Working from home is the new normal for many people. We’ve made a compilation of all best practices and essential tips for managers, as well as for staff.
Tips for Managers
1. Verify the level/type of services that need to continue
Contact your customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to check if they have an existing continuity plan in place. If so:
What is the impact on demand for their services?
How are they increasing or decreasing their capacity?
Is your organisation listed as critical to them?
Assess which approved collaboration tools your counterparts have put in place for their own staff, which you may also be expected to use, e.g. virtual meeting/webinar and conferencing applications; then arrange for testing, licensing, installation and staff training on these tools where possible.
Explore options to convert offline business activities to online alternatives, to ensure continuity of your operations and service delivery, so staff can remain occupied and viability/revenue is sustained.
Review (or conduct!) a Business Impact Analysis, to determine which internal processes are not time-critical, and scale these back to free up staff who can assist with overflow from other areas in the organisation.
2. Reallocate staff and cross-skill them quickly
Assess which areas in your organisation, and associated staff, will become busier, versus those areas that will become less busy.
For areas of the organisation that can adequately function on low capacity (i.e. skeleton staff) due to decreased demand, find new roles for any staff members that can be spared. As such, call upon staff members from the busier areas to train their borrowed colleagues as soon as possible; ensuring they have any relevant operating procedures/checklists at hand or document these as part of the training process.
If this doesn’t suffice, contact staff members who may be on leave; were recently made redundant or retired; trainees and contractors; and check which external vendors have the capacity to step in.
Take advantage of any downtime of staff for career planning and upskilling them with current/future required competencies if budgets allow.
3. Enhance your remote work technology, security, capacity and support
Pilot working from home if time still allows:
iron out any niggling issues before the mass rollout
prioritise investing in the necessary resources, including laptops, video conferencing applications and headsets
Ensure secure connectivity (e.g. WPS2 protected WIFI network) and setup appropriately secured remote access software for BYO devices (e.g. using VPN). Be sure enough licences have been obtained.
Validate if staff have adequate bandwidth and data allowance with their home Wi-Fi system, to work with the necessary tools.
Ensure your operating systems are patched and that updated endpoint security is installed (including malware/virus scanners)
Test your network, server capacity and any remote functionality; and validate your readiness for a staged work-from-home rollout that incorporates more/all staff over the days to come.
Activate and test phone diversion procedures to ensure the appropriate staff can receive their calls at home, including the ability to check voice messages remotely.
Ensure there are enough IT service desk staff to support remote workers with their home setup, and to assist with unexpected hiccups.
Provide reminders about information security to staff on a regular basis.
Revisit/walk-through (or develop) Business Continuity strategies for risks such as ‘loss of data communication’, ‘loss of mobile voice communication’, ‘loss of IT data centre’ and ‘cyber attack’ and explore any related manual work-arounds; considering these risks would be of particular impact during this work-from-home situation.
4. Ensure staff productivity and wellbeing are safeguarded
Establish/review work-from-home policies, flexible work agreements, paid/unpaid leave policies and workplace health procedures to ensure they are current; and communicate these to your staff.
Twice daily (e.g. 9am and 4pm), conduct small team ‘virtual huddles’. Stick to a maximum of approximately 12 people per huddle, to ensure the process remains ‘agile’ (allocate Team Leaders and form sub-groups accordingly if required).
Move to a process of ‘rotating hosts’ after the first couple of video calls; to assist in keeping all team members focused, empowered, motivated and accountable.
Schedule one-on-one calls with each of your team members, enabling them to express their needs and concerns; and make yourself available for emotional support and ad-hoc queries.
Have a process to manage expenses, reimbursements and/or cash advances; for office supplies/equipment, extra telephony/data expenses, and other emergency expenses that may arise.
5. Work with a video/teleconference protocol, for example:
The (rotating) host prepares the agenda; tests audio/video/connectivity; welcomes incoming participants; hosts the call; and activates call/chat recording, if appropriate.
