The requirement for a lockdown-style environment has been putting immense pressure on businesses of all different kinds across the country, with day-to-day running potentially greatly affected.
But businesses are in a far greater place today than they’ve ever been, with regards to being able to cope with such a situation. Cloud technology such as DocuSign and the team-working features offered by today’s office applications mean that remote working is available for any business and its employees, regardless of organisation size and nature.
The ability to chat, instant message, and call, keeps us all in contact with each other, while meetings can move online with ease, and file sharing functionality means that everyone has access to the documents and data they need, when they need.
Of course, while technology makes it easy to effectively move the office desk into any room at home, it’s important to remember that remote working can have a negative effect on staff members used to the community atmosphere of an office. Having the support of colleagues on a day-to-day basis helps boost morale and keep employees on track, and an office environment typically offers an interruption-free workspace: without distractions like children and pets.
Setting some guidelines for employees can help them navigate the strange experience of working from home for many that have rarely done it before:
1. Create a specific workplace in the house to differentiate from homelife. Whether it is at the kitchen table or in the spare bedroom, having a dedicated space can encourage focus. Try to avoid using the sofa or bed: they are best kept as relaxing places!
2. Stick to your standard working hours. If employees work 7.5 hours a day, encourage them to continue to do so, and not work longer just because the office is at home and ‘they can’.
3. Manage your working hours to allow for any home-schooling and caring duties. For example, at Blue Car Technologies, employees communicate with their manager through video calls, to see what works best for them and for the organisation.
4. Create a consistent routine. Take a walk or exercise, take a dedicated lunch break and take screen breaks like employees would in the office.
5. Think about food and drink. Snacking and over-indulging in caffeine is easily done when faced with a different working environment. Eat your lunch at a certain time and try to keep your habits the same as when in the office.
6. Stay social! Cabin fever can easily set in and while work-focused contact with colleagues can help, it’s important to communicate on a personal basis and check in with your colleagues! That’s why we have a “virtual pub” session Friday afternoon so the Blue Car Technologies team can get together, socialising outside a work environment.
If your business is having to work from home now and you need support and advice, contact us now on +44(0)1183382916 or info@bluecartechnologies.co.uk.
It might be that you have all the features and functionality to be able to do so within software that you already have but aren’t utilising fully (integrating DocuSign with your Document Management System as an example) or perhaps now is the time to adopt new technologies that will empower your employees during the current climate, but also make your business more resilient in the long term.
