With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more businesses are transitioning their workplace to remote-only. Transitioning your business to remote-only expands your hiring opportunities to include millions of qualified people–giving you more room for growth.

However, while transitioning to a remote business model may seem easy at first, it’s important that you take steps to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Preparation Is Key

When transitioning to remote, you should prepare as much as you can for success. These five tips can help you recognize what you need to do and work on, to move fully online:

  1. Create a policy for those working from home. This policy should be easy to understand and give your employees all the information they need to do their job effectively. Your policy should include working hours, tools used, communications, deadlines, etc. If there is anything that your employee needs to do their job, it should be easy to access and understand.
  2. Find technology that works for you. Transitioning to remote means you are placing your faith in technology and platforms, so your employees can do their jobs effectively. They need to be able to collaborate, access projects, track time, ask questions, and have easy access to the software that you are using. If you don’t invest in easy-to-use software for your employees, you could be setting yourself up for failure.
  3. Talk to your managers about the process you want them to follow. You rely a lot on your managers already. If they don’t know what to do or where to find something you might be spending more time answering questions than getting projects done. All of your managers should be up-to-date on all the software and what you expect from them and the people under them.
  4. Guide your employees through the software and process you have set up. Like any other training, your employees need to know the ins and outs of the software they are expected to use. It can also benefit you to make a FAQ with questions, and expectations in certain situations your employees may get into. Many online project managing platforms include these options when you sign up for them.
  5. Communicate with your employees constantly. It’s easy to simply let your employees do their thing once they have been set up, but not communicating with your employees can lead to a workplace culture lacking focus. Having a casual conversation with an employee here and there can make them more energized and willing to work.

When transitioning to a remote workforce, preparation is everything. The more you prepare your current employees and your new ones, the easier it will be to succeed online. Fortunately, after the pandemic, work-from-home software has become more prevalent than ever before. It’s much easier to find software that you can use to manage your projects than it was ten years ago.

Once you’ve prepared for your online transition, finding people to hire and creating an environment that people want to work in is all that is left. Thankfully, people are searching for remote work more now than in any other time in history. All that you need to do is prepare for success and give employees an environment that they can thrive in.

Sources:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/types-of-work-environments

https://inside.6q.io/creating-a-healthy-workplace-environment/#:~:text=A%20healthy%20workplace%20environment%20also,the%20safety%20of%20the%20workplace.&text=So%2C%20allow%20your%20employees%20to%20come%20to%20a%20safe%20workplace%20environment.

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/relationship-between-work-environment-job-satisfaction-organization-employee-turnover-11980.html

https://www.betterteam.com/how-to-transition-employees-to-working-from-home