These are challenging times for businesses trying to stay afloat and keep things running smoothly in the face of nation-wide lock downs due to the spread of Covid-19. With many businesses now having to work remotely, there can be some anxiety over staff productivity.
Our team at WE Accounting have been working towards remote workplaces for some time now and have a number of processes and systems in place to stay connected. This article will share some of what WE are doing, in the hopes that it will also help you!
Here are a few tips we are implementing ourselves to help you be more productive.
Conduct virtual meetings with employees working from their homes
There are a number of programs and platforms that entrepreneurs can make use of, such as Zoom and Google Hangouts, or free conference call services like FreeConferenceCall.com and UberConference.com who are now allowing longer call duration with up to 50 participants in response to the disruption by Covid-19. Each morning the WE team leaders have a 'stand up' session where we briefly discuss 'top tasks' for the day and ask any questions that need answering to complete the daily tasks.
The WE, weekly team meetings are also conducted through zoom and each team member has their own log in.
The great thing about video conferencing is that you can see the faces of your team, so you can still pick up on any 'body language' queues that might suggest there is discomfort or unease and overcome these.
Break out of the Inbox
Our team stay connected with each other through Slack which essentially is a chat room for your whole company designed to replace email as a primary method of communication and sharing. You can create work spaces that allow you to organise communications by channels for group discussions or private messages to share information. Slack can keep the team culture flowing, banter can still be had and can be light hearted which is great, especially when the tone of written online communication can sometimes be misconstrued.
We also use channels inside slack as a way to share task lists with team leaders, which can give business owners visibility over productivity levels.
Stick to a routine
Start and end work at the usual times, we even recommend getting dressed for the day in your work attire. Follow your usual in office schedule and make a list of tasks to complete before end of business day. The more structure you can lend to your day, the more efficient you’ll likely be.
This also includes any exercise that you might do in the mornings or after work. It's important that you don't spend all day and night sitting in front of your computer, working.
Stay connected to customers
Make use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media sites, as well as newsletters and your website’s homepage, to communicate your business’ status and potential shipping issues (if you’re an e-commerce business).
He waka eke noa - WE are all in this together and we want to hear from YOU about some of your experiences working remotely and keeping up productivity, so please comment with your feedback because you never know who you could be helping.
