I have sent my staff home, now what?

In the mist of Covid-19 (Corona Virus), we at JDS WebDesign are hoping everyone is safe, washing your hands frequently, sneezing and coughing in your elbow, and practicing social distancing.  Over the next several weeks, we are planning on blogging about how to make your website more business friendly.  We will have some tutorials on our favorite plugins and features, which will make your site more efficient.

You have (or maybe your local or state government officials) decided to send your staff home to work.  Nervous and anxiety runs through your every thought. Is productivity going to head south?  How are we going to communicate?  Does this mean, I have to call everyone?  Do we have systems in place to measure if everyone is pulling their weight?

Remote work is not a new phenom.  Over 20 years ago, I lead a remote office.  We had internet issues, communication issues, and personal issues.  The biggest issue is some employees are not discipline enough to work.  ESPN and doing the laundry replaces sitting at your desk and completing the task at hand.  Taking a walk around the block, replaces calling a client with an issue.  Playing golf or hanging out with family, replaces your weekly calls with your boss.  So how do you eliminate these issues?

Expectations

Set expectations.  Let your staff know that everyone is human.  Working from home can become a lonely chore. Encourage them to keep a consistent routine.  Get dress as if you are coming to the office, have breakfast prior to beginning work. Check out the local news.  Establish a dedicated room for work (basement, attic, or bonus room).  Try not to have your office in your bedroom (or any room, in which distractions such as televisions exist).

Let your employee know about how you will establish communication tools, project management tools, and documentation tools.

Communication Tools

Communication is the number one reason for a bad experience working remote. Either communication is lacking or it is excessive.  The key is to be in middle.  There are many communication tools out there, but my favorite two are Slack and Zoom.

Slack is a great tool for your staff to do control water cooler talk.  You can provide incentive and positive information to the group.  It is a great way to display excitement for your team, and to help ease the feeling of lonely.

According to the internet, “Slack brings team communication and collaboration into one place so you can get more work done, whether you belong to a large enterprise or a small business. Check off your to-do list and move your projects forward by bringing the right people, conversations, tools, and information you need together.  Slack is available on any device, so you can find and access your team and your work…”

Zoom is used for conference video calls.  This tool can be used to hold team meetings (which I would encourage weekly and not daily meetings).  It can also be used for one-on-one meetings with your staff.  You will get a chance to discuss issues or customers, in a live setting. Zoom is live video, so proper dress is recommended.

According to the internet, “Stay connected wherever you go – start or join a 100-person meeting with crystal-clear, face-to-face video, high quality screen sharing, and instant messaging – for free! Award winning  Zoom brings video conferencing, online meetings and group messaging into one easy-to-use application. Zoom is used by over 500,000 customer organizations and is #1 in customer satisfaction.”

Project Management

You will need a tool to make sure projects stay on course.  Asana and Monday are my go to tools.  Both of these tools allow you to make notes about projects.  You can add collaborators to each project.  Your collaborators can place notes into the project, so everyone can tell the status of a project.

It is like having a huge board, with notes on what is going on each project.  Your expectations can be communicated, and any issues should be communicated early in the process.  No surprise, remember one of the issues with remote work is communication.  If you use these tools, then you should limited the number of communication issues.

Documentation

Do you use documentation in your work?  Forwarding contracts.  Sending proposal.  Having human resources policy. You will need to establish a tool, in which these documents can live.  My favorite tool for these forms and documents is Google Docs.

You will need to establish a gmail email. This is a Google product.  But it is a free service.  And a great place to keep documents to assist your work force.

Conclusion

Breathe. Breathe. It is going to be okay.  You just need to create some tools to boost your staff remote work productivity and your ease of mine.

Image courtesy of Trent Szmolnik.

JDS WebDesign is a Web Design and Brand Marketing Agency located in Marietta, Georgia.  We create AWESOME on line presence for Faith Base, Non Profit and Influential People/Organizations.  To learn more about me or how I can help you and your organization, let’s schedule a 15 – 30 minute coffee.  I can be reached by clicking here..