We’re going through some of the most challenging times of the 21st Century, and if your company hasn’t been struck by the COVID-19 quarantines yet, it likely will. Rest assured that you’re not alone, and we’re in this together.
Managing your workforce might seem difficult at first when you have to work from home; indeed remote working itself brings with it a set of challenges: not being able to host face-to-face in person meetings, technology challenges, employee learning curves especially when it comes to technology, employee’ domestic issues that come with working a full time job and parenting children and more.
We at Get Hitched & Evently are writing this article to share our experience on how we are dealing with this situation, with the the hope that it 1) reassures you, as a business owner, that you are not alone in these challenging times and 2) serves as some insight and help on how to manage your remote workforce more efficiently and effectively during the times of COVID-19; even when you are not sitting next to each other in your relaxed office space.
Here are some effective ways to improve your remote team efficiency. Working with virtual teams in virtual environments is not that difficult, if you have these strategies in place.
Ensure your team has the right setup to work remotely
Your team cannot function without the right set up. It’s therefore crucial that your team has the adequate hardware and equipment to do their job properly. This means, every employee must have access to a PC/Laptop with a stable internet connection. A decent monitor, keyboard and mouse are a must. Ideally your employees also have a comfortable desk & chair so that they can work comfortably.
Use teleworking & collaboration tools
From the very onset of our business, we invested in time and resources to establish solid foundations for teleworking & collaboration in the Cloud. We run our business through Slack (a messaging & collaboration platform), Google Hangouts (Online meetings), G Suite (for email and Google Drive for online documents and spreadsheets), HubSpot (where we log all customer interactions), 3CX (our IP telephony for internal & external calls), Xero (for all accounting related activities) and Trello (for Project Management).
These tools allow the entire company (from Office Admin to CEO) to collaborate efficiently and effectively day-in-day-out. If you don’t already, we strongly encourage you to capitalise on these tools as they will help you navigate through this storm. If you need any help setting stuff up, or have any questions, we’re here to help!
Reassure your employees
It’s very likely that your employees are on edge because of the COVID-19 situation; not just because of health concerns but also about job stability. This is totally understandable; we are all experiencing something unprecedented; hundreds of businesses are closing down and thousands of people are finding themselves without a job (perhaps even people in their social groups). In our company, open & honest communication is one of our core values and a company’s true colours and values come out in the worst of times. It is imperative for us as business owners to continue communicating openly and honestly with our employees.
We have regular company meetings where we inform the entire team of the status of the pandemic, the effect it is having on the company, and the hard but necessary decisions we had to take, and will continue to make. Nothing we have achieved so far would have been possible without our hardworking employees so we are doing everything in our power to retain them; not only to safeguard the business but to safeguard their well being also. We have made it a point to reiterate this multiple times over and have been extremely clear on the steps we are taking to continue to safeguard the business and in turn, their well being.
Establish clear goals & lines of communication
It’s crucial to rally the troops and get everybody on board with your company goals. Now is the perfect time to really connect with your employees, communicate effectively and create alignment to pursue your business goals. We achieve this by having two daily check-ins via video conferencing; one in the morning and another at the end of day. The morning session helps to kickstart the day where everybody outlines their goals for the day and requests assistance if there are any blockers. The end of day session allows us to regroup and wrap up the day. Each employee gives an update on their day. Not only does this keep everyone updated on the progress towards our goals we are making as a company, but also keeps communication flowing between all members of the team, ensuring we keep operating effectively as a unit.
Keep your team motivated
It’s totally understandable that your team’s morale has taken a hit; we’re human after all. However, the success of any business relies on the performance of your employees. It’s therefore crucial to the livelihood of the business that your employees remain motivated. As explained in this article, we continuously reassure our employees, keep them updated with all the steps we are taking as a company to combat the downturn the Coronavirus pandemic has brought about, check in daily via video conferencing and ensure goals are clearly communicated and adhered to. However on top of that, we have also implemented additional strategies. The most recent we implemented was a quick and fun ‘Sales Leaderboard’ – essentially the sales team was given a daily target for new supplier registrations. Each new registration they got is added to the leaderboard and the person with the most registrations wins the daily leaderboard. The employee who ranks #1 at the end of every week is promised a small gift for their performance. We realised the value of this exercise immediately – employees starting engaging in healthy competitive banter and the number of registrations increased immediately.
Improved Efficiency Is Achievable
Through the strategies covered above, you can get the most out of your team even during the times of COVID-19 quarantines & lockdowns. While we are all stuck at home, there are ways to still achieve maximum productivity for your business. Find ways to adapt, ensure your team has the right setup and tools for the job, set clear lines of communication and you are sure to come out on top.
