With the current global pandemic multiple teams have had to work from their homes. For some, it’s been a pretty easy transition. However, others have found it pretty tough. It’s because businesses differ from one another. For a start, they differ due to industry, then because their owners will run things in different ways. Most teams can make remote working work for them if they only tried new ways of working. It even seems like a lot of businesses have much preferred having people work from home. It means they pay less overheads and in most cases, people are happier. Working from home seems to be the future of many industries. Focusing on making it work for you and them is vital. Just look at those businesses which had already implemented it before the pandemic. They could hit the ground running nice and easy while others struggled. These tips can help you and your employees make it a lasting success.
Continue To Make It Feel Like Teamwork
When you’re in the office, bouncing ideas off each other can be really useful. Being able to help eachother out with tips is invaluable. It’s harder to keep this ticking over while working remotely. It might be that you need tips for setting team goals, or that you need to form that cohesive bond between your employees once again. Try setting a daily catchup in the morning, over Teams or Zoom, where they can all see each other and give each an opportunity to talk about what they’re working on and why they’re finding it a bit hard at the moment. This way, people can contribute and once more bounce ideas off each other. Think about changing the start date of this meeting if some can’t make it at certain times to boost inclusivity too. Ensure there’s someone who can take notes so that those who can’t make can read up on what went on. There may be something there that can really help them out.
Keep Up Across The World
If you’re a business which has people travelling often, it can be even harder to keep employees engaged and working together. It might be that your team has to travel to various business sites. If this is the case, you may need to provide them with work smartphones which can access teams for meetings. Or, allow them to do it from their own phone. They could simply be taking a trip to the next town over or looking to conduct business in Japan. Either way, if they’re on the road a lot it may be that they need laptops. If you’re currently working from desktops, think about replacing them. Just think of the work that can be done on trains or planes, allowing them to keep up with what’s going on elsewhere and maintain productivity.
Focus On The Right Product Tools
If you want them engaged, they need to have the right tools to do their job. There are various collaboration tools available to you. If you’re already using microsoft teams, then you may want to invest in Office 365. Everything just links up together and you can collaborate on documents in real time together, remotely. You can do the same with Google too, using Docs and Sheets. It’s about picking what’s right for your business but making sure that you’ve got the correct tools so that you can work collaboratively. It means people can see each other’s work and feedback on important decisions taken as it builds. It also cuts back quite significantly on email traffic. It illuminates ambiguity. Instead of having confused people pinging documents back and forth, you can instead see exactly where you all are on the screen in front of you.
Give Them New Projects
Don’t hold things back for a projected return to the office. Who knows how long they’ll need to work from home for, and who knows what’s in store for your business going forward. Let them run with the projects. It might be asking one to sell your products on Amazon, or speaking to another about looking at ways to increase productivity across your teams. Don’t hold back. Giving your team new projects will certainly go far in keeping them engaged. New work stops things from getting stale and stagnant too. Besides, your business can’t afford to sit still. Especially if your competitors have embraced everything and are driving forward with new ideas, you want to match them step for step and not be left behind. Exploring new ways of working and bettering your working methods is only a good thing.