The Future of Remote Working has already knocked on the door.
As millions of people resorted to Work from Home as the only safety measure from the enormously engulfing Pandemic caused by Corona Virus, this Global medical emergency proved to be a major blow to the companies across all sectors, majorly tech, forcing them to figure out some remote options to keep their business going.
COVID-19: Is this the Future of Remote Working?
With the companies forced to shut their offices off as well as restricted commute, pose a multitude of adversities on the running of these IT firms. These effects range from simply missing out one to interaction between team members to missing out important client meetings that might lead to irreversible losses if not handled properly. Is this the rise of the Future of Remote Working ?
Make Your Organization WFH Ready
Corona Virus Outbreak took over every industry, impacting their productivity as most of their on-premise operations came to an undefined halt. Depending upon the further spread, global tech might see a severe downfall. As the possibility of this situation being prolonged for quite a long duration cannot be ruled out, equipping ourselves well is the need of the hour.
In this over-demanding scenario, the only way to survive is to take up both technical and non-technical remedies hand in hand in order to make remote work another usual norm in the organization.
Non-Tech measures to Secure the Future of Remote Working
Redefining communication
Employees communicate a lot in the office space, be it stopping by each other to clear doubts, approaching colleagues for advices or just having fun in cafeteria with casual talks. This in turn, enhances collaboration in either direct or indirect way. While switching to a Digital workplace, formulating ways to keep those communication going on in the usual manner is a must for the organization.
The organization must go through several trials and errors to come up with the communication norms best suited exclusively for themselves.
Work-Life Conflict Reduction
Transition from the working environment where personal and professional lives used to be two different spheres to the one where professional life has become a part of the personal life itself isn’t that easy. Sudden switch to remote work leads to work life disbalance by erasing the boundary between them.
The remote working schedule too must be designed in such a way that neither of their personal or professional lives need to face any overshadowing by the other.
Redefining Supervision
Away from the prying eyes of the CCTV cameras, supervision during remote work refers just to the way the supervisors can instill motivation and guidance in the work culture without seeming too intimidating.
While no strict rules can lead to utter laziness and wastage of time, too much of restrain can be of much more harm leading to the employees finding new ways to “not work productively”.
The managers must develop their skill to tactfully extract quality work from the employees without making them feel suffocated under undue vigilance.
Human values must be amalgamated with the professional values to keep the employees feel secure during this COVID-19 pandemic to ensure seamlessness of the business.
Technical Measures
Have the right infrastructure for your virtual workplace
A virtual workplace must contain all the elements that a physical workplace has, most importantly the places to collaborate, meet , share ideas and get the work done. It seems obvious but it can prove to be quite a hectic job to ensure that each employee is equipped with basic technologies such as a laptop, access to official software, high-speed internet, and a VPN , if required.
In addition, the access rights to an appropriate collaboration tool must be provided by the organization to make all the communication and collaboration possible.
Migrate to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has emerged as the best new age meeting substitute.
Let’s date back to the initial weeks of the global lockdown: Microsoft Teams crashed on the first day when millions of people logged in from home to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus from overwhelming hospital resources in their communities.
March 16: The platform was experiencing significant connectivity issues as of 9am GMT and was still struggling at 3pm, even after telling a UK newspaper that the problem had been resolved within four hours of it first being report.
Outages lasted for hours throughout a day that was for many people their first working from home, affecting Italy and Spain which are both under lockdown, and countries in northern Europe.
Ever since then, Microsoft has put in its continuous restless efforts to keep Microsoft Teams updated with new features coming up every few days and rightfully remain the industry leader.
Utilize Timesheets
Work From Home comes with its own share of cons for the organization. As away from the office premises, nobody is there to keep an eye on the daily tasks of the employees, timesheets come as a rescue to this problem. If the employees self monitor themselves using the timesheet, it can prove to be great to both the employers as well as the employees.
A timesheet is a data table that an employer can use to track the time a particular employee has worked during a certain period. Businesses use timesheets to record time spent on tasks, projects, or clients. There are different methods that have been used to record timesheets, such as paper, spreadsheet software, and online time-tracking software.
Saketa offers a
SharePoint deployable timesheet that makes filling and managing your work status at the tip of your hand.
Have an interactive Intranet
The worst issue with Work From Home is the lack of interaction among the team members which might result in a lack of clarity and coordination that might lead to lower productivity. A SharePoint intranet will be the best choice to suffice as the Virtual Interacting Platform for the employees, thus knitting them into 1 even when far. An
intranet basically needs to be the engaging, interactive, and connecting link between the employees in an organization. It reflects the interests of the employees as well as the company as a whole, virtually creating an environment which can give a boost to the work culture.
What’s ahead of the COVID-19 Pandemic?
The challenges faced by workplaces have become a new front in the battle over the coronavirus, which has spawned more than 4.44 million cases and caused more than 302k deaths around the world. While factories in China had already been closed by the outbreak and are now just ramping back up, global white-collar companies have rarely grappled with this scale of disruption — or the level of fear that has gripped workers.
The measures that companies are taking in response to the virus may shift workplace behavior over the long term. The digital workplace has already become an important aspect of businesses and will continue to become increasingly important in the days to come. It might work as an eye-opener for many most business leaders to see how increasingly productive can the freedom of working anytime can be. Telecommuting, which has been in and out of favor for decades, may become more ingrained. The use of digital tools for remote collaboration may also rise. The way these organizations deal with their work requirements while pacifying the depth of employee anxiety will be the key factor in deciding the future growth of their business.
