Transitioning to Work-from-Home

So coronavirus has inspired your company to send most employees to work from home, but you’ve never managed a remote or virtual team before. Now what? Plan, train, and prepare!

A pandemic doesn’t need to halt business development just because we want to avoid public gathering. You can still lead an effective workforce virtually. Below are some tips to help you transition your on-site workforce to working from home, recommended from a virtual team management expert with over 10 years’ experience leading remote/virtual/work-at-home teams.

Document norms and expectations

Help your team transition from in-office to work-from-home by developing or reviewing an existing work-from-home policy. 

If your employer has an existing work-from-home policy, now is the time to proactively review it with your staff, noting any caveats. It may still be necessary to discuss and document norms that are unique to your team that may not be covered in the corporate policy. For example, share and document expectations for how quickly staff should return emails, voice messages, and instant messages.

If your employer does not already have a policy in place, start by documenting and discussing norms and expectations. For example, notify your staff if you expect them to be online and available through instant messaging apps during business hours. Explain what equipment, tools, and resources will be made available to staff so they can do their job at home. Outline what files, documents, supplies are acceptable to take home, versus what is required to remain on-site, at the work-site.

Take the time to instruct your staff on key norms and expectations, such as:

• Method of virtual conferencing (phone or video)
• What software to use for email and instant messaging, or task management
• Expected hours of operation
• Expected tasks to be completed daily/weekly
• How to reach managers
• Expectations for a quiet background noise (or flexibility and understanding) during conference meetings

It’s also highly effective to outline an open door policy as your teams go through this change. Asking questions should be welcome and reassuring everyone that you’re going through this time of transition together helps boost morale. 

Outlining any flexibility, such as in work schedules, or childcare concerns will also help your staff. Tell them it’s ok to hear the kids playing or the dog barking in the background. Let them know it’s ok to take a break to fix food for the household, even if that means being away from their at-home work station for a while, as long as their daily tasks get done. 

Consider creating a Team Charter

A Team Charter is a document, established by the team collectively, that notes business norms, expectations, boundaries and protocols in times of crises like #coronavirus.

As the threat of #coronavirus increases, it is imperative to document business continuity plans, methods of contact, and protocols for mobilizing your workforce to move from in-office to work-from-home. Team Charters are a great way to establish the norms and expectations as well as the rules of engagement for this transition. While Team Charters are generally developed and adopted when a team is newly formed, they are also highly effective when a change occurs to the team dynamic, such as in a transition to work-from-home.

I recommend capturing the following key norms in a work-from-home transition motivated Team Charter:

• Each individual’s hours of operation
• Each individual’s contact info
• Expectations on what equipment can be removed from the work-site and taken home
• Expectations on response turnaround time for email, voicemail, missed calls, instant messages
• Information on adopted video chat, project management or other software

Prioritize training before deployment

Before you deploy your staff to their cozy homes and self-made office spaces, be sure to train then on how to access key business resources while they are home. 

Train staff on how to use VPN tokens (if applicable), connect to corporate web-mail, access shared drives, and encrypt proprietary emails/documents. If you don’t already have established protocols, train staff on how you want to send and receive data, files, finished products, etc.

If you plan to leverage video technology, be sure to give staff an introductory tour of the software/app (Zoom) you plan to use, with direction on when they will be expected to connect via video. Also review proper video chat etiquette. 

Here are some other training topics to consider:

• Taking meal and other breaks
• How to keep time sheet
• How to schedule conference calls/video chats
• How to order office supplies, or get reimbursement for phone and internet use (important for CA work-from-home employees)

Remember, the rate of success is higher if you train and inform before you deploy.

Always prioritize team building

Once your staff is working from home, the best way to keep them engaged and connected is to conduct ongoing team building activities:

• Leverage video technology to build a stronger bond among team mates
• Host a virtual “show and tell” where staff show their at-home work space via video chat
• Ask a general question that everyone takes turns answering such as “What, or who, are you a “closet” fan of?” or “What did you do this weekend?” or “Do you have enough toilet paper at home?”
• Communicate clearly and frequently with your team, giving them updates via email, if not by conference. 
• Delegate a member of your team to host “virtual watercooler” meetings, where staff can get together virtually and shoot the breeze with each other, without any management present
• Schedule regular team meetings (at least weekly) virtually