Effective Work from Home Transition Tips for Employees
2020-03-25
If your employee has suddenly requested to work from home, you might start to question how efficient and productive your employee will be. Several organizations have chosen to offer options for employees to work remotely because of the availability of tools that help remote employees become productive. In fact, the number of organizations that offer flexible or completely remote work has increased by 40 percent in recent years. And companies who offer remote work stand to benefit largely when it comes to hiring top talents who want to be flexible. Of course, suddenly transitioning your employees to work from home is not an easy undertaking. It will require significant preparation from your end. Here are effective work from home transition tips for your employees.
Gather the Right Tools
Team collaboration can become rapidly messy and uncoordinated if your managers aren't cautious. Along these lines, it's essential to have all the right tools set up to help your employees who are interested in working from home before proceeding to transition to remote work. There are several tools and platforms that you can use to keep your team’s productivity in check. Look for Project Management Tools and Virtual Timers that can capture whether or not your team is efficient.
Practice Consistent Communication
If you’re planning to transition your employees to work remotely, you will need to deploy a strategy for constant and consistent communication. Remote workers will no longer have the option to tap the coworker next to them and ask a question. Instead, they will need to have a virtual and professional messaging app that allows them to communicate with their coworkers and superiors whenever they need to. As their leader, you will have to encourage them to stay connected during working hours. There are several tools and channels you can use to organize your team conversations and messages by project, topic, or channel.
Prepare Project Management
Organization will be key for teams who want to work from home. It’s a good idea to set up a cloud-based project management tool so that everyone can access the files and information they need at any time. These tools also offer ways to organize projects between different departments and set deadline reminders. A few of the most popular project management tools for remote teams include Trello and Basecamp. For document and file sharing and management, Google Drive, DropBox and Box are popular options.
Maximize Secure Networks
Going remote means many team members will be tapping into WiFi networks at cafes, coworking spaces, libraries and other public spaces to do their work. Therefore, it’s important to have an information security policy in place before transitioning to remote work. Remote teams should create secure passwords with tools like LastPass and update them frequently. Sensitive information should be stored in a secure cloud storage platform like Box, and a virtual private network (VPN) like VyprVPN is recommended when connecting to public networks.
Prepare Your Managers
A successful work from home transition also depends heavily on well-prepared managers or team leaders. For many managers, the process can quickly become overwhelming, so it’s important to train and prepare them well. The first step is to make sure managers have the right tools (such as those mentioned above), so they can be available for their employees, answer any questions, offer feedback, and most importantly, keep projects on track.
Pick a Meeting Place
Work from home transition allows teams to eliminate the expenses that come with an office space, such as rent and utilities. However, it still may be necessary to have a physical place for the occasional team or client meeting. In most cities, there are temporary office spaces that teams can rent by the hour or day. These services can range from lavish meeting rooms that can impress clients to creative and comfortable spaces for in-person brainstorming or collaboration sessions.