Working remotely has been on the rise lately. With the Covid-19 pandemic spreading like wildfire, more and more companies have been forced to activate their business continuity plan which would allow employees to work from home during the lockdown period.
In this guide, you’ll discover a strategy to effectively work remotely. You’ll learn what is working remotely and what you must do to get the most out of working remotely. Keep reading to understand working remotely or skip ahead to the section that interests you most.
What is working remotely?
Working remotely is a situation in which an employee works mainly from home and communicates with the company by email and telephone. It enables companies to keep the business running even when employees are not in the office. This in turns would allow employees to be more productive.
Resources:
Working from home: your guide to the tech you’re going to need [The Guardian]
Guides to help the remote life [Trello]
Communication and collaboration
Communication is pivotal in remote work. It is important to have all the team members on the same page in order to execute the task at hand effectively and accurately.
Resources:
8 productivity tips while working from home
16 tips working remotely amid COVID-19 [Stanford]
Tools and products
1. Video chat: Hangouts Meet, Teams, Skype, Zoom
There’s no substitute for face-to-face time with your team. There are a lot of solutions that provide good quality video and audio while also adding some nifty features like video recording and live captions.
Resources:
7 Convenient video conferencing use cases
How to transition your meetings to the cloud
2. Team handbook: Sites, Notion
A growing remote team needs to know where to turn to get answers to frequently asked questions, like: What’s our mailing address? Where can I see an up-to-date org chart? What’s the process for expensing things?
Resources:
Intranet solutions to stay connected
Upcoming webinar: How to connect all employees in the digital workplace
3. Instant messaging and discussion: Hangouts Chat, Slack
It’s important to stay in touch with team members while working. An instant messenger is a great spot for sharing greetings, photos, celebrations and chatter.
Resources:
Find more info about instant messaging solutions
How to use instant messaging properly while telecommuting during COVID-19 [CNBC]
4. Security and password management: 1Password, LastPass, Yubikey
Protect your organization and remote workforce from security threats. IT Admins need to set the proper security to support a distributed workforce.
Resources:
Best practices to secure your data during COVID-19 [Google]
Additional security device solutions
5. Tracking time off: Zoho People, BambooHR
Time-off tracking software can be beneficial to a company’s employee attendance management process to avoid inconvenience during this pandemic while most of them are working remotely.
Resource:
Time-off tracking software that’ll make your HR team’s day [Kissflow]
Compare best attendance tracking software [Capterra]
6. Reviews and career conversations: Google Form Survey, Slides, Sheets
Face-to-face conversations are no longer required especially during this crisis. Optimized the tools from G Suite to get feedback form of employees review and career goals.
Resources
Productivity tools from G Suite [Google]
Go-to place for G Suite tips, tricks and tools
7. Achievement and recognition: SalesScreen, Hi5
Employees tend to choose companies which offer decent benefits and pay. Not to mention that being recognized for their contribution to the job is also needed. It’s important to treat employees fairly.
Resources:
Compare best employee recognition software [Capterra]
Managing employee recognition program [SHRM]
Motivate your team with awards and recognition [Medium]
8. Real-time collaboration: G Suite, Office 365
When it comes to getting work done, you’ll need a solution that could complete it in the shortest possible time with relative ease. Being able to stay in-sync on all docs and share the latest versions of all files is essential when working remotely.
Resources
9. Tasks, transparency and more: Tasks, Keep, Trello
When dealing with a project or task, it is easy to lose track and get overwhelmed by hundreds of emails. Keep everything organised and running smoothly with a task/project management tool.
Resources
Take notes & to-do list and share to the whole team
How to organised a to-do list [The Spruce]
10. Planning meetings: Calendar, Doodle
Set the meeting and make sure the schedule is not conflicted with one another. You can always check your team’s agenda before proceeding to the next meeting.
Resources:
The ultimate guide to remote meeting [Slack]
Ultimate Google Calendar guide [Calendly]
How to transition your meeting to the cloud
Routines and productivity
Remote work can be quite challenging at times. Not every remote worker faces the same challenges. Here’s a step-by-step process for creating a remote work routine that works for you.
Resources:
Strengthen communication and team cohesion in the COVID-19 world [Forbes]
Remote working: Setting yourself and your teams up for success [LinkedIn]
Mental health
While remote work is something that’s beneficial for employees specifically, that doesn’t mean that it is flawless. Remote work can come with feelings of isolation and troubles disconnecting from work. Disconnecting from devices is a challenge for most people. For remote workers, it’s especially difficult if there’s no separation between work and home and your devices become your office.
Twenty percent of remote workers point to loneliness being their biggest struggle to remote work. Combating loneliness might look different for everyone.
Resources:
Maintain your mental well-being during COVID-19 quarantine [RK Insurance]
Mental health and coping during COVID-19 [CDC]
Additional Resources:
Official website for COVID-19 updates [MOH]
PointStar’s product to support working remotely during COVID-19Latest updates
