability. It’s important now more than ever for companies to strive for increasing profitability through employee engagement.
You can use an employee engagement platform, such as RewardCo or HeyTaco, to create a special remote work rewards program. You can use these reward platforms to offer incentives such as badges for online participation or certificates for stellar remote work performance. TangoCards is also an option for giving perks such as Google Play credits or Amazon gift cards.
T- Take the Time to Develop a Strong Remote Work Culture
Team culture has a lot to do with how teams work. A team should work well together and be inspired to complete meaningful work. Remote team culture is more than ensuring tasks are completed. You want to replicate the fun and positive energy that previously existed in the physical workspace. Some tips for making this happen include:
- Using GIFs to add humor
- Communicating through video instead of text
- Sharing appropriate jokes and memes
Final Words
Remote work has become the new norm (at least for now). The C-R-O-O-T remote work strategy can help you create an A+ remote team during and beyond this coronavirus pandemic. Change is hard but your team can better embrace the change to remote work with a well-implemented C-R-O-O-T strategy.
