Work From Home This COVID-19: Practical Operations Tips for Businesses

Posted by: lukwago J in Business April 2, 2020

Businesses today find themselves in a tricky situation given the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments have quarantined most cities around the world, and for good reason – as the virus has yet to be fully studied and we’re still developing effective measures to curb and stop its spread. Unfortunately, this also meant disrupting a lot of the things we do everyday – such as travel, study, going out with friends and family, and most importantly, work.

If you’re a business owner and your company finds itself stuck in the middle of quarantine, you might think it’s over for you and your employees. However, there are actually ways for you to continue your operations through an effective work from home strategy. Here are some tips:

Spend a day to assess the current flow of your business operations. If you’re planning on having your operations be transferred to a work-from-home setup, make sure you study your current operations with your team carefully. Try to huddle your employees or their department heads to discuss the current workflow you have, and see if it’s something you can “transfer” or convert into a work from home setup. For instance, can you do things such as sales, client communications, and payroll from a laptop at home? Can you do meetings at home? Can you submit necessary documents at home? If you’re a moving company, can you still have clients moving to Manhattan? Assess these first so transitioning to a work-from-home setup can be easy.
Have employees install necessary apps and software in their gadgets. Before you start your work from home strategy, have employees first install the necessary software in their gadgets and applications. If necessary, have one final workday where you’ll brief everyone on their role while they work from home and where you’ll disseminate a copy of the software they can install for the duration of the day. You can also conduct a short “test” to check if the software is working properly on their end, so work from home can be very smooth.
Convert usual office interactions and duties into things employees can do at home. After installing the necessary applications, try to “convert” your usual work duties into things your employees can do at home. If you have a clock-in and clock-out system, consider foregoing this for a to-do list system that employees have to “tick” instead. You can do this with a list over the cloud, or other applications. When doing call with clients, make sure your employees include minutes or details of their call in a spreadsheet or a separate document for everyone’s reference, and that you take a daily log of things you do so everyone is aware of where they are in the current pipeline.
Project your sales and growth in a realistic fashion. Sadly, we have to acknowledge that eliminating COVID-19 entirely means spending quite a while “fighting” the pandemic in different ways. Part of the consideration on this end is staying in quarantine for an extended period of time. This has to be part of your consideration, especially in terms of your sales and growth. If you still plan on your business growth without these special considerations, you might spiral into bankruptcy. To avoid this, make sure you plan your company’s growth with the virus’ economic impact in mind. This means being more lenient towards slower growth and lower sales, and lessening – but not stopping – operations if needed.
Arrange precautions, protocols for office work. If part of your operations need to operate in the office or outside, make sure you make the necessary arrangements first. Make sure your business is actually considered “essential” by the local government to avoid any issues. This depends on the area, but they are generally pharmacies, movers, and groceries. So if you’re one of the best interstate moving and storage services in your area, consider opening for business but with the right precautions – these include constant sterilization of materials, avoidance of physical contact, and daily briefings on the status of COVID-19 in your area. .

COVID-19 and Businesses: Work From Home Can Save Your Company

With the above tips in mind, it’s important to remember that a work-from-home strategy for you and your employees is not a sign of weakness for your company. If anything, it’s a sign of versatility and flexibility that not all businesses have with them. Building an effective strategy to work from home with the tips above can help ensure you maintain operating even with COVID-19 and you can ensure the flow of profit to your company. There might be a bit of a loss in terms of growth, but that’s better than being out of the game entirely. Good luck on your business!

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