Businesses all over the world are struggling to adapt to the new reality of virtual work. Consequent has always been a virtual company, operating remotely for all our 20+ years in business. We have learned that this model does not have to dampen productivity – in fact, it’s our experience that working virtually can enhance it.
Here are a few practical tactics that work for us. We’d like to share with you and hope they help as you are rapidly transforming.
- Use video conferencing to keep connected for both formal meetings and informal working sessions. Face to face collaboration and connection is important.
- Communicate frequently – this is key. One way to stay connected is for employees to send a weekly voice message to their team or company summarizing their activities for the week.
- Use shared documents and workspaces to collaborate on projects and to conceptualize, co-write, and distribute work products. This saves time and avoids the pitfall of version control. It also keeps project teams accountable to one another for deliverables.
- Enable flexible hours. This is a must. With everyone working at home, allow employees to manage their workload around their temporary responsibilities and stay productive.
- Encourage working smarter, not harder: make the best of the working hours you have and, ideally, find a space in your home where you can focus (and walk away from when you are not working).
We are living through an unprecedented time, but there are great opportunities to learn and move into the future with expanded possibilities. If your company is struggling with the transition to virtual and would like to talk someone who has been working virtually for a long time, all of us at Consequent are happy to share our personal experiences. We will get through this together – and be stronger for it.
