First of all, we want to say that our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees and partners. We also feel the responsibility to support our communities, those who are vulnerable, and the healthcare providers who are on the front lines of this pandemic. To continue this push, we began remote work in our company on March 11th, 2020, and have now informed all employees globally they must work from home.

Surely everyone has worked remotely from time to time. But then it was temporary and we showed up in the office for important business meetings. Now, as we are transitioning to the home office, it can be quite challenging for both managers and employees. To keep up the good work, we’ve modified our day-to-day activities and provided a variety of resource guides to help our employees. We’re listing them here as well because at times like this, sharing insights and learning is so important. 

We’re all in this together, and we want to help others outside Skilo make their transitions to working outside their offices easier.

Everyday team video meetings

It’s all about establishing new routines to keep working together. Try having systematic calls with your team and discuss your daily tasks. Decide what you can do to help your coworkers with their tasks and vice versa, exchange your ideas, and have productive brainstorms. It’s nice to give and receive support from the people you work with, this will boost your energy and keep you engaged with your work. 

Weekly planning & summary

Managers have to be informed of team productivity. Same as with daily team calls, have a weekly call with a team lead and discuss the results, challenges, and plans for the next week. Weekly results can be presented in any form – a simple document, Excel sheet or a presentation will do.

Video conference with the board

When you work alone at home, you do touch base with your teammates, but your conversions are often limited to discussing ongoing tasks, current challenges, and plans. Every employee needs to know that their work is valued by the company board. After all, it’s nice to be reminded that you belong to an amazing work community. Schedule video conferences with the entire company, including board, HR, and teams from other locations. Have open discussions on company perspectives and get a helicopter view on a current business position.

Goals, performance, and feedback

Set clear and achievable goals – SMART goals or SMARTER (includes Evaluated and Reviewed points). It is an effective tool that provides the clarity, focus, and motivation you and your team need to achieve goals. As you go, don’t forget to monitor your completion and performance statuses. When the job is well done and the goal hits status “achieved”, provide the assignee with positive feedback – it’s nice to be appreciated by your team. It gives you confidence, motivation to work, and a bunch of new ideas!

Corporate communication channel

Create an environment for your employees to communicate, share their achievements and simply wish each other happy birthday. For example, we use Skilo’s Chatter – a social communication platform, like Facebook or Twitter. It’s great for networking, file sharing, and secure collaboration. During this self-isolation, it’s vital to stay connected with your whole company, so we exchange news, updates, and funny group call screenshots every day.

Work & Time Report

To get a hold of what has been done, we report our progress daily in Skilo’s Time Report system. For a manager, time reporting can provide insights into team dynamics and increase work efficiency. For an employee, it shows an overall picture of his performance and helps plan better.

Virtual team integrations

We got used to seeing each other in the workspace, drinking coffee together, and chatting about our day. At present, it’s harder to do when you are on lockdown and withheld in-person communication. But it shouldn’t be an obstacle to have after-office hangouts and laugh at each other’s witty jokes. Now we need each other more than ever, so have after-hours integration calls and have fun with your team.

Hardware & Software

Now as for the technical part, make sure you’ve secured your employees with the necessary equipment – laptop or computer, monitor, mouse and keyboard, headset, work phone, etc. It’s hard enough to change your work routine, so having all the necessary gadgets will help to overcome transition discomforts.

Employee development and certification

Since you’re chilling at home anyway, why not invest some time in yourself? Find an interesting course and have yourself professionally certified. But it’s easier to suggest developing the talent than to do it. Your program must equip employees with the necessary skills while demonstrating business value and a measurable return on investment. After all, it’s also in your company’s interest to grow you professionally and invest in their employees.

Sharing non-professional activities

As we’ve talked previously, it’s all about good communication – not only corporate but also social. Create an informal group chat for all your employees to exchange funny coronavirus memes, goofy pictures and simply share your quarantine experience. 

 

Whether you’re new to remote work and looking for tips on how to be productive in your new home office, or you’re leading a team and looking for ways to keep your employees connected, we hope these practical recommendations can help you on your path to becoming more effective regardless of where you are.

 

Stay safe and healthy!

Team Skilo 🙂

 

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Skilo is a Salesforce native app that provides a ready-to-use talent management solution. It streamlines, simplifies, and unifies the end-to-end process of talent acquisition, development, and retention. Skilo provides performance management, competency frameworks, along with skills development, career planning, training management, feedback, reviews, and social employee engagement. For more information, please visit www.skilohr.com or Skilo Linkedin profile.