How Remote Work Enables Business Continuity
There are numerous benefits to having a remote team, but there are a few things you need to do to prepare for success.
Currently, in the US, there are 4.7 million employees working from home for at least half of the week.
As companies continue to search for ways to reduce office overheads and improve employee satisfaction, there’s no doubt that the demand for remote working solutions will continue to grow. Already, organizations worldwide are discovering the countless benefits of remote policies.
For instance, with remote workers, you don’t have to pay as much for electricity and on-premise technology for your team members.
Additionally, remote employees often have higher levels of productivity and happiness than their in-office counterparts. This means that you get better results from your workers, and reduced turnover.
Remote work even addresses the challenge of business continuity. When your employees can work from anywhere, you don’t need to worry about what happens when a disaster strikes, and your office can’t open.
Preparing for Business for Remote Work Arrangements
Although remote working solutions have a lot to offer the modern business world, they do have certain challenges that need to be addressed. Remote work can easily leave employees feeling isolated and raise new issues with engagement for business leaders.
With that in mind, it’s important to have a plan in place for moving into the remote working landscape. For instance, can you complete all of your daily operations with remote teams, or will you need to have at least some employees in-office?
You’ll also need to think about the kind of remote work policies you’re going to implement. Some companies allow their employees to work whenever and however they choose as long as projects get done. Other brands prefer their remote team members to log in and out at the same time each day.
Preparing your business for a new remote work policy also means thinking about the tools and services that you’ll need to invest in to keep your employees productive.
Although your team members might not need office space and desk phones, they may need project management apps, communication tools, and business numbers for customer contact. Ask yourself:
How much of my team can work remotely?
What kind of tools and services do I need to have in place for my team?
What sort of remote working policies will my employees need to follow?
How will I measure the success of my remote working plan?
How to Prepare your Team for Remote Work
Once you have the basic outlines in place for your business remote working plan, the next step is preparing your team for remote work. While many people have an idea of what the freelancer or digital nomad lifestyle might be like, there’s more to remote work than most people realize.
For instance, working remotely could also mean logging into critical business systems and tools from locations that aren’t always secure. When this is the case, companies need to have guidelines in place that protect their team members, such as VPNs for secure online browsing.
You can also take extra measures to inform and educate your employees about the safety of their data and how they can protect themselves. Policies that inform employees about the dangers of connecting to public or unprotected Wi-Fi networks are essential.
Whether your employees are working on their own devices or business equipment, it’s important to make sure they’re protected against data loss. This means having a backup strategy in place to prevent missing information.
If your team members are going to be working on company equipment, then it might be useful to have regulations and tracking systems in place, so you know what’s going on with that equipment.
You might also need to think about who is going to be responsible for maintaining that technology, and how maintenance can be executed. In some cases, IT experts might be able to remotely access business tools to upgrade and patch the internal software.
Supporting Your Remote Workers
Preparing your business and your team for remote work and providing them with the right tools are just some of the initial steps involved in embracing this new plan for continuity. Once your remote working strategies begin to come to life, you’ll also need a plan in place for how you’re going to support employees in being their most productive. For instance, you might:
Help with task prioritization by assigning tasks with deadlines for your employees to follow.
Provide a knowledge base full of articles and advice on how to work effectively at home.
Collect regular feedback from employees to find out which tools are working for them and what you can offer to make them more productive.
The more time you spend analyzing your remote working strategies and collecting insights from your teams, the easier it will be to improve or adjust your policies going forward.
Often, the best input you can get about remote working will come from the employees that can answer your questions and respond to polls. Make it as easy as possible to get feedback from your teams, whether it’s anonymous or in the form of one-to-one conversations.
Make the Most of Remote Working
The current crisis has prompted many businesses to transition some or all of their operations to remote work. As the benefits of such an arrangement become evident, many employees will decide to make it a regular part of their business even after the crisis has passed.
Transitioning employees to remote work will bring different challenges for different businesses. However, supporting remote workers to make the most of the benefits that come along is crucial to maintaining the productivity and success of your business.
Remote work helps employers to access a range of benefits that don’t come with a traditional workplace. For instance, only with a remote working policy can you tap into new talent pools from locations around the world.
With remote working, there’s no limit to the freelancers, contractors, and external experts that you can bring into your team to help you reach your goals.
Additionally, because remote and flexible work is one of the most popular job perks in the marketplace today, it can help you to attract more customers too. You might even find that this solution reduces employee turnover and cuts the costs of hiring for your business.
If you haven’t started building your remote working policy for business continuity yet, this could be the perfect time to jump in.
Ashley Wilson is a digital nomad and writer for hire, specialized in business and tech topics. In her self-care time, she practices yoga via Youtube. She has been known to reference movies in casual conversation and enjoys trying out new food. You can get in touch with Ashley via Twitter.