The silver lining of the COVID-19 cloud

This might come as a big surprise, but COVID-19 has some perks. Due to the worldwide lockdown, you’re company has been catapulted into the 21st century by introducing remote working into your business structure. Normally you would take your time for this, make sure the right procedures are in place and communicate openly and transparently about the new possibilities. A fun cross-department exercise with more overall engagement, transparency and trust as a result. Unfortunately COVID-19 put the pressure on to make remote working possible in just a few days. To make sure you haven’t skipped any necessary steps and to keep ‘remote working’ a permanent efficient option for your employees, we have developed a handy manual and collected the necessary tips & tricks to make this a success!

Use these handy steps to make remote working as efficient as possible in these ‘lockdown days’, keep your current employees happy and engaged and tap into a whole new talent pool in the meantime!

Discuss the following with your HR-department.

• Are you willing to hire a remote worker and possibly change company culture and communication?
• Are there roles within your company that would suit remote working?

(not every company leans toward remote working, have a good think first)

• Organized and detail-oriented 
• Results-driven 
• Self-motivated 
• Responsive and reliable 
• Able to prioritize 
• Problem solver, curious 
• Reporting-savvy 
• Time management skills 
• Transparent

• Employees put more effort in their job if they know where the in-house job opportunities lie
• Make sure in-house job openings are equally visible to remote workers and make sure to arrange networking opportunities
• Help them get aligned with the company’s mission, values and goals and their own, this will create motivation, loyalty and render employees more productive

• Create transparent and clear OKR and expectations
• Set the frequency of measurement
• Communicate these openly

For example:

• Daily stand-up
• Weekly team meeting (check out Bothrs slide deck on how to have an effective meeting)
• Monthly metric/goal review
• Quarterly meeting
• Annual teambuilding
• Plan personal check-ins on how the employee is doing
• Plan regular career path convo’s

For example, as a remote worker you ought to:

• Plan around the shared calendar set for team meetings and events
• Constantly update your vacations, individual meetings, ‘do not disturb’ moments in your calendar (f.e. via Google Calendar)
• Answer emails within x-amount of time
• Use the word ‘x’ in email subjects when communicating priorities

Make use of a whole array of project planning tools like Trello, Asana,... They offer an easy and efficient overview of running projects, tasks and deadlines, which can be linked to the expected goals and be measured.

• Slack

It’s important to be approachable when working together with remote workers. Slack is a great tool for this. It mimics the real-life chat you would have by passing by at someone’s office for a quick question.

Use? Conversations; shared project communication; general announcements

• Email

Keep in mind the holidays and time-off of others. Don’t send emails after hours but use the Gmail scheduling tool to send it during one working hours. This will save them a lot of stress while they’re off.

Use? Sending files; meeting recaps; …

• Video

• Database

Make sure to have a cloud database through which employees can get to important data, photo’s, published articles, company growth stories etc.

Use? Access to all company information

• Outline a fix procedure and documentation for onboarding new (remote) workers
• Outline how to incorporate them as much as possible in the workforce culture from the early start
• Establish opportunities to engage easily and contribute to the company

• Learn about your employee’s life goals and skills they’re interested in learning. Provide them that personal growth within your company and you’re likely to keep hold of your talent
• Try to align their personal goals with those of your company and grow together

• Create moments for employees to get to know one another on a personal level
• Expect all workers in for the monthly drink, breakfast, New Years reception, family summer bbq, etc., but keep commuting to a low level
• Keep people personally engaged by thinking of their birthdays, personal company milestone’s etc.

No doubt about it: implementing remote working in your company will end up being one of the best decisions you could ever make. Especially when you choose to work in a hip, trendy and inspirational coworking space like ours.

If you think you’re company is ready for it, contact Silke for more information about a coworking subscription or satellite office here at WATT Factory! 

Not sure yet? Learn here about the advantages for employers, here about the advantages for employees and here how to ask your boss to work remotely.

Sources:
https://www.15five.com/blog/ideal-work-environment-remote-work-culture/
https://toggl.com/out-of-office-remote-company-culture/
https://skillcrush.com/blog/remote-work-company-culture/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2018/11/27/why-you-should-let-your-employees-work-remotely/#5adfb4911a7e
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2018/11/27/why-you-should-let-your-employees-work-remotely/#5adfb4911a7e
https://www.ipeccoaching.com/blog/10-ways-to-keep-remote-workers-connected
https://www.owllabs.com/download/how-to-manage-remote-employees?submissionGuid=432cf5d1-3f2e-4c32-9477-6b6ae64e92dc