Business Unusual: Why a Remote Workforce is Essential in the Age of Pandemics Like COVID-19

Working Remotely in 2020

It’s March 2020 and the world is diligently maintaining social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19. For all of us who can, remote work is now mandatory. At Admin Slayer, we’ve been working remotely since day one, and we have spent a lot of time working out the kinks. 

With the hope of making it easier for you to transition your business operations to a clean and isolated home base, we thought we’d release some of our best practices. Please feel free to share the information widely, and share your own best practices with us. 

The Challenge

If you’ve only ever worked with your team in a physical office, the sudden transition to remote work can be especially jarring. Many owners, executives, and managers feel most comfortable when they can actually see their team working in front of them, and exactly what they’re working on. Change is everywhere, from how, when, and what you communicate, to managing team stresses as well as your own. And on top of all of that,  you may be dealing with a bunch of paper, a system that can only be accessed from inside a building or specific set of buildings, a complete lack of solid cybersecurity practices, and no real processes for working virtually. 

How to Get Started

First: Take Care of You

And by that, we mean: DON’T PANIC.

We know this is easier said than done. The times when you’re supposed to be keeping your cool are exactly those times when your cool is nowhere to be found. If you need a 5 count, a 10 count, or a couple days with your head in the sink - take it. The world is on a bit of a break, and there’s a lot of compassion out there for everyone. Use it while it’s here.

If you don’t feel up to using this “extra time” to take up more activities and innovate and whatever else … don’t. Just don’t - and don’t feel ashamed about it either. We really do not have to be producing all the time, especially when we are under stress.

Working through a complete brain fog and debilitating anxiety means your work will be pretty much garbage anyway. Go take a walk in the fresh air (keeping your distance), give yourself whatever kind of self care you need, access virtual mental health support systems, and concentrate on the things that are within your control. 

Second: Take Care of Your Team

We know that a lot of these things have been mandated by governments around the world and you may be saying to yourself: duh, Admin Slayer, we know, but there will be regions and businesses who have not done these things. If you have, give yourself a pat and move forward.

  • Send them home. If you’ve got team members who have jobs that can be done from home and haven’t sent them there, do it now. 

  • If you have team members that cannot work remotely and who are healthy enough to be physically present, refer to government and international resources for how best to maintain clean and safe work environments. Teach people how to wash their hands. 

  • Cancel all non-essential travel indefinitely. Cancel the conferences, events, and anything that might require people to hang out with each other in person.

  • Set up formal communications systems (see the third step below) and communicate, communicate, communicate. When we’re stressed out we need leadership more than ever. Make yourself available to your team more often than you usually would. Tell them what you know, when you know it, and repeat yourself because sometimes the roaring anxiety in some people’s ears will block out the sound of your voice or the words on the screen. 

  • Trust your people. Resist the urge to micromanage them and hover. Sometimes when we lose control over big stuff, we start doubling down, trying to control the little stuff. Your team wants to work. Your team wants to do well. Trust them to do their job, as they trust you to do yours.

  • Avoid introducing changes to compensation or any of your processes around it right now. That will feel scary to anyone worried about their job. Or, if you do need to make changes, communicate in at least three different formats before you implement the change.

  • Be honest about whether or not their jobs are at risk, what you’re thinking about, and how you’ll communicate as you go. If you’re going to let people go, do it legally, thoughtfully, and with as much detail about their benefits as possible, whether through you or through financial stimulus packages and government services available. 

  • Most importantly: Be compassionate. Crises can bring out the worst in everyone. Be the leader you wished you’d had when someone else was in charge. Go out of your way to protect your team as much as possible. Avoid being the leader that someone goes home and cries about. Be more than a business owner. Be a human being who is part of a community that needs you to show up with kindness.

Third: Build Your Virtual Work Environment

GET CYBERSECURE

Make sure that while you’re protecting your team from human viruses, you’re also protecting them - and your business - from tech-based viruses and bad actors looking to take advantage. Read our latest article on safety measures for remote workers here.

KEEP MEETING

We’re all finally finding out which of those meetings really could have been emails, right? 

For those meetings that definitely need some real-time chat, well there’s always:

  • The good old telephone for direct, one to one meetings.

  • Conference calls for groups. If you don’t already have a conference line set up, try out a free service like UberConference, Google Hangouts, and Zoom. We’ve noticed some disruptions in certain types of services due to everyone in the world jumping on them at the same time. Have patience, and have a backup system.

  • Video conference - because you’ve always wanted to see the inside of your colleagues’ homes, right? Sure you did. There are tons of tools out there, many of them free, such as Skype, Google Hangouts, and Zoom. Of course, there are paid versions that offer more features as well. 

GET CHATTING

Everyone already receives too many emails as it is, and they can be incredibly stilted ways of conversing with your teammates. Try an instant messaging system to create free-flowing, real time conversations in your virtual workspace. We’re big fans of Slack, but there are lots of other tools, such as WhatsApp, Skype, Microsoft Teams, and many, many more. 

KEEP COLLABORATING

Used to working with paper and pen on a table or desk with your teammate? Consider using one of the below tools to work virtually, in real time, on the same documents:

GET NETWORKING

For people in sales and business development, think about using social networks like LinkedIn and maintaining contact by voice and video in place of in-person sales calls, lunches, and coffee meetings. You can even send a delivery of snacks and drinks to make it feel like you’re still breaking bread together. Make sure you have the same stuff in view of your camera and laugh about how a virtual lunch is kind of weird… but kind of good.

KEEP ON TOP OF EVERYTHING

Transition to web-based versions of desktop software. CRMs, bookkeeping systems, email, and almost every other kind of software program now offers cloud-based versions that can be accessed remotely.  Here are just a few that might be right for you:

CRM Systems:

Bookkeeping & Invoicing Systems:

Project Management Systems

Of course there are many, many more options - and some are industry specific. The right systems for you may take a little critical thought to navigate, and we’re aware that the last thing you have right now is time and brain space. Not sure where to start? Yes, we can help you!