Working Remotely: Temporary or part of the future experience?

Working from home is often associated with remote working. Some people may be working from their kitchen tables and taking care of their children, while others are sitting in a cafe or co-working space. For frontline workers like salespeople, remote working means mobile working, as they are always on the go. Some people may find it easy to adopt remote working elements, like videoconferencing with teams in other parts of the world, while others struggle and prefer to be in their own workplaces.

The number of people working remotely has increased significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies that never had a remote working policy are implementing one; Managers are facing the challenge of managing their teams fully from home. And it may well be that after the pandemic is over, things won’t just go back to ‘normal.’ Those millions of first-time remote workers now had a taste of life without the daily commute, or even attend face to face meetings. Working remotely is here to stay, and it’s getting more popular than ever. Because it’s what people want to do, and the technology is there to support us.

Putting together Working remotely policy

Moving forward we need to have a work from home policy in place.  Getting everyone on the same page with a formal policy, there are  areas you should look into:

• Remote working schedule:  Who can work remotely, when they can do it, what hours you expect them to keep
• Work locations: Where people can carry out remote working
• Equipment:  What the company will and will not provide, who is responsible for equipment, how it will be maintained and can employees use their own devices?
• Security: The security requirements for hardware and software, physical security of working premises, any existing security policies to follow even when remote 
• Performance management:  How you track hours, KPIs, objective setting, appraisals, and feedback mechanisms?
• Allowances:  Whether remote working expenses are payable and if so, the limits of what you will pay
• Expectations of remote employees

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Working remotely requires more communication – not less. Use instant messaging and group chat to stay in touch with colleagues and keep track with projects, video call into meetings and decision making.

Enabling a smooth flow of communication is essential not just for work, but also for the social connection. Tools should support work tasks, fun conversations, and idea-sharing between team members and colleagues. 

With dispersed teams, tools need to enable your people with the ability to reach out and join the whole organization and team communication flows. They should be powerful enough to broadcast a CEO’s speech and precise enough to enable one-to-one conversations between colleagues.

Let’s create your remote strategy together.

We understand that starting can be challenging, but our consultants are happy to help and share methods of how you can get started keeping your culture and turning your company into a connected community.

Book a 45 minutes remote strategy with our Workplace  consultants!