There are only a handful of essential services that are now requiring people to come in these days, with social distancing now being the norm in the midst of this COVID-19 outbreak (thank you to all the health care workers out there!!). While the trend has certainly been growing in recent years, working remotely is still fairly unusual.
How to Remote
How is your workplace handling the transition from in-person to remote? We’ve blogged about remote working in the past and you can read our myriad of tips and tricks on our blog:
- How to Remote Work Well
- Remote Workers: Pros, Cons and Tips
- Public Health Emergencies and the Workplace
- Whose device is it anyway?
We are also offering a template Remote Worker Policy, on our resources page as part of our COVID-19 response materials.
There are concerns about the increased burden of connectivity due to working from home breaking the internet but in times like these, we aren’t left with many choices.
Remote Workplace Culture
Working from home is not only about the tech (that’s the easy part!).
Building and nurturing a remote workplace culture is about connecting with each other, continuing to build a strong team and making sure people feel invested in the company’s mission. This is especially so now in the middle of a pandemic – many people find work to be a social anchor in their life.
You can replicate so much of that with video chats, telephone calls and message boards like Slack or Google Chat, but it does require a deliberate and thoughtful approach to how to modify workflow and communications.
The biggest obstacle we are seeing is the old-school generation that wonders how you can trust people to actually work from home. Here’s our pro tip: get over it!!!! People are far more likely to rise to the occasion, are probably more effective being closer to home and family in this bananas moment, and frankly, there are many tech tools that are more effective to monitor employees than your draconian managers, if you really need to.
Breathing over people’s shoulders in person really isn’t what motivates people to work.
We have always been virtual at SpringLaw. Our team is, and always has been, scattered across Ontario. We have a number of deliberate social anchors in our team’s workflow and our regular video chats keep us connected, even if we only see each other in person 4 times a year. This is a team effort and part of both group and 1:1 discussions to check in on what people need to be happy and productive at work.
Get in touch if you have questions about how to solidify and foster company culture online and to ensure that your team can remain as productive and effective as possible during this period of social distancing.
