Nowadays the world is busy fighting the Covid-19 virus and personal precaution is the most important issue to stop the spreading of the disease. One of the very basic and important personal precautions is not being in crowded environments for a while and not being outside as much as possible. Due to this fact, as Sigma Group, we had to consider both the health of the community and the health of all our employees and we decided to #stayathome for remote working.
Corona virus kind of triggered a major experiment for all the companies around the globe, which is remote working. As a technology company, we are not unfamiliar to the concept of working remotely, in terms of infrastructure and employee mentality. But we are sure that there may be many confused companies that are not sure about how to manage the situation. For this reason, we have devoted this week’s blog topic to the concept of working remotely and tried to convey our experience as much as we can.
Before starting our article, we would like to underline the fact that the Covid-19 virus is not stronger than the preventions we can take against it.
What is remote working?
Working remotely simply means working outside the office. This way of working has been on the agenda for a long time, especially with the development of the internet. The number of companies preferring remote working, especially after cloud technologies, is increasing. There are lots of tools and task managers that measure the productivity of the employees during the day and remote working is getting easier than ever.
Communication is everything
First, you need to put aside all the technical infrastructures, programs and applications that need to be set up for working remotely. The first and most important thing you need is "uninterrupted communication" in order to create a healthy remote work environment.
Being accessible during working hours is essential, making it easier to share your progress. You can set rules such as “Maximum 15 minutes to answer questions and tasks” or “Everyday team Skype meeting at 10:00 am” and build a daily structure for your team.
Many apps offer free instant messaging services in both the App Store and Google Play. You can create a company group through these applications and manage the entire communication flow from here as well.
Make your IT team ready and prepared
In remote working conditions, the heart of the organization is the IT team. Many unexpected errors and technical problems can occur during the process. For this reason, IT teams should always be ready for remote intervention as soon as possible. Beforehand, various crisis scenarios should be studied, and possible intervened scenarios should be determined in advance. This issue should not be overlooked, since immediate intervention is vital in the VoIP and tech industry.
Use cloud systems for documentation
If you haven't started working on the cloud yet, it's the right time. Cloud systems allow you to access all the company documents wherever and whenever you want, manage files, share them with the team and work more seamlessly. It will also improve collaboration, decrease the possibility of lost data, increase control and security. With all such benefits, cloud systems are a must for remote working companies.
Start to use CRM tools
If you are using CRM tools that contain every kind of major information about your company, you can turn everywhere into your office. Invoices, quotations, customer information, employees, company procedures, whatever comes to your mind... Start using a CRM tool today to document all company issues. You can choose the tool that suits you best according to your needs and expectations, or go with a custom made one, made just for your company.
Get started with task manager applications
What is my team working on? What is the status of the tasks? If you have questions about how to make weekly or daily work plans, don't worry, task management tools will help you out. There are many tools that allow you to manage your tasks easily. You can even track all the progress on one page and take action or give additional tasks if you need.
If you have not used such applications before, it can become a habit. They have a big potential to be employees’ and managers’ best friends.
First, try it
Everything is ok, but still you are not sure of yourself and your company? Try it first. For a couple of days you can make a test with a certain part of the company and analyze the results. The biggest step is to make the first move and get started.
Maybe not today, but working remotely will come into your life in the near future. The trend in the world is now in this direction. Don’t be a late adopter, don’t miss the possible opportunities.
Remember to respect the personal life of your employees
Do not forget to respect the private life of your employees. Yes, you will expect them to be working between your daily working hours. But working from home doesn't mean being available for 7x24 hours, remember that. Trust your employees or work with people you trust.
We are working remotely and there is more
As Sigma Group, we switched to the remote working system due to the covid-19 situation.
Rather than remote working, here are some other precautions we took:
- Regularly cleaning and sanitization efforts with increased frequency at all common touchpoints, offices, meeting rooms and common areas
- Using infrared thermometers to measure the temperatures
- Sensitizing teams to inform their managers and HR if anyone or their families have any symptoms
- Continuous supply of sanitizers, single-use gloves, and masks
- Making all the meetings and job interviews online
- Prohibiting abroad traveling
For our ongoing projects and operations, we will continue working and supporting between normal working days and hours and we do not expect any impact on our ability to deliver services. You can always reach us at business.development@sigmatelecom.com for new business inquiries.
We wish immediate healing to the whole world.