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While remote work has been gaining popularity in recent years, not that many companies have had remote work policies in place. And today, when the coronavirus outbreak has forced companies all over the world to go remote, many of them are fearing that they don’t have enough time to prepare for the transition to remote work.
However, there are still ways to prepare for this transition and that’s why today we’ll be taking a look at some of the ways business owners can tackle this challenge.
1. Before Anything Else, Set Expectations For All Your Employees
Usually, it is not too hard to see if your employees are delivering. But with remote work and asynchronous communications, especially in harder times that we all are living in right now, it may not be so easy to correctly see how your employees are performing.
That’s why it’s important to set clear expectations for all your employees from the beginning. If they know exactly what their tasks are and what you expect out of them, they are much more likely to deliver the work. Also, setting clear expectations and following through can help you better massage the productivity and performance of all your employees.
2. Establish Proper Communication Channels
As someone who manages people, you need to be clear about any communication expectations you have now when your organization is working from home. This means that you need to be specific about the means, time, and frequency of communication you prefer. Tell your people what is the best way to reach and at what times. This ensures your employees know that you got their back if any problems occur.
In addition to the means of communication, we recommend that you encourage your employees to often communicate with you and each other. Now that you all of you are at your homes, you all must stay on the same page and strive to achieve the same goals, and the best way to do that is to share all important information you have with your team while also encouraging them to do the same. Also, don’t limit the communication to work-talk only, organize happy hours, and chill meetings so your employees can keep bonding as they did in the office.
3. Track Time on All Your Projects
Proactive employees that are alert about what they need to do is the key if you want to continue to progress today. However, things are bound to get messy which is why you need a way to predict a potential mess before it happens. The best way to do that is to track the progress on all the projects and tasks in your company. In addition to tracking the progress on tasks, you need to track the time spent so that none of your deadlines are missed.
Today, there are many tools available on the market that track time and help manage projects but only a selected few, like Workpuls, do both. Tracking time and progress is an essential way to stay proactive and productive while working from home.
4. Ease Up a Bit
Transition to working remotely is a huge transaction and it usually doesn’t happen out of the blue. However, when it’s all of a sudden it’s most likely that some of your people or even you can feel a bit more frustrated, stressed out, or unmotivated.
However, that is perfectly fine and normal, even when you don’t consider everything that’s happening today. It takes time to adjust to any new transition in life, especially one so big, which is why it would be great if you could cut everyone some slack. Remember that not everyone is going to be on their A-game right now, and that is perfectly fine. Be there for your employees as much as you can and try to help them out with everything until it settles back to normal.
Conclusion
We know that some of you are struggling with this transition to remote work and we hope that our tips are going to help you make it a bit easier for you and your employees. As much as you can, be there for your employees, make sure you always listen to what they have to say and adjust your working from home arrangements as needed. Set expectations for everyone, establish proper communication channels and encourage your employees to communicate often, track time and progress on everyone’s tasks, and don’t forget to ease up and cut everyone some slack.
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This content is brought to you by Shahbaz Ahmed.
Photo: Shutterstock