As a business manager or owner, you likely spend most of your time thinking about your products, operations, staff, and customers.
In light of current events however, you are likely to have another priority – keeping your business functioning when your team may be highly restricted, or even isolated in a home environment.
Thankfully, the local impacts in Australia have been less severe than in other parts of the world. However, the reality of adhering to the guidance from the government has certainly taken its toll of businesses across the country.
Recent research also suggests isolation may be part of the ‘new normal’ over the next couple of years, as the world manages the risk of outbreaks.
Solution
Fortunately for many businesses it has been possible to remain operating and productive via home working. This strategy provides a viable approach to dealing with a wide range of disaster scenarios from large (eg natural or health related emergencies), or localised issues such as your office suffering outages or significant damage.
Offering your staff the ability to work from home is also generally considered a bonus when trying to attract the right people to your business.
It’s clear that having a robust work from home strategy is the right step for your business.
But, how do you know you are ready to meet the challenges of home working, for a large proportion of your team, perhaps for a long period?
Consider the following
We would recommend considering the following questions:
- What are your most critical business processes? Can they all be performed digitally and if people are separated from one another physically?
- What are your key systems, can they be accessed remotely, will they still perform well enough to provide your customers good service?
- What about your data and security, are there any additional risks to be considered with how your business information will be handled?
- How will your team stay connected and engaged in the culture of your business, can they quickly and easily communicate and even collaborate to achieve results?
As the COVID-19 story has unfolded, we have worked with our clients to identify areas of focus needed to keep the doors open (virtually), the team well connected and ready to continue providing great levels of service to their internal and external customers.
Every business is in a different position, but we have found that customers who have adopted cloud-based solutions and collaboration platforms to be infinitely more ‘ready’ to cope with the challenges presented by the current global health emergency.
This emergency underlines the need to put significant thought and resources into making your business ready to keep functioning, no matter what challenges arise. Even though the situation has evolved rapidly, it’s never too late to take action and better enable your team to keep productive.
Next steps
We’d like to share our experience and advice with you. Contact Us to leave your details, and to give us an insight into your remote working concerns. We’ll then be in touch to help however we can.
