Mobilizing workforces is becoming the new norm of practicing social distancing to help manage the prevalent COVID-19. The World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11. Since then, many businesses have decided to virtualize operations in an effort to protect the health and safety of employees. Depending on the size of your company and how much experience you have with remote work, this could either be an easy transition or a difficult one.
At Abstrakt Marketing Group, we successfully mobilized 330+ employees in just under 72 hours. Here’s how we did it, plus some tips that will help your workforce make a seamless transition.
Step 1: Develop a Business Continuity Plan
As the coronavirus pandemic became more serious, executives in our organization came together for important decision-making meetings. We started developing a business continuity plan to prepare for the changes that the coming weeks would bring.
Here is what your organization should be thinking about in terms of business continuity at this time:
Think About Technology
Do your team members have everything they need to work remotely? If not, how will you provide this to them? At Abstrakt, some divisions in our company had laptops, while others did not. To accommodate, we provided necessary packing materials and helped team members move their workstation home; this included desktops, phones, headsets, and so on.
Or, if a lead says the evaluate new partners for your service offering annually, plan to call them in about six to eight months (before the year mark). You want to catch them before anybody else does. This goes back to having great salespeople who ask leads when they’ll be considering so they have a specific timeframe in which they can reach out.
Square Away Software
Abstrakt partners with Salesforce, a cloud-based software company, for essential business activities. We use Salesforce for our B2B appointment setting program as a way to house customer
information, track activity, and run successful sales programs. Our inbound marketing division also uses Salesforce to build projects, hold team members accountable for projects, communicate, build reports, and so on. Additionally, our Salesforce consultants offer an array of support services to businesses that need extra help using Salesforce to its full potential.
As you mobilize your workforce, it’s important to make sure you have all the necessary software in place to perform business activities as usual. You might need software, apps, and tools for the following essential business functions:
- Accounting and invoicing
- Custom relationship management
- Email marketing
- File backup and management
- File backup and recovery
- Online meetings
- Project management
- Social media management
- Time tracking
Make sure you know what all of your needs are going to be as you go remote and implement (if you haven’t already) everything that you will need to be successful.
Hold Team Members Accountable
Before you go 100% remote, make sure you have a plan for how you are going to hold employees accountable. This ties into making sure you have all the necessary software lined up because there are various tools that allow you to track employee activity. Whether you want to track time, hold virtual meetings, or keep track of projects, there’s an app for that. Fortunately, a lot of apps and software out there probably integrate many of the capabilities you’re looking for.
Holding everyone in your organization accountable is going to be key during this time of uncertainty. It gives all the leaders in your organization peace of mind that business operations are running smoothly. It also helps team members hold themselves accountable and keep track of their day-to-day activities.
As the coronavirus pandemic became more serious, executives in our organization came together for important decision-making meetings. We started developing a business continuity plan to prepare for the changes that the coming weeks would bring.
Here is what your organization should be thinking about in terms of business continuity at this time:
Think About Technology
Do your team members have everything they need to work remotely? If not, how will you provide this to them? At Abstrakt, some divisions in our company had laptops, while others did not. To accommodate, we provided necessary packing materials and helped team members move their workstation home; this included desktops, phones, headsets, and so on.
Or, if a lead says the evaluate new partners for your service offering annually, plan to call them in about six to eight months (before the year mark). You want to catch them before anybody else does. This goes back to having great salespeople who ask leads when they’ll be considering so they have a specific timeframe in which they can reach out.
Square Away Software
Abstrakt partners with Salesforce, a cloud-based software company, for essential business activities. We use Salesforce for our B2B appointment setting program as a way to house customer
information, track activity, and run successful sales programs. Our inbound marketing division also uses Salesforce to build projects, hold team members accountable for projects, communicate, build reports, and so on. Additionally, our Salesforce consultants offer an array of support services to businesses that need extra help using Salesforce to its full potential.
As you mobilize your workforce, it’s important to make sure you have all the necessary software in place to perform business activities as usual. You might need software, apps, and tools for the following essential business functions:
- Accounting and invoicing
- Custom relationship management
- Email marketing
- File backup and management
- File backup and recovery
- Online meetings
- Project management
- Social media management
- Time tracking
Make sure you know what all of your needs are going to be as you go remote and implement (if you haven’t already) everything that you will need to be successful.
Hold Team Members Accountable
Before you go 100% remote, make sure you have a plan for how you are going to hold employees accountable. This ties into making sure you have all the necessary software lined up because there are various tools that allow you to track employee activity. Whether you want to track time, hold virtual meetings, or keep track of projects, there’s an app for that. Fortunately, a lot of apps and software out there probably integrate many of the capabilities you’re looking for.
Holding everyone in your organization accountable is going to be key during this time of uncertainty. It gives all the leaders in your organization peace of mind that business operations are running smoothly. It also helps team members hold themselves accountable and keep track of their day-to-day activities.
Step 2: Inform and Prepare Team Members
While your business may see work from home on its own as a valid business continuity plan, you can’t suddenly allow remote work with no policies or processes in place. Once you make the decision to work from home and make important decisions among the executive team, you must inform employees and prepare them for the transition.
Here are a few tips for your company regarding how to inform and prepare employees:
- Send out daily email communication and provide as much information as possible
- Prepare managers to have separate conversations with individual teams
- Have a timeline to share with employees so they know what to expect in the coming weeks/days
- Set up text message alerts so employees can stay informed of important updates at any time from anywhere
Communication is going to be key to making everything work during this time; the more communication, the better. For a smooth transition, be as transparent as you can be with your employees.