All participants are to activate “mute” during the call, unless they are asked for comment by the host. Participants can raise interim/urgent queries during the call using a chat/messaging function.
When activating screen sharing, the host and other participants should ensure unrelated notifications and applications are deactivated or closed.
The final 5-10 minutes of the call can be utilised for ‘other comments or business’.
The host arranges for a call recording or summary to be distributed to all invitees, including those who could not attend, or missed part of the call.
6. Re-route physical deliveries/services
Cancel, defer or redirect external services (e.g. stationery/toner, maintenance services, cleaners, catering, security) to reduce unnecessary expenditure. Set up redirection of postal services and inform couriers of alternate delivery arrangements.
7. Essential work related travel
· Agree on a process and means of transport from home locations, for instances when staff need to travel for a specific task or meeting.
8. Keep staff informed of the latest ‘non fake’ news
Prevent virtual ‘grapevines’/rumours by discussing with your peers and Corporate Communications team, what information is relevant for a daily update to all staff, using a central platform (e.g. Intranet). Be the conduit for direct organisational updates to your team members.
Establish a forum, and frequency, to share best practices with other branches within your organisation; perhaps a weekly virtual meeting with peers in other locations - but within the same discipline - such as HR, IT, Information Security, Finance or Legal.
Provide staff with guidance on choosing appropriate/official news sources concerning COVID-19, which will help to limit panic and media hype effects.
9. Plan proactively for returning to office
Consider move back by department, office?floor, business process or technology used.
Ensure the return-to-office is staged appropriately for facilities and IT staff to be able to manage the transition including proper testing.
10. Debrief and lessons learned
Discuss the pros and cons of the past work-from-home period.
Use insights to form a new ‘business as usual’.
Tips for Staff
1. Settle in at home… but don’t get ‘too’ comfortable
Conduct a mini risk assessment of your home and request assistance with any issues (e.g. proximity of medical services, ergonomic seating at home, proper positioning of laptop/monitor, wrist/foot support, etc).
Prevent being drawn to your beeping devices day and night. Instead, schedule time slots for work and ensure a healthy balance, including regular breaks. The Pomodoro method and related apps may be worth a try.
At the end of your scheduled ‘virtual’ workday, log off, shut down and ‘virtually’ leave the office.
Some people have the self-discipline to effectively work from home in their pyjamas, while others feel the need to wear their staff uniform or business attire to remain focused and professional. A recommended solution could be something in between, such as a ‘work from home wardrobe’.
Dedicate a space to work from in your home – be it large or small – rather than roaming around with your laptop and mobile in hand.
Aim for enough (ideally natural) light in your space, as well as cleanliness, proper ventilation and the right temperature.
2. Manage distractions and remain aware of your achievements
Discuss work schedules with your spouse/housemates and optimally align each other’s schedules.
Ensure to have plain and tidy background behind you, to maintain professionalism and prevent fellow video call participants from being distracted.
Look into noise cancelling headphones/headset options for those times you need to ‘think hard’.
Mute unnecessary notifications and tackle distractions with tools such as Checky app, which tracks how much time you’re spending on your phone.
Try apps such as Hey Focus and Freedom that have the capability to block chosen websites for a specific timeframe (i.e. Facebook, YouTube etc) so you can get through your work without temptation.
Speak up if you’re struggling. You are most likely not alone in experiencing work-from-home challenges.
Use any downtime for remote study or certification activities.
Review your own achievements at the end of each week, report them to your manager and celebrate your successes.
3. Stay connected to your colleagues
Align calendars between team members and determine the optimal ‘team catch-up’ moments, remembering to consider everyone’s personal duties and time zone.
Fewer emails, more face time… remember what we know about verbal vs. non-verbal communication.
Agree on a virtual team ‘social hour’ every week, to catch up as if you were going for coffee.
Business As Usual consultants have decades of experience in strategising, implementing and rehearsing Business Continuity Plans for organisations just like yours. We’re here to help!