As social distance and self-isolation measures began to become more and more common, Work from Home (remote) - became our new reality. For some it was an fulfillment of a long-ago desire, for others – a forced way to change their professional routine. For some a way to find more time for the family, for others a real disruptive act.

Our team didn't make a discordant note. Prepare or not.... with the signals that the pandemic is here to stay, the change of working mode in Work from Home/remote has been installed quickly-forward in our plan to continue the activity.

How do you get a team of dozens of people to work remotely? And how do you maintain the optimistic tone and activity when everyone is, literally, at his home?

In the last month, I have talked a lot with my colleagues, acquaintances and clients about this transition. Taking inspiration from these conversations, my own experience, discussions with experts and trainings, I have prepared a series of 3 articles for you and your team, as part of the #parteneripentruafacerilelocale campaign.

First: 5 questions we have faced or will face and how we can answer them.

What things do I need for my team to work from home?

Working from home is based on many factors to be effective in the long run. And in times of crisis, along with the stress caused by the situation, we have many emotions and decisions to manage.

So we start with the things we can control. The first base we cover: the team & infrastructure. Taking into account the things we have done as a team, we have made a short checklist, which we will keep close for future situations.

Team

• Make a list of the whole team, by categories: members who can work remotely, members who can not work remotely and those who could work, but under certain conditions.
• Identify the number of laptops available and what is needed to purchase (including some for back-up, considering the size of your team).
• Identify mobile phones and need to purchase.
• Identify other employee mobility solutions (such as Bring Your Own Device – BYOD).
• Create a guide to help those who start working from home to carry out their work taking into account the new format (use of remote access technologies, security, recommendations for managing the program, team, etc.).
• Check the legislation in force and what documentation you need to do for working remotely.

Infrastructure

• Identify the key applications that business needs (from email to specific ERP applications, digital signature, CRM, etc.)
• Identify which applications are used in the cloud and check access to them.
• Identify a videoconference and discussion platform suitable for the team and organization.
• Identify applications needed for remote work (such as VPN access, advanced security applications, etc.)
• Verify that all equipment that will be used in home work is operational, to have all system updates & applications made.
• Review your security policies and check if you need to add new security measures or share certain new security information with your team. (e.g. different authentication, home laptop usage policy, cyber attacks, etc.)
• Check your internet connection and, as far as possible, purchase a back-up network.

What should I do as a manager to get my team ready for work from home?

The first thing is to make sure they have the work infrastructure at their disposal. Depending on how big the team is and the responsibilities, you can talk directly with the IT manager or with the manager who manages the crisis situation.

Make sure they have visibility on all your team's technology and application access requirements.

Especially in situations with a lot of pressure, like the one generated by a pandemic, even the best of us can miss things. Team up with everyone involved and keep the communication channels as open as possible. It's not a good time for heated discussion, so put patience and open communication before all arguments.

The second thing is to understand what challenges come in this context, working from home in times of crisis, and how you can support them. For example, you will notice that there are people who will immediately feel the lack of presence of the team or are people who affect them more the stress generated by this situation. And as a manager, you will discover new skills and learn to pay attention to other needs than before.

From our own experience, the main challenges can be:

• Access to information: one of the first things we have faced is the longer time spent finding information or even receiving answers to simple questions.
• Team management in the absence of face-to-face interaction: Both managers and their teams are thinking about how coordination, performance of activities and delegation will go in this context. And some, and others may feel that they are not efficient enough or, on the contrary, that they work more than ever.
• In some cases, the team may consider that, from a distance, managers lose contact with them, that they have little access to communication with them or that they do not receive enough support in carrying out their activities.
• Distractions: When all family members, including the little ones, work from home, things can prove more challenging than normal. I'm sure you had at least one colleague whose kid was present with you in the video call or who was heard in the background of the call.

There are a few ways to deal with these situations. We will detail in the 2nd part of the article, but in short:

• train the team by setting some routines
• provides more options to contact you and be transparent with the program (the safe calendar will help you here)
• offers a communication structure (e.g. – for daily debriefing meetings, use the videoconference application, for urgent situations – SMS)
• Encourages the team as much as possible to talk to you about what concerns them, including emotional things.

How do I manage meetings remotely with the team?

Personally, I think I'm more effective if we have a series of rules that we know and respect. I'm a big fan of check lists (I started this article with 2), transparency in activity and the use of activity management platforms (such as Jira- Atlassian or Basecamp) because it helps me to be more productive. Whether I worked from home in normal times or in pandemic times, I noticed that the existence of these routines is useful for me and my colleagues.

For example, for video conference with the team, you can consider having a clear agenda of topics, agree that you do not take other calls, do not multitasking and do not interrupt others or give them the opportunity to talk. Make a summary of the end and mention the responsible ones, if necessary.

Because there are no longer small daily conversations, you can choose to have the first 5-10 minutes of the call for a quick check-in, in which everyone can share how they are doing.

How will these changes affect my team's efficiency and productivity?

This is a question whose answer, in times of non-crisis, should be that working remotely will not affect productivity and efficiency.

In the situation we are going through, although I dislike it deeply, the answer depends. Many factors come in, not only about your team, but also about how your business evolves: from what kind of business you have, how to redo business strategy, what new income stream you identify, how many people can work from home and how many from the office, how customers react. The concept of productivity and efficiency is most likely to become more effective.

Thinking about the team experience, it is possible that, during this period, you will need a time to enter a new work routine and each team member to adjust to working from home and with your partner and children, if necessary. If you manage to find the right routine for you, the right applications and good internal communication, things will go in the right direction. 

Social distance, emotions, uncertainty, challenges – how do I get involved and what should I do to manage the emotional side of working at home during the pandemic?

I saw in an article about this period as top management, and especially CEOs, should become in this period Hope-Givers-in-Chief. Although initially the pragmatic part of me was less excited about this, knowing what negative economic potential this pandemic can have, the optimistic side understood the need for such an approach. With all the team members at a distance, the uncertainties about business evolution, changes, more emails, more phone calls and more news, it's only natural that the emotional side, however it manifests itself to each of us, should influence us.

Thus, it becomes more important than ever that the management team retains its calmness, lucidity and visibility to give people confidence, help them to calm down and cope with uncertainties more easily.

Ideal is to have trained for the team and specialized help. As a manager, even with all the trainings you have experienced, you can't turn yourself into a therapist, if the situation demands it. It may seem a lot to some of you, but if you have the option to make available to people access to psychologist or HR who has specialization in managing such moments, consider this solution as well.

Follow the following two articles on Work from Home. We will go into details about how we manage work from Home as managers and how we manage our new reality team as members in the #parteneripentruafacerilelocale campaign.

Article by Steliana Moraru, Head of Marketing & Digital Transformation.

Warning

This article is purely informative. The article does not represent a recommendation for financial services or a firm offer to contract the financial products to which it refers. Also, the article does not represent personalized financial advice, tax/legal advice or any other type of corporate advice.

Although the information presented has been carefully verified, OTP Leasing Romania is not responsible for the information presented in this document, it can be modified without any prior notice.