With the COVID-19 (Corona Virus) spreading across Asia, and no clear resolution in sight, organizations across are looking for ways to ensure the well-being of their people while ensuring business continuity. While for some businesses, there might not be an option but to live with a phase of disruption, many businesses can still continue to operate if they can encourage their people to work from home.
While work from home has been a widely discussed topic over the last few years, in large parts of Asia it is still treated as a “benefit” that gets bestowed upon the employees. For most enterprises, asking the entire team to work remotely from home seems like a drastic step or worst-case scenario. However, with a clearly thought through work practices and the right tools in place it doesn’t have to be. In a world that aims to encourage “gig” workers to flourish the ability to deliver outcomes with a workforce operating remotely is the bare minimum requirement.
But how do organizations ensure employee productivity and engagement in a remote environment?
- OKRs – yes that’s the start:
While a no-brainer, in most organizations the objective and outcomes each individual owns are not clearly defined. That often results in a workforce that needs constant monitoring and is not empowered to work. A clear definition of what an individual needs to achieve in a quarter is helpful in the longer run, but especially if you are managing a workforce that is operating remotely. As employees would be working from home, instead of linking their day to the number of hours, it is better to link it to the outcome or output you would like each day. OKRs are a good way to achieve this. To know more about OKRs check out here OKR handbook.
- Plan, Allocate, Track – on the go!
When your teams are working remotely, you would need something more than the emails to collaborate. A platform that where teams or squads working together can chat, share documents real-time and at the same time allocate and track tasks and their progress on the go often helps in ensuring that the work gets done. In addition to it, a little nudge (automated of-course) to remind of any pending tasks also helps in ensuring the timely execution of tasks. And not just that celebrating and recognizing an outstanding effort real-time helps too. Collaboration by PeopleStrong does this and more. Check it out here!
In situations like these, when the pace of business is slower allocating time for upskilling your people is a good bet. While in-person sessions are not possible, learning through webinars or mobile-based platforms can help you drive your learning agenda. To make it more comfortable for the employees this can happen through pre-recorded sessions that the employees can access as per their convenience and if need be offline too.
All said and done, these are challenging times for businesses around the globe. In such a situation, the best an organization can do is to keep the workforce safe and healthy. Work from home might sound tricky to administer. After all, for some to work remotely will feel like a significant disruption, others will find that they are able to achieve more without the typical distractions of an office environment. By applying these ideas to your organization, you can still make the most of these challenging times. And by moving outside of your comfort zones, you might explore new ways to collaborate, problem-solve and grow – in short taste the #NewCodeofWork.
If you would like to know more about the #NewCodeofWork write to us at support@peoplestrong.com
