Solutions To Remote Work During A Global Pandemic

Introduction

COVID-19 has not only disrupted the medical field, it has also disrupted business continuity, forcing business owners to act swiftly to find innovative ways to continue servicing their customers and clients. One of the ways that business owners have been able to shift during this challenging time is by introducing or expanding on the concept of working remotely. For some businesses, this idea is relatively new whereas for others, this idea of working remotely is being expanded.

For those businesses who are making the initial switch to allowing employees to work remotely, business owners are faced with the looming question, “How can I be sure that my employees are working?” If this question never surfaced before, it has definitely surfaced now and is a question that has business owners searching for quick solutions. 

First and foremost, those new to the idea of working remotely first have to accept that this is the current best practice. Continuing in a brick and mortar fashion may cost you your business - it’s not sustainable! In efforts to keep your doors open, your clients happy, and your employees employed, who by the way, help stimulate the economy, accept the fact that “you have to do this!”

For those who before COVID-19 had established a remote working policy, you must begin to measure how your employees work if you haven’t already. Employ best practices and measuring tools to assist with answering the question that keeps you up at night, “How do I know that my employees are working?”

Once a remote working policy has been established or expanded, deploy! Be careful and deliberate on how you roll this out though. There have been many businesses that have had a business continuity plan that included working remotely but did not deploy the plan correctly and as a result, the business did not survive. Be sure to be deliberate about who you include in this process and how you want to roll out the policy. Ask yourself the following questions:

• To which employees do we request and/or require to work remotely?

• Of those employees, do we have the Information Technology infrastructure to do so?

• What are the costs associated with this plan?

Having some answers to the questions above is just a start. Really think this through! This could either succeed or fail; it’s totally up to you! Now that we have laid out some facts, let’s look closer at a few things - 

Is Remote Work Effective?

Working remotely allows for businesses to continue operations while complying with social distancing standards. Not only will remote working keep people safe, it also allows for employee flexibility, a concept that is arising greater than ever now that employees with children are being forced to keep their children home this school year. The new question is, “Is remote work effective?” As a business owner, you’ll have to decide. Are your employees as productive as they were before or are you seeing a decline in production? If so, what is contributing to that decline? Is it because there are new distractions at home - children, spouse/partner, internet speed, home service calls during the day? These are all questions that will determine how effective working remotely will be for each individual business.

Let me help you out here - working remotely is effective. It’s as effective as the effort you put into it. Get your employees involved with assisting with decision making. The best decisions are not always generated at the top. Within your staff lies someone who is willing to challenge the question and challenge you as a business owner on how you will ensure the continuity of the business. 

Employees are likely to embrace this idea because of the many benefits - reduced or no commute, more time and flexibility to name a few. Giving employees the freedom to work an abbreviated schedule may just produce a higher degree of quality work. So what if someone’s best working hours are 4am - 8am and then he or she doesn’t crank up again until after 6pm.  Maybe your employees enjoy sitting outside in their yard working, soaking up some much needed Vitamin D; maybe sitting by the lake incites creative juices to flow. At the end of the day, the question is, “Was your client serviced?”

How to Work Remotely 

Now that you have been convinced that you need to deploy a remote working policy, let’s dive into how to work remotely. 

Currently, business owners are having to determine whether employees are focused and attentive while also maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Now that many of us are working remotely, knowing when to log off has given rise to a new question - “How can employee burnout be reduced?” This is a major question that cannot be answered quickly - think this through. In addition, ask yourself, “How flexible do you want to be with this initiative?” 

As a business owner, you are seeing a reduction of expenses - there may be little to no rent, utilities, and/or office expenses. With this extra cash, maybe you can improve your IT infrastructure or possibly provide your employees with a telecommunications stipend. Since information technology will play a major role in how successful you are at rolling out a remote working policy, let’s take a look at how cloud-based solutions will assist you along the way. 

Importance of Cloud Based Solutions

Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been an increased reliance on cloud-based solutions to ensure business continuity - utilizing cloud-based solutions is inarguably the backbone of remote working. Invest in your infrastructure - give your business a technology tune-up! What systems and software have you implemented that work well with this new landscape and need upgrading? Bring in a set of consultants to review your operations; whatever you do, do something and make it yours!

How Impact Accounting Partners Can Help

We understand the gradual shift towards working remotely has become an immediate need for many of us with every business having very different needs. At Impact Accounting Partners, we can perform a financial health check and review your current cloud-based accounting solutions and make recommendations. If you are interested, please send an email to hello@impactaccountingpartners.com or schedule a consultation through https://calendly.com/hello-impact/consultation.