We are currently experiencing a global situation not seen in peacetime. As we hide out in our homes, avoiding one another to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we might end up losing productivity.
Some businesses will suffer as a result of the illness, but there are ways that your company can help to maintain work rate while people are working from home or operating under modified circumstances.
Delay medical treatment
It’s at times like these when the healthcare profession is stretched so thin, instances of medical negligence and other errors are bound to take place. And if this happens, you’ll be out of commission for even longer. So if you can avoid seeking out medical treatment at the moment, it could be for the best.
Non-urgent or non-essential surgeries can wait until the health service has recovered – even slightly. And if you were planning a routine visit to your GP, think about holding off until the situation has calmed down. Encourage your workforce to do the same and let healthcare workers focus on helping those who need it most.
Keep in contact
It’s easy for team members to feel isolated when they’re working from home – particularly if they were part of a big or close-knit team. Your usual company or departmental routines – coffee breaks, weekly quizzes or even social events – are disrupted, so colleagues don’t have the chance to chat informally.
You can create a group chat on whatever platform your organisation uses to combat this feeling of isolation. Creating one channel for social or general chat and a separate one for work discussions can keep people connected. Consider a weekly conference call for your team to talk about what’s on their minds. It can maintain a sense of routine and even fun.
Set expectations
When people are working remotely, standards might start to slip a little. But they don’t have to. If you can set out your company’s expectations of your workers, they know what they have to achieve. Establishing goals and targets could help to ensure they don’t spend their time watching daytime TV.
If necessary, you can set up a regular call to each employee to see how they’re doing. You can also invest in tools that allow you to see what they’re working on and whether they need any help in getting things done. But remember that you hired your team members for a reason – you likely chose people you can trust.
Provide equipment
If your employees are working from home, they could find it easy to set up camp in the living room on the sofa. And there are countless distractions there. It could be best if your company provides them with the equipment they need to set up an office in a separate room.
Allowing them to take their monitors, keyboards and even desks and chairs could help them create a comfortable working environment in their own homes. It can also help to keep the work flowing as they’re used to the way the equipment works – no stopping to try to get used to something new.
So while we’re all having to work remotely, there are a few things you can do to ensure your colleagues are provided for. Keeping them motivated and feeling like part of a team will certainly help to keep productivity levels as high as possible.