While your business may see work from home on its own as a valid business continuity plan, you can’t suddenly allow remote work with no policies or processes in place. Once you make the decision to work from home and make important decisions among the executive team, you must inform employees and prepare them for the transition.
Here are a few tips for your company regarding how to inform and prepare employees:
- Send out daily email communication and provide as much information as possible
- Prepare managers to have separate conversations with individual teams
- Have a timeline to share with employees so they know what to expect in the coming weeks/days
- Set up text message alerts so employees can stay informed of important updates at any time from anywhere
Communication is going to be key to making everything work during this time; the more communication, the better. For a smooth transition, be as transparent as you can be with your employees.
Step 3: Move Team Members to Their Remote Office
Once you’ve made all critical business decisions and informed employees of an agreed-upon timeline, the next step will be to actually move employees to their remote office. To successfully do this requires organization, teamwork, and a clear schedule. Documents with important information will be very helpful to employees as well.
Communication and items to send out to employees may include the following:
Checkout process—Send out a detailed email explaining what the checkout process will look like for each employee. If this looks different for different divisions in the company, be sure to specify that.
Telecommuting schedule and updates—For larger companies, you’ll likely have to move groups of people out at different times over the course of one or two weeks. Make sure to send emails that include general updates, but that also includes who moved out each day and who is scheduled to move out the remainder of the week.
Up-to-date telecommuting policy—There is no time more important than now for employees to be made aware of the telecommuting policy your company has. If you don’t have one already, you will need to create a policy. Even if you do have a policy, it might be a good idea to update it and create a COVID-19 remote work policy. Since so many companies are doing things they’ve never done before, policies might change.
“Checking out” checklist— All employees, even those who have experience working remotely, are overwhelmed right now. They’re probably thinking, “will I have everything I need to work remotely for this extended period of time?” Provide a checklist to your employees. Not only will they appreciate this, but it will help to ensure that no one leaves behind any necessary hardware that they may need to perform their job. Require employees to sign these checklists and turn them into managers to hold everyone accountable.
The more information you provide to employees, the more confident they will feel about moving to a 100% work from home schedule.
Once you’ve made all critical business decisions and informed employees of an agreed-upon timeline, the next step will be to actually move employees to their remote office. To successfully do this requires organization, teamwork, and a clear schedule. Documents with important information will be very helpful to employees as well.
Communication and items to send out to employees may include the following:
Checkout process—Send out a detailed email explaining what the checkout process will look like for each employee. If this looks different for different divisions in the company, be sure to specify that.
Telecommuting schedule and updates—For larger companies, you’ll likely have to move groups of people out at different times over the course of one or two weeks. Make sure to send emails that include general updates, but that also includes who moved out each day and who is scheduled to move out the remainder of the week.
Up-to-date telecommuting policy—There is no time more important than now for employees to be made aware of the telecommuting policy your company has. If you don’t have one already, you will need to create a policy. Even if you do have a policy, it might be a good idea to update it and create a COVID-19 remote work policy. Since so many companies are doing things they’ve never done before, policies might change.
“Checking out” checklist— All employees, even those who have experience working remotely, are overwhelmed right now. They’re probably thinking, “will I have everything I need to work remotely for this extended period of time?” Provide a checklist to your employees. Not only will they appreciate this, but it will help to ensure that no one leaves behind any necessary hardware that they may need to perform their job. Require employees to sign these checklists and turn them into managers to hold everyone accountable.
The more information you provide to employees, the more confident they will feel about moving to a 100% work from home schedule.
Step 4: Set Team Members Up for Success and Continue Business Operations
Last but certainly not least, all leaders and managers in the organization should be fully prepared to set employees up for success. Your team members are the ones keeping the ship afloat right now, and you need to show them how much you appreciate them by providing as much support as possible right now.
If employees are set up with all of their hardware to work at home AND they have support from their teammates and manager, there’s nothing stopping them from being successful working from home. Ask your employees if they need anything, check-in with them, and make sure you understand how they are feeling about all the changes that are going on. If you do this, your business should be able to continue regular operations, no problem.
Planning, meeting with other leaders in your organization, and successfully moving employees to a virtual office may sound like an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right mindset and a solid plan, Abstrakt was able to mobilize our workforce in three days, and your company can do it too.
For more helpful tips in the coming weeks on how to be successful working remotely, follow Abstrakt Marketing Group on social media or contact us today.
Last but certainly not least, all leaders and managers in the organization should be fully prepared to set employees up for success. Your team members are the ones keeping the ship afloat right now, and you need to show them how much you appreciate them by providing as much support as possible right now.
If employees are set up with all of their hardware to work at home AND they have support from their teammates and manager, there’s nothing stopping them from being successful working from home. Ask your employees if they need anything, check-in with them, and make sure you understand how they are feeling about all the changes that are going on. If you do this, your business should be able to continue regular operations, no problem.
Planning, meeting with other leaders in your organization, and successfully moving employees to a virtual office may sound like an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right mindset and a solid plan, Abstrakt was able to mobilize our workforce in three days, and your company can do it too.
For more helpful tips in the coming weeks on how to be successful working remotely, follow Abstrakt Marketing Group on social media or contact us today.
