? EDITOR ’ S QUESTION //
“
THIS ALLOWED
US TO SURVEY EMPLOYEES DAILY , GAIN IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK AND TRACK TRENDS TO DETERMINE
THEIR STATE OF MIND AND
TACKLE REMOTE WORKING
CHALLENGES .
W hile there are many ways SMEs could improve and adapt their remote working policies , this will largely be dependent on the organisation itself . However , some tips and tricks for remote working are universal . Working at a software company , Synthesis Software Technologies , means agility is the standard and we put this agility to use when COVID-19 emerged . Below are a few ways we made remote work workable .
As a company , Synthesis set up a COVID Task Force and were able to plan a few weeks prior to the entire country going into shutdown last March . This ensured that all our employees were set up with the right tools and infrastructure , enabling them to work effectively from home .
By putting the company into early lockdown , we were afforded the opportunity to work out any issues that employees experienced i . e . data , power outages etc . This meant that when hard lockdown was enforced , we experienced little to no glitches and our employees were able to transition smoothly .
The COVID Task Force met on a regular basis and were tasked with checking in on team members .
We set in place a system we created ( and are now selling to the public ) called Pulse . This allowed us to survey employees daily , gain immediate feedback and track trends to determine their state of mind and tackle remote working challenges . We found that the most common problem was burn out and an inability to shut off . We had the COVID Task
Force call employees when we could see they were not doing well . Employees knew they were not alone , and their struggles were acknowledged .
Our marketing team rallied together and we created a series of challenges which we branded Care + ona . We did bake-offs , indoor forts and obstacle courses to name a few .
Another initiative we started was The Human Library . With water cooler chats no longer taking place we put together a number of ‘ human books ’ which employees volunteered themselves for and colleagues were able to book an hour once a week with these ‘ books ’ to just have a conversation and get to know a bit about the individual .
As challenging as the lockdown of last year was , we experienced a lot of positives as well as negatives . Negatives were pretty much what the entire country was experiencing . We had a lot of people feeling very isolated and alone . We had parents who all of a sudden were having to work full workdays and still be a teacher to their kids as well . Positives were that we were able to come together as a team and under very stressful and difficult circumstances succeed and grow where many others were not as fortunate .
To keep employees connected , effective and content , SMEs will need to create remote working policies that allow for agility and the changes that a pandemic can bring . They will need to throw away the old rule book when planning for employee satisfaction and find new ways to keep employees from burning out , languishing and feeling isolated so they can thrive .
SHARON ANDREWS , SYNTHESIS SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
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