Post Covid-19, remote working continues to take shape in companies, with most reported having a good percentage of employees working remotely. Despite having benefits such as cost saving and productivity, virtual working arrangements can have certain shortcomings that can affect employee and company performance. Therefore, you should ensure you have appropriate strategies to address all employee needs and boost remote working arrangements.
While providing solutions, focus on key areas or obstacles affecting employee production and performance. Focus on supervision, security attack, systems and data access, and many other areas. Streamline all the systems and ask employees for areas to streamline and improve. For now, here are some tips to help.
1. Select Ideal Office Location
Remote working will be suitable for a company; however, sometimes, you need to meet with employees in case they need help with certain things that require their presence in the office. Virtual offices can also be suitable for sensitive working arrangements that require employees to work from the office for a certain duration.
The office will be necessary for employees with challenges working from home, especially when children are on holiday. Since employees are dispersed, you can rent small virtual offices in various locations. For instance, when looking for the best virtual office London, select those closer to residential areas. This will enable employees to travel a shorter distance to get to the office, where they can collaborate without any challenges.
2. Effective Communication
Communication will be essential, especially if many employees prefer to work virtually. An ideal communication for virtual office management should be more advanced than the normal office communication platforms such as Teams and Email communication. Integrate other communication strategies such as social media and phone calls.
Ensure all the employees have a virtual contact list with all the employee’s contacts. Create social media groups such as WhatsApp that can enable employees to relate during individual and social team activities. Integrating other communication strategies enables you to reach employees through their preferred platform, and they can also reach you through the platform.
3. Have Effective Remote Monitoring and Collaboration Systems
Supervision and monitoring can be challenging when employees are far from the company. Some can use the freedom to work less and spend more time. Remote working can significantly affect productivity; therefore, a virtual office must have good collaboration and remote monitoring tools.
These tools will help the supervisors monitor employee activities virtually and track project progress and other activities. Install the software in all the company systems so managers can easily monitor their teams.
4. Effective Cloud Platform
Since all virtual office activities must be available from all locations, you should select the best cloud service providers. Ensure all the systems, applications, software, and company data are hosted on the platform to enable easy access. Streamline all other processes and systems, such as cloud security, to protect employee systems and activities.
Hire experts to streamline the security platform and introduce security policies such as authentication and access protocols. All the data must be uploaded frequently to facilitate collaboration and exchange amongst the employees, thereby speeding up all operations.
5. Provide Support Services
When working virtually, employees can experience different problems occasionally; hence you need to ensure help is always available in case needed. Focus on availing of all the support and help services frequently. This includes setting up IT teams in different virtual office locations so that employees can go for help in case of any software and hardware challenges.
The collaboration and communications system should enable employees to reach any support services needed; however, you should provide additional services such as administrative support. In case of any sensitive meetings, provide secure meeting rooms and services. Finally, provide all the relevant help contacts.
6. Clarify Tasks and Projects
Provide all the details for different projects and activities so that employees may know what is expected of them. Communicate the roles, KPIs, project milestones, and other activities. Besides the details, provide communication strategies to enable them to access help timely to facilitate project success.
Also, ensure the supervisors have all the relevant tools to monitor the projects. Organize weekly or monthly analyses and reviews to ensure all the projects are on the right track to avoid inconveniences.
7. Understand The Concepts of Time Zones
Since employee work remotely, some may prefer to work from other states and countries. You must be fair on the time zones to avoid too much pressure on employees to work odd hours. Schedule meetings and activities while considering time zones and ensure all the meetings are communicated earlier.
Have a database of all the employees, their time zones, and other details such as the exact location at any time. Set different business hours for the employees and inform them of any inconveniences.
8. Secure All Employee Systems and Activities
When working virtually, employees and their systems are vulnerable to attacks from different sources. Use tools like VPN to secure their IPs and online activities such as data sharing. Deploy all the relevant virtual systems protection to secure data transmission, access, and other activities.
Employees can also be accomplices to such attacks; hence, they should not know the existing protocols and security strategies. Endure the IT teams are always mentoring systems actively and diligently. The best approach is deploying machine learning and other AI for security needs.
9. Provide Healthcare services to your employee
Virtual office management can be an effective way to improve business operations and productivity. One key to successful virtual office management is to ensure that all team members have access to the necessary equipment and tools to perform their job duties. Additionally, employers should provide supplemental Medicare benefits to ensure that all team members are adequately covered for healthcare costs associated with remote work.
It is also important to establish clear expectations and communication protocols that ensure that everyone is on the same page. Finally, employers should ensure that their remote team members have access to the same resources that their in-office employees have, which can include access to training and development opportunities. By utilizing these tips, employers can ensure that their virtual office management is as successful as possible
Conclusion
Virtual working arrangements can be tasking and burdening when you do not have the right system. Ensure communication, monitoring, supervision, project, and security systems are effective and efficient to avoid inconveniences. Provide support services such as meeting rooms, virtual offices, and IT support to address all employee needs.
