Staff have had to adapt to some pretty significant changes this year. Back in January, very few people worked on a remote basis. But now, with the spread of coronavirus and Covid-19, those who can work from home are being encouraged to work from home in a bid to reduce the spread of the virus.

This change of working environment isn’t going to be smooth of its own accord. You’re going to have to put some effort into ensuring that your staff can and do work productively without you keeping an actual eye on them. The following steps could help you to give your staff the best chances of working productively until they can return to the office.

Ensure They Have the Right Equipment

Where possible, find a way to get your staff members’ laptops to them. This will help to ensure they have the right equipment to work from. It will have the right antivirus, malware checks and other security software installed to ensure they’re operating safely. You should also ensure that you have a virtual private network (or “VPN”) for your staff to connect to. Staff working from their own devices and on their own networks and more likely to leave your business prone to cyber attacks and data breaches. You should also ensure that your company has managed it support services to resolve any issues with your workers’ devices and software remotely.

Encourage Communication

It can be easy for staff members to withdraw into themselves when they work from home – completing the tasks assigned to them without consulting others and keeping themselves to themselves. But you need to keep the team spirit of your office environment alive. Many hands make light work and collaboration is essential to ensure that you get the best results from each member of your staff, no matter what their role may be. So, make sure communication is simple, straightforward and encouraged. These steps will help you to achieve this:

• Invest in communication software – apps like Zoom are free and can be used to host meetings. But you need to encourage more casual and brief conversation between your employees too, replicating how they might ask quick questions in the office. Software like Microsoft Teams has instant messaging features that can provide this means of quick communication.
• Hold virtual team building activities – your staff don’t need to be face to face for team building activities. You can hold virtual team building activities too. Do a little research online to find which will best suit your team. These will help to break ice and keep communications open. It will also encourage your team to pick up the necessary skills to solve problems together on a virtual basis.

These steps are actually pretty simple to implement, so try incorporating them into your business process as soon as people. This will help you to yield the best results!