Those who are able to work from home have now been doing so for 12 weeks; many businesses will be congratulating their IT teams, who have been working round the clock to make this possible.
Now that the gloss of a new way of working for many has worn off and working from home looks set to become more commonplace for a wide variety of businesses – indeed, Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey recently announced employees can work from home forever (WFHF) – Hazlewoods business advisers look at some of the things you should be considering for you and your team to ensure that you’re getting the most out of remote working.
There are undoubtedly many positives: flexible hours, less time commuting, being at home for dinner time, saving travel costs, time efficiencies, to name a few. It is important, however, that the positives of being in the physical workplace are not overlooked and that they are adapted for the remote working environment.
The home office
There are many questions to consider when setting up your home office:
- Do you have the right environment, or are you fighting for space on the dining table?
- Do you have adequate connectivity, or is the internet connection struggling to manage with the requirements of the household?
- Are there multiple demands for your attention, for example, home schooling or the laundry pile?
- Do you have the right equipment?
The office provides a designated space where staff can focus, sit comfortably, use multiple screens at once, and access confidential space for discussions and calls. Ideally, when working from home this can be recreated, so that you/your team can work with the same focus.
As we are now looking at a longer-term basis for working from home it is worth considering investing in a proper home office set up. This does not necessarily mean investing significant money in a garden office pod, but maybe a purpose-designed office chair or a wireless keyboard; remember the benefits of the setup should outweigh the initial cost.
Top tip: Businesses should be aware that some home working expenses covered for staff may have tax implications: we have set out guidance on this here.
“There’s no ‘I’ in team”
Working in one location with your team has numerous benefits, including the ability to answer questions quickly, to use colleagues as sounding boards or even to spot visual cues for when someone needs help. These are all key benefits that can be lost when working remotely.
Whilst getting together in person is currently not possible for those who can work from home, there are many other ways to keep in touch and most businesses have been making use of the multitude of applications available; Zoom alone reported more than 300 million daily participants in virtual meetings at its peak.
Despite the obvious benefits of being able to get together in this way, some employees may be lacking the confidence to speak up in the virtual group environment, so look to create opportunities for everyone to participate.
Top tip: Having a buddy system could help so that people know that there is someone they can reach out to, outside of an formal appraisal/reporting system. More than ever, particularly for team leaders and managers, it is important to remember to keep in touch and make sure no-one is suffering in silence.
Every day’s a school day
Research has shown that a key factor in job satisfaction is the ability to develop new skills and progress. Despite lockdown being likened to Groundhog Day by many, there should still be opportunities for employees to continue their learning.
Many businesses have trainee and apprentice programmes where on the job training has become more challenging. It is also harder to replicate the knowledge sharing that happens unconsciously when you are in an office environment with your colleagues, but it is vitally important that all of this continues.
As with the team support, there are great technologies out there where seminars can be run remotely, with interactive sections, such as polls and submission of questions via chat boxes to make them more engaging.
Top tip: Consider running an ongoing group meeting/call in the background for a couple of hours a day whilst you are working in small groups so you can fire questions at each other.
The ever-evolving digital world means there are some easy solutions to bring the benefits of office working to our current situation and, in many ways, the key to all of these is no different to what underpins a successful team working in an office: communication. By bringing the best of both worlds together our new working environment can create stronger teams and result in stronger businesses.
In response to the rapidly changing environment in which we now live and work, Hazlewoods’ business advisers continue to provide insightful content to support your business now and focus on a #BusinessForTomorrow. If you would like to discuss any of our #BusinessForTomorrow content, please get in touch with Felicity Sang at felicity.sang@hazlewoods.co.uk or 01242 237661.