5 Important Remote Work Questions

The COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing the way we interact as a society, at least for the foreseeable future. As we practice social distancing and more stay-at-home orders are in effect, remote work is our reality. 

Remote work can do several things for a team. First, it can indicate how strong the collective is, when having to operate in different physical location. Are they still communicating in an effective manner? Are they staying motivated? Is their resolve still strong?

In addition, remote work can be a real test for your standard operating procedures. If there are gaps in your SOP's, remote work might isolate these gaps, so you can solidify your processes. A significant amount of your team interactions and structure are based on SOP, so these are critical to continuing to deliver your value, even when remote.

What do businesses and leaders need to do to prepare for remote work?

First, review your infrastructure and determine the baseline to support your remote workforce. Determine how many VPN users can connect before latency is causing productivity concerns. Publish contact information for remote workers to connect with your technical resources or IT Department for assistance. Remember, they might not be connected to business systems, so they might need to call rather than submit an internal HelpDesk Incident.

• Determine who already has a laptop for remote work.
• Take stock of how many "loaner" laptops you have for people to use during this period. Some of your "essential" team members might not have a laptop as their day-to-day equipment. In these cases, it would be best if you can supply them with a company laptop while working remotely.
• Review if your remote workforce will have access to all of their required software. Consider engineering or marketing might need to work with large files, so determine how to effectively manage these types of files, while working remotely.

Spend time educating the organization how to effectively work remotely. For instance, which services & applications require VPN vs. local Internet access. In addition, provide education how to utilize collaboration software and video conferencing, so everyone can stay connected and productive during this period.

How does remote work impact emotional health?

Everyone will adapt to remote work differently. Some may already perform some remote work, while this will be the first experience for others, You'll find some team-members will thrive being in a home office or workspace and others will struggle with the distance. As leaders we need to understand what our team's need, in terms of emotional support.Take the time to interact and provide the required support, so you don't have anyone who feel isolated or left behind.

As remote workers, it's important everyone finds the routine which places them in the "going to work" mindset. Some folks will roll out of bed and right to work, while others need a workout (yes you can still get a great workout without a gym), shower, and some coffee before headed to their home office or workspace.

Whatever gets you in a motivated mood will help with remote work, especially if you are struggling to adapt. Others will absolutely thrive being in a remote office or workspace where they can focus without the in-office distractions.

What does a healthy remote culture look like?

Part of a healthy remote culture is staying connected with your team members, while trusting everyone to continue to accomplish tasks, meet objectives, and goals. Setting clear expectations about working remotely, such as:

• Where applicable, allowing for flexibility work schedules.
• If your team already works remotely, even part-time, keep the same meeting schedules as when in the office If they are new to remote work, set consistent check-in meeting to make sure everyone is ok.
• Make video conferencing part of the norm, this will drastically assist in keeping everyone connected and engaged in meetings and conversations.
• Make sure everyone feels they can contact anyone when needed. Sometimes people will feel they are interrupting others when everyone is working remote. It's important to maintain a productive and collaborative mentality.

How do you measure productivity?

This will depend on the function of the team. Hopefully you already have tasks & objectives defined and documented in a platform, such as Microsoft Planner, Asana, Trello, Wrike, or similar. This will provide a global view of the entire team and you can easily see where you stand and if your productivity is decreasing.

Now if you are seeing productivity decreasing, understand this might be symptom of adjusting to remote work. Or perhaps your team is missing some critical software or services, which is contributing to less productivity.

In either case, discuss these potential issues as a team to find the best solution or collectively come up with an action plan to get back on track.

How do you prepare teams who aren't accustomed to working remotely?

First and foremost, play coach to these individuals. Make sure they understand there is uncertainty about the length of the remote work. Explain to them, you understand there will be a transitional period to remote efforts and this is to be expected.

Make sure to ask how they are doing and to confirm they have everything they need to complete their jobs. If not, work with your technical resources or IT Department to find a solution.

Make sure they are comfortable using Skype/Teams/Yammer/Slack for collaboration. Help them become comfortable using the webcam for video conferencing or meetings. Make sure they know how to schedule an "online" meeting.

Hopefully this provided some insights into a few common remote work questions.

To your success!!