How to ACT: a checklist on how to Work From Home during Coronavirus

Many companies and individuals are being forced to introduce social distancing to contain the spread of Coronavirus. The result is many people are working from home last minute, some of which may be finding this reactive change a shock and struggling about where to start! 

The remote community and advocates are conscious that a hasty and poorly planned exclusion from the norm could result in a bad first experience of remote working for many, but working from home could be a life-saving measure!

Whilst the introduction of successful remote working at a company level under normal circumstances takes time, structures, policies and a considered approach, you may need a steer on where to start. You need to start to ACT; the earlier you begin to plan, the more prepared you will be.

A

Firstly, acknowledge company and team wide that this is a challenge, there will be a period of flux, change and new learnings for all. It is an unpredictable situation for many, some of which may be working from home whilst self-isolating from the condition and/or with children around and under other stressful conditions.

Then, agree the terms, even at a basic level. Start by documenting a short statement of how operationally your remote working arrangement will function. Share your version of “Remote Working Operations During Coronavirus for Company X” on a shared drive with your colleagues. Ask for comments and feedback, hey, well done! this is your first step in remote collaboration ;) Just look at the list of resources and support below, from Slack channels to ask questions and get answers to whole guidebooks and policies, available for you to adapt and adopt.

Click here for Resources for Working From Home during COVID-19/

Give your staff and colleagues autonomy, experienced remote teams and workers know that a culture of trust is the foundation to good remote work practices. Enabling and believing in the autonomy of your staff is the first steps towards this. For example, the terms you have agreed above may outline using a core piece of software for business operations; believe your team will do this! 

Attitude and approach, going remote is not just about software tools, policies and practices. It is about your mental approach and attitude to the situation. You will need to test and trial practices, you definitely will need to re-iterate and review and you will continually be improving yourself and your teams operations. Accept it! And get on with it, but most importantly do the work needed to be productive.

C

Yes, it is a big Change in behaviour for some, but you never know you may like it and at this time, you are helping to keep you, your family and your colleagues safe and well so it is a very worthy cause. 

Many self-isolated remoters began working from home suddenly and felt the loss of their Connections. Plan to keep in touch every day, several times a day by phone or skype - have a work-buddy or team that you can rely on, the technology tools we use help us feel connected!

 Secondly, encourage and support explicit and concise Communications some may describe it as over communication. Use video communications as much as possible to talk directly to team members and colleagues. Video software such as Whereby  are free for up to 4 participants for video calls and can support sharing screens for collaboration and chat interactions.   

Collaboration is key to remote success, there is a lot to be said for standing at a colleagues desk and discussing a file whilst making edits, you can mimic this by sharing screens on a video call (see above). It is not intended to fully replace the value of in-person interaction but using the right mix of tools and technology, at the right moments, it comes very close!

Remote advocates quote benefits including more opportunity to concentrate and get into deep-work, better control over their work day and structure of how they approach tasks. Many studies have confirmed that Remote Work is more productive, like this one by Stanford University. So please keep your mind open to its potential! Alongside a strong dose of enthusiasm and commitment to adopt a new way of work. 

Keep in at the forefront the need for business Continuity, which means that managers and founders need to be conscientious in relation to business continuity, but within realistic timescales. Create some short-term goals and checkpoint these regularly on team calls to monitor and review, as required. 

 There is a whole world of experienced Remoters out there waiting to support you and welcome you into their (Remote) Community. Remote Workers in the main are trusting and open. They default to supporting each other and believe in welcoming anyone else into the fold! They will embrace you into the community! A thriving community for information and support is Grow Remote, they even have a Slack Channel you can join to ask for advice and get answers to questions.

T

No article about remote work could be published without the work Trust. It is inherent. Managers, colleagues, founders, team members all need to Trust each other to just get on with and get the job done. Remember trust also works for all stakeholders, so make sure you comply with GDPR when working remotely.

One way to approach this and build Trust, is to treat the whole experience as a Trial in relation to working remotely. With regular checkpoints, reviews, communication points and very honest discussions. Which leads us to the term that normally partners with Trust in the “remote world dictionary”  i.e. Transparency. If it is a trial, where everyone is testing, reviewing and reporting about the same remote experience, all feedback needs to be honest and transparent. At all times! Delivered on face-to-face video calls (see above!) 

Last, but very not least is the foundation of it all, the Technology or the Tools you need to work remotely from access to email, to video conference software to collaboration tools, whatever it is you need to use to get your job done. These tools will be new for many and one may face a steep learning curve, but increasingly a wealth of info is available for free online, from tutorials to how-to guides. All it will take is some more Time. The thing about learning and adopting new technology tools, it is easy to Track (almost daily) how you have improved in your adoption of said tools. Both on an individual and team level.

You will find a comprehensive list of resources here for you to access, categorised for individual remote workers and companies. 

And remember, while nobody expected it, we are so lucky to be able to use the ACT process to enable working from home - ultimately this may help to save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19. 

Further reading here: why working from home is good for you and everyone else!