How to set up emergency remote work

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, companies around the world are asking their employees to work from home. Setting up remote workspaces for emergencies will ultimately help combat the spread of the virus, but not all companies are fully prepared to let their employees work outside the office.

We can imagine that in the future more companies will have plans in place to avoid being unprepared again. Creating a plan and making sure everyone knows what to do in such situations is key to minimizing the impact on your team or company.

Assess remote readiness and status quo

The first step in creating a remote work contingency plan that's right for your company is to assess your current preparedness. You may be more prepared than you realize, or you may find that there are areas you still need to work on and prepare.

Check official work guidelines

To take a look at the status quo, check whether there isn't already an official remote work policy in place. While it's probably not a good fit if the entire company needs to work remotely, it's a good place to start. Processes and methods may already have been developed to save you some work.

Then take a look at the different teams in your company. Some of them may already be working remotely to some extent (e.g. regular home working), and they can share their knowledge and best practices with the rest of the company.

Recognize differences and work on them
It's also important to recognize that not every team can collaborate or work remotely in the same way. For example, developers need access to certain hardware from the office. Some teams require everyone to work at exactly the same time to ensure they can work together. Every team is different, so ask some questions and try to find out what is feasible for each team in terms of working remotely.

Additionally, you should create a cross-functional team that includes members from all areas of the company. These can be IT, HR, communications and business unit managers, so you get the best possible cross-section of the company. This team can then be consulted when you create an emergency remote work policy or when all employees are already working from home.

Plan the roles
The last thing you should do is create an organizational chart. When you look at the tasks in your company, put them into one of three categories: tasks that can be done completely remotely, tasks that can be done partially remotely, and tasks that cannot be done remotely at all can be done remotely.

Once you have categorized all the positions in your company, you should ask yourself some important questions. For positions that can be performed partially remotely, is there a way to convert those roles to ones that can be performed fully remotely? This could be done by implementing new software or hardware, or by changing what the features do exactly.

For tasks that cannot be completed remotely at all, consider how it would impact the business if the tasks could not be completed. What will you do with these employees in an emergency situation, and how can you protect yourself against the potential downside if these employees are unable to work?

Make sure you have the right software

At this point, it's time to review the situation with your software, hardware, and corporate events. Many companies today use software that supports remote work, such as: B. Project management tools like Asana, communication tools like Slack, or file sharing services like Google Drive. However, you may not have exhausted all options yet.

Have you chosen tools that people know to use?

• Asynchronous communication?
• Synchronous communication?
• Project management?
• File sharing?

These four areas also need to establish processes for how to use them to make your emergency remote work setup a success.

Checking the hardware and VPN

If you provide your employees with laptops or other hardware at work, it's important to find out whether all employees will have access to the hardware they need while working at home. You may need to allow employees to take hardware home so they can work outside the office.

Of course, not everything can be taken home, but where possible, you should help your employees either use their own personal devices for work or borrow devices from the office. This step should also test your VPN so that everyone can log into the systems they need from home.

Evaluating the accessibility of company events

The final step before compiling all the results into a report is to verify the remote readiness of your company events and meetings. Can your quarterly all-hands meetings or your brainstorming sessions be conducted remotely? Daily stand-ups too?

For each type of event, a remote event plan must be created, listing the software required and checking whether everything is possible when working outside the office.

You then need to create a summary that you can discuss with your cross-functional team. Based on this, you can create your plan and decide on the next steps. Remember to leverage your strengths and address any critical weaknesses you find.

Communicate remote work standards to your employees

It's important to make it clear that employees working remotely are doing the same work as they would on-site (if that's possible!). There is no difference to what they should be doing just because they are out of the office. It's really just a different way of working, that's all! When developing your emergency setup policies, you should communicate this fact and the exact remote work requirements of your organization.

This also includes who the different contact points are for information that employees need when they are at home. Policies and plans should also specify who must work from home and under what circumstances this is possible.

During an emergency, you should continually update and revise your policies to ensure everyone knows what to do and if there are any changes. If you don't do this top-down, employees will simply turn to their colleagues or some other distributed information network. This is not as effective as giving regular updates.

It goes without saying that you should always try to have a plan A, B and C in case of an emergency. For example, what happens if certain key figures become ill? How do you deal with potential power outages or people not having access to the internet? Even if things occur that are completely out of your control, you should at least have some guidelines in place about what your employees should do in such extreme circumstances.

Monitor and support remote employees

Now that you've considered your readiness for remote work and how you can communicate and share information in an emergency situation, it's time to consider methods for monitoring and supporting your remote workers. There are some best practices you need to put in place to ensure you can effectively monitor your employees while working from home.

Remote communication

You can start by asking your teams to conduct their communications completely remotely. This way, your teams no longer have to rely on communication methods that don't translate well in a non-office environment. Synchronous communication (physical meetings, chats over coffee, etc.) can work as long as it follows remote work guidelines, such as: B. Specific times when instant messaging/video calls are allowed. A policy for all remote communication needs to be planned and written down so your employees know in advance what will work and what won't.

Be mindful, remain empathetic

Supporting your employees also requires your attention, especially in the event of a serious emergency that has resulted in the office having to work remotely. Managers should also be reminded of this, as should their employees. If you already have employees working remotely or have more experience with it, you can set up support groups. They are great for supporting employees who are struggling with telecommuting.

Try to keep the office culture as usual

Finally, it will be very helpful if you try to keep your office culture as unchanged as possible so that the same atmosphere and spirit prevails in your teams when they work from home. Plan ahead and think about what you could introduce, e.g. Such as a virtual water cooler, team-building exercises, or even something simple like asking employees to keep their cameras on during video calls!

The key to your success from afar

Remote work requires that you can trust your employees. You can't keep an eye on your team all the time, so focus on the results you get. If you feel like you need to step in and help someone, do it! Planning and preparation are an important part of implementing emergency remote work, but so is active participation.

Work closely with your managers

This is where you need to work closely with the team leads and managers to ensure you work well with them, and then the managers with their teams. If your managers don't have any experience or knowledge of remote working, it's worth investing in training. They should learn how to hold virtual meetings and which methods are best suited for this.

We also recommend planning a small remote work trial period so you can see firsthand what it's like and help others learn from your experience. If a dry run isn't possible, simply ask your managers to proactively report on their problems and what's working for them so you can help them improve.

You can make this learning easier by creating handouts with basic information about how to set up a home office, how to plan your day, and how to avoid all the common pitfalls and mistakes that can occur when working remotely. Managing remote work teams is an art in itself, so you should provide your managers with the necessary training if you truly want to create an emergency policy that is prepared for anything.

Make plans for the future

Many companies are now scrambling to develop contingency strategies for remote work, even though the possibility of a nationwide power outage has been foreseeable for some time. There's a lot to consider and it's almost impossible to do in a snap.

Hopefully, CEOs and team leaders now realize the importance of good, well-thought-out remote work policies. It's never too late to start thinking and planning. So we should all learn from the coronavirus experience to ensure that we are all well prepared for the next situation.