Resources to support remote workers
Given the sudden international rise of remote workers and the request across many industries and companies to work from home at present, we’re bringing you a round-up of resources that offer support and advice to you and your team, should you look to implement a remote work policy.
Remote work doesn’t mean reduced work, nor does it necessarily lead to a decrease in team communication, productivity, and efficiency. With a thoughtfully implemented workflow and a proactive approach to working out bumps in the road, you can lead your team with impact and intention, even when you’re at a distance.
Key areas to consider when moving to a remote-work system include:
Employee office setup. Remote offices can take many shapes — a dedicated home office, a desk in a lounge room, a hot desk in a co-working space. Checking to make sure your team has access to the basics (adequate space, a strong internet connection, necessary software) is the first step towards a healthy and sustainable remote work arrangement. There’s further tips here for how to prep to work from home, and a look at remote offices from Zapier team members around the world for some inspiration.
A clear communication system. If your team relies on in-person communication to keep work moving, it’s time to establish a clear and easily accessible form of online communication that can facilitate regular communication practises without seeing disruption. Slack’s a fantastic tool for teams who are spread across counties and continents — here’s their guide to working remotely.
Accessible documents and infrastructures. If you’re beholden to certain physical resources that are located in a central office, moving to free these into the safety and accessibility of the cloud will be a priority in enabling long-term remote work success. Xero’s got a helpful guide that steps through the transition to a paperless office. Google’s tools such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive and its full suite of tools also bring robust collaboration capacities to the table, with every update synced in real-time and layers of security settings allowing for internal and external sharing as is suitable.
Cultivating strong and intentional relationships. One of the dangers that threaten the success of a company who are embracing remote work as the norm is the risk of reduced relationships, simply as a matter of employees no longer running into each other in the office hallway. Moving into a remote work environment means the cultivation of interpersonal relationships across your team needs to be approached with more thought and intentionality, with everyone committed to building and maintaining transparency and connectivity as work rolls out across the day (and potentially the day’s multiple time zones). Here’s tips on how to shape a dynamic culture of remote work that’s shaped by true connection from the get-go, enabling you to step around the potholes of decreased relationships.
Remote work can be freeing and can empower employees with a more connected sense of work and life — and with the right toolkit, the transition doesn’t need to be difficult.
Go well,
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