It’s not enough to send your employees home and say that your company has now switched to remote working. Adopting the WFH model requires strategic planning, careful preparation, execution, error analysis, and finding ongoing methods to improve work quality and efficiency. We’ve reviewed the best practices WFH and are ready to share with you the strategies that will help make this transition as painless as possible for you and your employees.
Flexibility and adaptability
The cloud future is here. The quarantine also confirmed the validity of migrating corporate infrastructure to the cloud and increased the use of cloud technology.
Flexibility and adaptability are synonymous with modern businesses. Companies that have implemented cloud solutions are more prepared for the challenges. Cloud technology provides businesses with greater flexibility, allows a much faster response to crises and challenges, and, most importantly, allows them to scale infrastructure without significant capital investment.
Communication
Another important component is ensuring that employees work smoothly, safely, and conveniently from anywhere. Remote working requires corporate tools to be user-friendly and accessible on a variety of platforms and devices. Therefore, choosing the right communication tool will allow seamless and efficient collaboration and increase your team’s productivity. You can choose any communication solution among hundreds of presented on the market. It can be the innovative Whoosh based on AI or classical Zoom or Google Meet. Your choice depends on your company’s needs and budget. However, most of these services are within the same price range.
Security
Working remotely is definitely a challenge for a company’s cybersecurity. Now every person, their computer, or other devices must also be considered in the concept of information security. According to a Forrester report, about 74% of cyber attacks on businesses today target remote employees. You must develop security protocols for them and ensure at least three conditions for implementing security on the part of users working homes:
- a secure connection to the network;
- verifying the security of the device being connected;
- verification of who is trying to connect to the corporate network.
Digital Culture
Systems and technology alone don’t solve business problems. The entire company benefits only when your employees start using new tools, IT services, and systems proactively.
Digital transformation is first and foremost about changing the culture within and only then about adopting new technologies.
Set Сlear Requirements
Nowadays, people work from different places and no longer meet in office hallways or kitchens. The key to successful virtual communication is finding common ground and the right communication time. Be sensitive to the fact that each employee may need a different time to communicate based on their professional responsibilities and personal needs. Sometimes, synchronizing communication among team members will take effort and time. Clear requirements will help employees understand what is expected of them and establish work-life boundaries.
Don’t Limit Only to Video
Many people are already tired of Zoom and other video conferencing tools. The best way to combat this is to offer other ways to interact besides video. For example, you can use virtual collaboration whiteboards. This is a good opportunity for the meeting coordinator to gather ideas from all employees and get feedback. The topic of the meeting can be outlined in advance so that colleagues can gather the necessary information and formulate their thoughts.
Duplicate Communication Channels
Remember that a force majeure situation can always happen, so think of a plan B. Phone and Wi-Fi services are not always reliable, so you have to offer your team members other options when the connection may go down or the quality of the channel drops. Have backup access points and backup conferencing devices on hand.
Help Employees
If working remotely is a necessity or your employees have never worked from home before, you need to help and support them. For starters, your HR department would do well to make guidelines and manuals for working remotely. It should include all useful information, from organizing the workplace and combating procrastination to instructions on using unfamiliar apps and implementing new security measures. Your employees will no longer spend as much time together as they used to. Think about how you can improve their communication and what online activities you can do to accomplish this. The HR department will have many new responsibilities, and it is better to think about optimizing their work in advance in your strategy.
Take Care of Hardware
Introducing modern technology and applications to improve remote working is impossible without providing your employees with the necessary hardware. For security reasons, every employee should not use a home computer. When planning the transition to remote working, consider purchasing and shipping the technical equipment your employees already have and need. You should also consider the comfort of their workplaces. Not everyone has a comfortable office chair and desk at home or proper lighting.
We hope our article will help you form a strategy for switching to remote working or improving your existing one.
