Preparation for Companies Adapting to Work From Home
The COVID-19 pandemic has made many people limit their movements to minimize the spread of the virus. This has a big impact on everyone's daily activities, including going to the office for work.
After adapting the working from home (WFH) work scheme, several companies are still implementing this policy even though government regulations regarding this matter have begun to relax. WFH actually provides many benefits for companies, especially cost savings.
Land rental/purchase costs, electricity and maintenance costs, and others can be reduced from an operational perspective. From the employee side, WFH makes it easier for them because it can save time and energy because they don't need to travel from home to the office.
However, remote working or WFH is not as easy as it seems. Managing a team remotely requires careful planning and good strategy. This has many challenges so there are several preparations for companies that want to adapt WFH, including the following:
There is a Distance Policy
Managing a team remotely can be difficult. With team members who are not in the same place as you, it is not easy to check their work progress directly.
The only thing that will make your team's work progress run smoothly is having remote work policies or regulations. This can be demonstrated by the roles and responsibilities of each employee being clearly defined.
With this policy, you need to set several standards that each employee must follow to submit work progress or results. Set benchmarks when work is delivered or collected at a time that fits your plan.
Simple Communication
When working online, make sure that you and your team and colleagues maintain communication. You must be able to choose a communication channel that is easy to use for discussions. Find tools with features that can be used to involve everyone in them.
Nowadays, there are several communication channel options available to ensure your company's WFH runs smoothly. You can use Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Trello, and many other collaboration application options.
Having One Meeting as a Daily Routine
Having available status and creating policies is not enough for remote work. You need to initiate daily meetings with your team members, this can be done in the morning.
Before starting work that day, you and your team can discuss what work will be done today and also the targets. Apart from that, talk about existing challenges and obstacles, so that each other can help or provide solutions to solve them.
That way, you have an idea of what to do together. This will remove doubts and ensure tasks are carried out according to the deadline. Additionally, small daily discussions help keep employees engaged at all times.
Monitor Team Performance
Monitoring your team's performance to always be on track will help you, regardless of the WFH work system or working directly in an office environment in one place. Regularly monitoring employee performance can be done using software such as Screenmeter or Teamlogger.
On the other hand, seeing the progress of employee performance can also be done through the Kanban Board which is also enough to know the progress of existing tasks. It can also help with two-way communication, if you ask for their feedback and try to implement suggestions when possible.
Offer Feedback
Offering to provide real-time feedback or input directly to team members is another thing that will help you and your team to be more productive while working remotely. This helps team members to realize whether what they are doing is right or wrong, as well as how they can increase productivity at work.
Managers Must Value Team Contributions
WFH can be detrimental to your employees, because they may feel isolated, sad, or feel like they are not getting appreciation for the hard work they have done. So you need to build a warm and friendly environment so that everyone on your team feels comfortable, valued, and connected.
Flexible Working Hours
Arrival and return times which have become a WFO routine are certainly difficult to implement in a WFH situation. There are a number of other things that team members may need to take care of, especially those who have children, may live with parents, or work other shifts.
Offer flexible working hours so that they can offer enough hours according to their convenience and give them focus and time for work. Meanwhile, you can ensure its availability via the online platform if you need assistance.
Keep Your Employees Engaged
Even if all team members are in different locations, you can still involve them. This can be done through fun games, quizzes and songs as a form of entertainment and bonding with one another. But make sure you stay work-oriented and there are messages that the team can learn from.
Although the idea of remote working or WFH sounds attractive, this situation can be understood by living it. You and your team will face problems, things will not go according to plan, and there will be times when you will feel overwhelmed.
Maintaining two-way communication and also maintaining a friendly and fun environment will help you and your team to run the WFH situation smoothly and productively.
