Remote working - set your team up to succeed

Remote working - set your team up to succeed

Heather Blackford
Heather Blackford
8 March 2020
Security

During this period of global uncertainty, the ability to work remotely has never been so necessary. Here are a few tips to help your team remain safe, connected and productive.

According to ComputerWeekly.com, over 38% of remote workers in the UK believe their home-working setups require urgent improvement to maintain productivity during the COVID-19 outbreak. In these modern times, many businesses were forced into remote working effectively overnight due to national lockdown measures. 

Here are a few tips to help your team remain safe, connected and productive.  

Establish expectations

Pressures at home, particularly for parents, may dictate that they are unable to work standard office hours. Perhaps working in the evening, over the weekend, or irregular hours would be more convenient. It can be difficult to create boundaries between work and home life while working from home, and this is especially true given the current circumstances. Be accommodating to the individual needs of your team; discuss and agree on expectations from the outset wherever possible. 

Create an infrastructure of collaboration

Tools such as Microsoft Teams, Trello, or Slack are valuable in establishing effective communication and collaboration. 

  • In Microsoft's words, Teams is the collaboration hub for Office 365 and offers a range of tools to keep your colleagues working. Full integration with the Office365 portfolio combined with messaging, video chat and channel management makes this a powerful tool. 
  • Trello is a workflow management software allowing users to organise tasks into Kanban boards, with templates for workflows as varied as sales pipelines, podcast and video production, content writing and wedding planning. 
  • Slack focuses more on team messaging and sells itself as the alternative to email, helping people and information come together to get work done. Conversations are organised into channels by topic, team or project, and the system integrates with your existing services.

Offer support

Practical, timely communication is vital to help your workforce feel informed and supported by the organisation. Providing a hub of information on measures the business is taking to prepare and protect employees will help, as well as detailing any financial or wellbeing services offered. Managers should ensure they are checking in regularly with their direct reports, to see how they are doing and provide additional support. 

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