In an ideal world, who wouldn’t want to work from their bedroom, wrap it all up by 5PM, and enjoy their 10-second commute to the dining room, as opposed to the daily grind in terms of monetary as well as physical efforts involved in traditional office settings? Surprisingly, however, while the entire world is experiencing the ‘work from home’ arrangement as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, it does not seem as an ‘ideal world’ for businesses. While some businesses are being affected more than others, it sure is a fact that none of them were prepared for this peculiar scenario.
So, how do we continue effective business operations during the coronavirus?
There are 3 simple rules that will help organizations ensure productivity in work from home arrangements:
- Communication
- Communication
- Communication
Doubling up on remote team communication is key to ensuring effective operations at all times. As stated by Bill Gates, companies that offer flexible working hours are more likely to boost their processes, however, it is also much likely to be carried away if this flexibility is not regulated and monitored in a systemic manner.
Challenges
Some of the typical challenges that arise from work from home arrangements include:
- Asymmetric day-to-day flow of information
- The misconduct of employees away from the office who aren’t as available as those working in an office setting
- At-home distractions such as that of children, pets, and others
- Indistinct work-home boundaries due to the virtual existence of the company in the employee’s home and the expectation to be available outside of “business hours”
- The downsides and extra effort associated with communicating with team members
- Setting expectations and unique methods of evaluation from a distance
While a number of challenges might be associated with the work from home arrangement that your organization has to cater to, there are certain viable approaches that can keep your business up and running as effectively as standard office settings amid the global crisis.
1. Set Up Daily Meetings
It is imperative for organizations to conduct regular team meetings to streamline their tasks, present updates, discuss bottlenecks, and have a quick run-through each day.
Tools such as Skype and Zoom may equip your organization to conduct group chats and video conferences in order to maintain constant connection between team members and their supervisors.
2. Streamline Tasks using Workflows
Remember assembling for those alignments meetings? Remember listing down each individual’s tasks on a clean whiteboard for clarity amongst team members?
Task alignment is more essential in work from home arrangements than in any other settings. While gathering in your conference room might not be possible in the age of social distancing, tools such as the following can be used to help you assign tasks, set deadlines, and ensure that every team member is following a clear direction:
3. Empower individuals with support tools
In a work-from-home arrangement, it is highly essential to equip your employees with tools that lower their reliance on other members in terms of specialized skills. This prevents any time lags that might affect the business and slow down executions. To begin with, design tools such as Canva can eliminate the dependence on more complicated tools such as photoshop, and allow you to build presentations, social media posts, and much more on an urgent basis – all you need to do is get creative.
Furthermore, it is often quite challenging for people to gather images that are clear of any copyright issues. Image banks such as Freepik and Pixabay provide you with a vast pool of images that may enable you in terms of day-to-day tasks.
4. Maintain employee motivation
Oftentimes, remote settings such as work-from-home arrangements can leave employees feeling isolated. Touching base with employees on a regular basis and letting them know they’re doing a great job can maintain the energy levels of your team and boost productivity from afar.
Conclusion
Flexible work from home arrangements, at a time like this, not only can benefit employees in terms of their own health but with the use of set guidelines and effective approaches, can also be healthy for the entire company and its productivity.
So, while we unite to counter the spread of coronavirus by staying at home, we also hope to stay strong and not lose sight of day-to-day operations along with our personal work conduct.
Learn more about hiring and onboarding remotely and effectively amid the COVID-19.
About vFairs
At vFairs.com, we strive to build a top-class online event platform that will help event organizers make memorable connections with their target audience. We’re obsessed with taking out the hassle normally associated with physical events and leaving organizers and exhibitors to focus on what’s most important: engagement with the audience.
