It’s not yet over, not by a long shot. We have a pretty far way to go due to the pandemic. The vaccination concerns, the new variants arising, the legislations, the possibility of medication, fake news, social media, the war against the COVID-19 virus is still raging. All these, and we still need to work to keep the roofs above our heads, and food for our tables. The pandemic has affected our jobs as well and whatever happens, remote work will now be a part of our New Normal.
Every employer kind of jumped the gun when the pandemic happens. A lot of them made the best of the situation and allowed “working from home” immediately. Since we’re in the pandemic for almost 2 years now, a lot of holes have surfaced about working from home and they need to be addressed not only on the workers’ side but also on the employers’ side. Here are
6 Tech Tips for Employers to Succeed in Remote Work
1. Provide sufficient equipment. As employers, you need to provide your team with the right equipment, at the very least. They should also get replacements or new tools quickly.
Your productivity is at stake here, an idle employee means you are paying someone to just sit there. If they need tools, make sure you provide them with their workstations, laptops, mobile device if necessary, a backup internet connection if needed.
Another danger in not providing the correct tools promptly is for some of the employees to actually use their own. Some of your team may feel that if they stay idle they may lose their jobs and will try to find a way to be productive. Using their own equipment is a big security risk for everyone. They may be handling sensitive data of your customers or information about the company. We can never be sure of the level of security in a computer for personal use, assuredly, it’s far lower than enterprise-level security.
2. Get Digital. Create a digital space for your team. They need to communicate, corroborate, and share their work in a safe digital space.
Since your team is working apart, their output should be available to anyone on the team at any time. This can be solved by a cloud workspace that allows them to work together online, no matter how far they are from each other. Since the data is in the cloud, it solves the issue of employee scheduling.
3. Change Training Methods. Remote work, unlike office work, needs to be treated differently. This means you need to train your managers in a different mindset. In the office, your managers already know how to track performance, they already know how to motivate the team, they have their own ways to correct, praise, and discipline. These methods may not work on a remote scale. The manager needs to be familiar with time tracking software. S/he needs to familiarize with metrics and key indicators, as s/he does not see the employees on a daily basis.
4. Make Meetings Count. Try and meet with your team as regularly as possible. Insert fun into your meetings. Talk about anything, your pets, your weekends, your kids, your DIYs at home, allow a little smile before getting down to serious business.
5. Put in Place Work and Personal Limits. Working from home allows your employees to squeeze in a little personal time, a small errand, a little extra meal, some playtime with the kids. Make sure to let them understand that shaving some time off from their productive time means a little quid pro quo. They need to put in extended time to cover for the lost ones. Place more emphasis on daily goals instead of per-hour output. Also, don’t contact your team outside of office hours, limit work to work hours.
6. Ensure IT Support. It goes without saying, if you provide your team with tools, better be prepared for support. Take note, your traditional in-house IT will not work in this environment. You’ll need to have dedicated support that knows how to solve concerns remotely, quickly, and efficiently. Your team is at home and they can get easily distracted, the greatest distraction is when they have nothing to do.
Whatever our office goals are, remote work is here to stay, even if we completely solve the pandemic. As employers, the burden of adapting to the situation falls heavily on you. There have been others who have forced employees to go back to the office, resulting in the “Great Resignation”. Observe, learn, adapt, and communicate, so you get the best of both worlds.
If you want a seamless IT Support transition from office to working remotely, then it’s time to give Boom Logic a call. We are a boutique MSP with solutions for everything IT inside and outside your office.
