Working Remotely – Survival Tactics

Most businesses in Pennsylvania will be closed at their physical locations until April 30, 2020. Many interpreted Governor Wolf’s Order to mean that businesses had to close and not conduct ANY work. Not so. The spirit of the order was designed to prevent groups from congregating at work, customers from coming and going, people traveling and spreading the Coronavirus. The Order said nothing about NOT working and NOT conducting normal business activity from the safety of home.

Like many, over the past two weeks I have learned that I can be just as productive from my home office. It just takes a little planning. The following are some tips to make it easier to get your business back up and working remotely.

• First and foremost, if working with clients or co-workers, always follow the CDC’s guidance for the prevention and spread of coronavirus.
• Identify work that must be done at the office and work that can be done at home. Bring home everything that can be done at home.
• Invest in the best technology that you can; good laptops and phones that can process data at high speed.
• Check to make sure that you and your employees all have adequate home connectivity to the internet. Remember, it’s not enough for you to have connectivity; your employees need it too.
• For security, avoid “bring your own device” mentality. Don’t let your employees use their own laptops and devices for conducting work. Provide your employees with secure laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices, used only for work, with the most up to date spyware and virus protection. These devices should be the only ones that work is done on in which you will be logging on to your company’s main frame.
• Confirm that employees have remote access to all of your company’s core applications.
• Invest your time in researching applications such as Log Me In and Zoom which allow you to remotely control your computer and systems at work and provide the opportunity to do video conferencing with employees and customers. Moving your systems to the cloud will also allow you to work remotely anytime and anywhere. Make sure that your employees are comfortable with this technology and will use it.
• Office phone systems will now allow you to route your office calls to your cell phone. With the advent of remote receptionist, such as Ruby Receptionist, clients will call you, think they are talking to a receptionist at your firm (when they are really somewhere else in the country) and are then routed to your cell. To the client, they will think that you are in the office. If you are busy, the remote receptionist will even take a message, send the client an intake form, and capture the client’s email address for later marketing.
• Check in with your team regularly to make sure work is getting done and no one is having problems
• Take regular breaks. This keeps you fresh and prevents bad posture, tension, headaches…
• Don’t let work take over your life. Having a work space at home makes it too easy to default into work mode at any and every hour of the day. Be ready to work when its time to work and take time off when family time comes around.

Planning for these things in the midst of a crises is hard. But the crises will end. When it does, take the time to plan for the future. Train your employees and put together an emergency protocol in your employee handbook so that the next time an emergency arises, your business will go on uninterrupted.

Do you have other suggestions? Email us through our website. We would love to hear from you.