WHO has officially declared the Coronavirus a pandemic. The Italian government has shut the entire country down. The predicted global statistics surrounding the Coronavirus are staggering. Many of us have never seen this type of situation, and it’s surreal. Many businesses are transitioning to a fully remote team because of the Covid-19 virus.
This transition can be particularly challenging for employees who have never worked remotely before. But, with the right tools in place, a fully remote team can be productive and successful.
Remote work isn’t feasible for every type of business, but having a backup plan in place is recommended. Not sure how to go about moving from in-person to remote? We have information to help transition your entire team or individual employees to work remotely during a time of crisis.
Create a Crisis Operations Plan
Before sending your teams home with their computers, the leadership team must get their ducks aligned. During this unprecedented time goals must be made clear. Put together a document outlining expectations and outcomes.
- Define your remote work policies
- Assign team leaders if they aren’t already in place
- Prepare team leaders and managers
- Find creative ways to carry on company culture
- Trust your team. You hired them for a reason!
- Ensure your team has all the tools they’ll need to function remotely.
- Schedule online meetings. This also helps teams feel less isolated.
Tools For A Remote Team
To make the transition to work-from-home as seamless as possible, make sure your team has everything necessary for productivity. Assign someone the task of creating a checkout list, so it’s easy to keep track of who is taking home what.
Computers: Many companies assign laptops to team members. If that’s not the case, consider giving team members that don’t have one a budget to purchase one. Or offer a monetary stipend to those using their personal computers for work.
Monitors: There are many positions throughout a company that uses one or more monitors for their work.
Software: If your company runs on a specific type of software, ensure this is functioning correctly outside the work environment.
Cords: It may sound silly to keep track of cords, but there are a lot of them involved in a workspace setup—chargers, power strips, adapters, HDMI cords, dongles, extension cords, and more.
High-speed internet access: Not everyone has decent home internet. Consider offering a stipend to aid them in getting reliable internet access.