In my role as Vibe Associate, people are core to everything I do, including how they work. We\u2019ve always had people working remote at Insentra; perhaps they work entirely remotely, schedule a WFH day once a week, or as a once-off to work around some life events. With the current situation unfolding with COVID19, and the rapid push towards working remotely, I started thinking about what HR teams and individuals can do to support these changes.<\/p>\n
What happens when the recommendation is to work from home? That\u2019s where your Business Continuity Plan comes into play. Examining your technical resources to ensure you\u2019re enabled is a must so you\u2019re ready to go remote, keep your productivity high, keep your company IP and data secure, and make the transition as smooth as possible. Team up with your IT department to review your compan’y needs. Even if you\u2019re not the person implementing it, being across the Continuity Plan helps you strategically solve problems before they arise.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve got the capabilities sorted, you need to ensure that there\u2019s the right support for your employees to make that transition to working remotely.<\/p>\n
Before employees work from home, we better make sure they know how to use the tools and resources! Depending on your Business Continuity solution, there might be changes in hardware, cloud solutions, software, perhaps operating system for employees. Maybe your teams are already using these systems on premises, but not fully using the features which will be great for WFH. We\u2019re no longer restricted to storing things locally, but do all your teams know how to access files they were working on in the office? Do they know how to share them with their colleagues quickly?\u00a0 It\u2019s a tough process to get your teams ready for working remotely. At Insentra, we are using Nulia Works to brush up on our Office 365 skills, and the best thing is, Nulia gets to work – using enablement tailored to the individuals learning style – on the skills they need right now, anywhere, anytime. It tracks a user\u2019s behavior and suggests more efficient ways they could be using Office 365 to get the most out of what they do every day. At Insentra, we like to think we\u2019re a pretty tech-savvy bunch, but Nulia has pushed us further- we found we had greater use of OneDrive and Microsoft Teams features\u2026 just in time for remote working!<\/p>\n
Great culture comes about from people connecting. There\u2019s no watercooler or coffee station between peoples remote working spaces\u2026 so how do we promote those positive interactions which form bonds?
\nEncourage managers to schedule time to talk to their teams either every day, or a couple times a week if it\u2019s larger processes the team is working on. Talk about what they\u2019re working on, what roadblocks are present, but most importantly- how they are. How\u2019s working from home? The kids, dog, plants? Is the tech working for you? The small talk really matters! Include some personality and set the tone.<\/p>\n
Make sure you show you haven\u2019t forgotten them just because we can\u2019t see them! Get managers to check in with their team members once a week individually as well. I recommend using video for these meetings to promote a sense of \u201cright here\u201d.<\/p>\n
Are you encouraging your workforce to connect with others? Those social groups need to be fed, even when away from the office. Get your teams on Yammer, Slack, Teams, Skype, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp\u2026 whatever floats your company\u2019s boat. We have a \u201cMinistry of Silly Memes\u201d, a \u201cPMO Recipes\u201d and a \u201cCat Chat\u201d (dogs are welcome sometimes too). Interdepartmental and across levels is even better!<\/p>\n
Those fun activities you\u2019ve planned in the office CAN go on\u2026 with a few tweaks. This is a great way to demonstrate how life goes on; COVID-19 is temporary and will pass. Having some fun is important as employee\u2019s anxieties around the situation begin to escalate and staying cooped up with limited adventures out of the home won\u2019t help. Sure, some activities might not work remotely – your corporate sports might be off the table for the moment – but there are many activities, employee engagement initiatives and corporate social responsibility efforts that can happen remotely.<\/p>\n
Check out your list of employee engagement activities and events that you can tweak to hold remotely.<\/span>\u00a0Virtual drinks are another option; have a \u201cpub chat\u201d on a Friday after 4pm\u00a0and send the invite out for anyone to join virtually. The key to this being successful is everyone joining in\u00a0virtually<\/em>, not one remote worker tuning into a room of people having a chat. Perhaps virtual games or open-up to Q & A with members of the leadership to get participation.<\/span><\/p>\n Workplace Health and Safety doesn\u2019t stop when everyone stops coming into the office. We all want our workforce to be happy, productive and safe. Try creating a checklist, just like your WHS Inspection reports on-site, for employees to check off as they begin their set up. Make sure to include the basics, like ergonomics and hazards.<\/p>\n Working from home is just one good way to practice \u2018Social Distancing\u2019 but make it even easier for your employees to brush up on all their health and safety information by sharing some of the advice coming from the government.<\/p>\n Those are my top tips for starting the transition to working remotely from a Human Resources perspective. Harness the strengths you already see in the company to create and further your working remote plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my role as Vibe Associate, people are core to everything I do, including how they work. We\u2019ve always had people working remote at Insentra; perhaps they work entirely remotely, schedule a WFH day once a week, or as a once-off to work around some life events. With the current situation unfolding with COVID19, and… Continue reading Working Remote\u2026 A HR Perspective<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":18916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modern-workplace","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24461,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/24461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}5. Be Safe!<\/h3>\n