There are many reasons why your business might want to embrace remote working and the possibilities it offers. If you can show your employees that kind of flexibility, you might be able to get more from them in terms of their performance and make the business in general much more flexible as well. But it’s something that needs to be approached carefully.
If you don’t think about it and plan ahead, implementing a remote working policy could turn out to be a disaster, and that’s obviously not what you want for your business. We’re going to talk today about how you can approach this and ultimately get the most out of the change for the good of the business, so read on.
Outline Remote Working Guidelines and Policies
First of all, you should think about creating some clear policies and guidelines that’ll help your employees understand what’s expected of them when they’re working from home. After all, it’s a completely different arrangement to working in an office, so you need to make sure that they’re going to transition in the right way. If people don’t have that structure and clarity going into a new situation, they might not perform in the way you want them to and that could disrupt the entire business.
Decide How Often Staff Need to be in the Workplace
Next, you should think about how often your team actually needs to be in the workplace. It might be the case that you’re okay with them working at home 100% of the time, but that’s not always the case. It’s sometimes necessary for the team to be in once or twice a week, but that all depends on the demands your business faces and the kind of work you do. But it’s a good idea to be clear about these things before you make the transition.
Change Your Approach to Onboarding
Changing your approach to onboarding people is definitely a good idea and something that you’ll certainly want to think about. It’s a good idea to make sure that you’re bringing in people who understand the nature of working at home and what’ll be demanded of them in that context. Of course, onboarding can’t stay the same when you’re looking to run the business in a different way and manage your team in a different way. So that’s something you’ll simply need to plan out.
Offer Relevant Training and Education to Staff
It’s a good idea to think about how your business can offer training to staff as they transition to home working. It can help them to transition to the new working arrangement when they have the right training, and you might also want to offer training for the good of the business. For example, you might want to offer cybersecurity training to ensure the switch to remote working doesn’t have negative repercussions for the business in the form of hacks or other cybersecurity issues.
Schedule Regular Meetings
Holding meetings on a regular basis is something that’s generally a good idea when you’re looking to manage a team that’s working remotely. If you’re not constantly checking in with each other and making sure that everyone is on the same page, it’s very easy for the team to become a little too disjointed and that’s obviously not what you want to happen. So schedule those meetings and try to stay consistent with them. That way, everyone will be able to stay connected.
Conduct Reviews Regularly
Having regular reviews in which you talk about any issues that may have arisen is certainly a good idea. You want to make sure that your team fully understands what’s expected of them an that they’re getting feedback on their performance levels while working from home. It’s especially important to do this if you start to see a negative change in performance levels or maybe a drop in productivity levels. Conducting reviews is good for the employees and the business.
Make Use of Modern Cloud Infrastructure
The cloud is a big deal when it comes to enabling smoother remote working, so you should be sure to start making the most of it if you’re not doing so already. There are lots of businesses out there that can help you with the implementation of a cloud transformation strategy. When you have important files and documents stored on the cloud, all of the relevant people can access them when they need to, no matter where in the world they might be working from. That’s obviously a big deal and very important indeed if you want to make a success of remote working.
Find the Right Collaborative Software
Using the right software to ensure everyone is able to work together efficiently when in varied locations is really important. Of course, the kind of software you choose to use will largely depend on the type of business you run and what your aims and priorities are. At its core, it needs to make it possible for people to work collaboratively and in one centralized place, even when they’re working in completely different places and not united in a central office.
Make the Lines of Communication Fast and Easy
Communication is something that’s obviously going to be very important when you’re looking to get your business on track after switching to remote working. The lines of communication need to be more open than ever before, and you should try to make sure that people get a fast response when they contact management about anything that they might be struggling with. The lines of communication should be fast and easy to use for all of your employees.
Remote working has a lot to offer a business like yours, so you should be sure to embrace the ideas above. That way, you can make the most of those benefits without having to deal with the problems that often come with remote working when it’s a change that’s not prepared for properly.