Nederlands
Since March 2020, working from home is more normal than ever. Working from home is one of the measures taken by the government, because of COVID-19. In this blog, we give communication managers six tips that will help with working from home and also how to achieve goals without seeing everyone at the office.
Did you know that 71% of the people surveyed are positive about working from home? The Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy (KiM) did a study on the effects of working from home. One of the effects is that 45% of the people expect to continue to work from home after the COVID-19. For the upcoming months this is definitely the case. The following tips will make working from home a little easier and hopefully more fun!
1. Managing your team from home, this is how you do it!
The daily chats in the hallway are underestimated. You often find out what your team is up to. It is important to schedule meetings daily or weekly with your whole team. This way, you can keep your employees continuously informed of the latest developments and discuss how the work is progressing.
In addition, it is recommended to have one-on-one conversations with your team members to see how they are doing, and to find out if there are any problems or issues that need to be resolved. When you maintain good communication between and with your team members, you can quickly react to any problems or issues.
2. Draw up a communication policy
Communicating from home is a bit more complex than at the office. It is very important to keep you colleagues and team informed of developments and measures within the company. This can be updated on a social intranet for companies, for example on Yammer.
Give a brief update every two weeks about how the company is doing during the COVID-19 crisis. Also, show your appreciation to your team during these updates. After all, this is a big change for everyone. It is important to update your employees on the latest updates about the company, but also it is very important to update your partners and customers. Make sure you are open and transparent during these times to the outside world and stay close to the values of your organisation.
3. Make sure you have a planning, even during unpredictable times
Planning during a pandemic like this one, is very difficult. The situation is constantly changing and you are depended on suppliers and other stakeholders. A long-term planning is therefore more difficult. How do you make a planning during an unpredictable time?
It is wise to focus your planning on short term instead of long term. Especially focus on current campaigns and respond to current situations. Switching and adapting are the most important things during these times. Be creative and challenge your team.
Look at your current planning to see if you have to move some things, like events. Instead of pushing all events forward, it is also good to think about how you can have these events taken place digitally, in order to reach your target group.
4. Have creative brainstorms with your team
Brainstorming digitally works slightly different than when you can meet up with your team. You are not in the same room as your team, so the brainstorm sessions will look a bit different. Of course you can schedule meetings online with Microsoft Teams, but you will have less interaction.
Therefore, you can also use Mural as a tool. Mural is an online tool where everyone can participate to brainstorm more effectively. In addition to an online meeting, you can also rent a communal area, or you can go outside to a park with a small group of people when the weather is nice. This also stimulates the creativity of an individual and you can meet up with your team again, but with distance!
5. Monitor the needs of your target audience constantly
The needs of your target audience may have changed. Just like your company, other companies are also at home and the needs of individuals are also different than before. A study by Sanoma shows that consumers are much more careful with money, because they are afraid of their financial situation. In addition, 20% of the people say that they buy more online than in a physical store. It is therefore important during these times to make your organisation visible online and to respond to the needs of your target group.
6. Make sure you have a good digital workspace
To be able to work from home as efficiently as possible, you need to have a good digital workspace. Working with a digital workplace makes it easier for employees to work from home and to stay in touch with colleagues. With a digital workspace, employees also need to have all the applications and apps to work efficiently. Within Workspace 365 there are countless possibilities for a company to integrate all the tools and applications of the organisation.
