The impact of Covid-19 on the global workforce has been both unanticipated and unprecedented. As governments implement lockdown measures and limit on-site employees to key/essential workers only, remote workers have gone from making up a small but steadily growing portion of the workforce to the dominant model for many companies during the pandemic.
Although the government’s monetary relief is having a huge impact, some small-business owners fear that the money still isn’t enough — and that it comes with so many strings attached that it won’t help their long-term survival.
Businesses should also be considering other issues at hand, maintaining culture, improving employee sentiment, communicating with their front line staff, synchronising feedback and returning to work processes.
StaffCircle is offering businesses of all shapes and sizes a free 90-day licence of its performance management software.
Any office-related businesses are being strictly encouraged to enforce a ‘work from home’ model (at least for those that can) and StaffCircle is giving businesses of all shapes and sizes a helping hand over the next 12 weeks.
Naturally, this triggers some concern from business owners, senior management or team leaders about how to engage, motivate and maintain performance of staff while working from home especially if this is a method of working, which for many, has never even been a perk let alone a necessity. It’s also a nervous time for members in HR teams to ensure productivity and staff culture is still met and personal performance is being achieved.
StaffCircle’s mission is to capture collaboration between staff, from top management and everyone in between. Complete transparency is also key but this doesn’t need to be a feeling of ‘snooping’ on staff to make sure work is being completed.
Mark Seemann, CEO explains, “You don’t need to be in the same room to directly engage with your staff effectively and if you do need to ‘keep track’ of them, get the right tools to help you do this, in real-time. You can still create a shared vision, motivate your staff, help them to achieve their objectives, set tasks and manage performance – now is the time to trust technology and put any prior nerves or uncertainties aside.
It’s not just about the here and now, it’s also about the progression and ability to reward staff for their achievements and success in their work, which is key to motivation especially at a time like this.
Here are some top tips for remote working to help make your company’s business run smoother, and how you can use internal communications for remote employees for managing workforces during Covid-19. After all, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
- Equipment
The first step to making an effective transition to large scale remote working is to ensure that your employees have the correct infrastructure in place so they can perform their roles with minimal interruption.
- Accessible platform
Making sure your employees have the necessary means to communicate is an obvious priority. With business owners having to adapt to the pandemic crisis with little to no time to prepare, it’s time to rethink their communications strategy and consider better software for the circumstances. IM/chat tools such as Slack and Teams are fine for regular conversational tools, but fall short when it comes to more structured planning.
Investing in reliable tools which allow managers to coordinate objectives and tasks, schedule meetings and one2ones and allow instant communication throughout your company’s hierarchy is essential if you want to mitigate the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Performance management with remote workers requires greater visibility, so choosing a multi-channel platform which allows managers to log who has read messages and other communications and embed eNPS and worksheets will fill the void left by the removal of face-to-face discussions.
- Continue to set clear OKRs
Establishing clear and transparent objectives and key results which can be tracked and updated in real time via your company’s performance management system is a core foundation of effective remote management of employees.
Everyone needs to be clear on what their immediate and short term objectives are and who they should be coordinating with to achieve these, so disseminating these goals as broadly as is required across the workforce while allowing for constant real-time feedback helps keep everyone on the same page.
