The recent outbreak of Coronavirus has led several companies to work remotely. High-profile tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft were the first to instruct employees to adopt the work-from-home policy. The ban on large gathering and social distancing have made it necessary for startup communities to work remotely.
Remote work is not entirely new to the startup communities as early-stage startups already work on shared networks. However, the question remains – how can a startup achieve productive work amid the Covid-19 outbreak?
Here are what you need to do:
- Set up a make-shift workplace from the very first day of working from home.
- Maintain workplace etiquette, for instance – never eat on your table.
- Use collaborative tools to execute projects from different locations, such as Microsoft teams, Google Doc, Slack, Microsoft Outlook and an Enterprise Resource Planning management software.
- Wake up in the morning, have your bath and prepare for work. This is psychological and helps you maintain a balanced work culture.
- Observe breaks and stroll around your work station to relieve stress, as well as back pain.
- Conduct full-disk encryption to ensure that even if the device falls into the wrong hands, the company’s data is secured.
- Log out from a shared network when not in use, both at home and in public.
- Do not click on unrecognized links – some of them could be malware and ransomware.
- Never leave the device unattended or on public display, especially within reach of children.
- Limit the use of external devices such as USB and hard drives.
- Remote workers need to communicate often and report any suspected security breach promptly.
- Staff can communicate using tools such as Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams or any other preferred channel.
- Create a daily to-do list to help track progress. Most companies use tracking software to estimate the duration of an assigned task.
- Remove distractions from your work environment and stay focused.
- Leverage web conferencing apps like Zoom to hold virtual meetings.
Endeavor to break the entire workforce into teams and assign team leads to take account of the work process. The team lead should ask questions like;
- What did you do yesterday?
- What will you do today?
- Have you encountered any difficulty in the course of working remotely?
These questions will help staff members remain productive while working from home. Remote work, when appropriately managed, will help staff maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Finally, don’t forget that remote work can be quite boring. Introduce non-work related video chats to help everyone stay connected and build closer relationships with each other. Use this medium to educate team members about health and safety measures to take.
Take a deliberate approach to communicate as often as you can with team members.
Most importantly, you can choose to picture Covid-19 as a tremendous opportunity to enhance the culture within your startup community. To that end, check-in with your teams regularly, share business updates, take feedback and making adjustments where necessary.
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