The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has dealt a severe shock to the world. We’ve seen rapid switches from hopes of containment to a regime of aggressive social distancing. As a result, many organisations are being forced to transition to remote working, and at a pace that many firms are finding difficult to cope. According to Gartner, 91% of HR leaders in APAC have implemented remote working since the outbreak, but the biggest challenge to the approach comes from the lack of technology and comfort with the new ways of working.
A complete overhaul of your workforce, especially when unplanned, can feel like an overwhelming task. From tech logistics, to morale, to day-to-day activities, there are a myriad of things to navigate that will make or break productivity in these trying times. To help organisations hasten and smoothen their transition to remote-working, the following steps to accelerate their timeline can be considered.
Stage 1: Laying the infrastructural foundation and setting up trials
Before remote working can begin, organisations need to ensure that their people have the necessary technology and hardware infrastructure in place to support core operations.
In this stage, companies must prioritise ‘must-have’ infrastructure such as virtual private networks (VPN) for security, and communications tools such as headsets, video cameras and conferencing software. They must also ensure that access to critical services is available remotely, including shared workspaces and database access.
Perform a ‘remote-trial’ day as soon as possible to discover any limitations or challenges, then aggressively pursue fixes or workarounds. For team members able to work remotely, an immediate extension of their remote trial into a full remote working is necessary. Begin ‘social distancing’ measures for any remaining co-located team members and evaluate health vulnerability of all team members.
An often-overlooked step is setting expectations with stakeholders. This is not a normal transition to remote working - it is hurried action, imposed in a climate of worry and stress. Teams will adjust in time, but it will be rocky to begin with. Follow advice from local authorities on any further measures that are appropriate.
Stage 2: Training employees to utilise remote working tools
Begin focusing on ways of working and establishing remote-first social norms for the teams. For teams that still require co-location, split them into physically isolated sub-teams to reduce the chances of full-team risk exposure. It is important to schedule training sessions with employees to fully utilise remote collaboration tools, especially those used in larger meetings such as iteration planning, showcases and retrospectives. Additionally, resources should be reallocated to assist the helpdesk team who may be suddenly inundated with requests for technical assistance.
Stage 3: Migrate fully to remote work
Conduct stakeholder management check-ins to assess communication effectiveness and productivity. Managing stakeholder expectations when teams are working remotely is essential to maintaining trust and confidence - this can be true for both internal and external stakeholders.
It is also important to conduct retrospective meetings with the whole team and use 1:1 feedback mechanisms to identify any blockers or challenges. Teams can consider setting up a 1:1 check-in weekly for the period of all-remote work and include a health check element as part of the weekly 1:1. This is necessary to assess if team members are coping well, as not everyone will find the transition to fully-remote working easy.
Stage 4: Sustaining the momentum and supporting people
By this stage, the firm should have migrated fully to remote working with employees well poised to work effectively under this new arrangement. Teams can be highly productive working remotely, but in order to achieve that they must build trust to enable them to perform. During a rapid switch to remote-first working, this will not yet be established so leaders need to pay particular attention to these issues.
While the right tools and processes are important for remote work, organisations - and the products and services that they deliver - are fundamentally about people. For remote working to be sustainable, it is critical to focus on the employee experience. Companies will need to be deliberate about engaging, motivating and supporting employees. Potential approaches that can be considered include organising fun social activities for the team, such as virtual coffee, lunches, or drinks, or facilitating a remote ice-breaker game to convey that remote working can be just as interactive.
