If you or your team need or wish to self isolate in order to reduce the risk of infection here are a few tips to help you continue to get the results you need.
We’re privileged to have access to such wonderful technology right now that working from home has never been so easy for office based workers.
Risk Assessment
It’s important to have completed a risk assessment for anyone wishing to work from home. Have you and your team done this?
It’s important that your team members aren’t slouched on a settee working with a laptop since this can cause back and neck pain, for example. They should be using a desk or kitchen table to maintain a good posture.
If not, here’s a link to down load a free template from https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/working_from_home_risk_assessment.pdf
Motivation and results
Not everyone feels motivated when working from home, so it’s important to agree outcomes. Specific deliverables with each member of your team. What are they accountable for achieving each hour/day/week? It’s results that matter above all else.
Of course, if someone is ill then compromises should be agreed and fair, reasonable outcomes agreed upon.
Communication
Keep in touch and maintain the team environment. Slack (www.slack.com) is a great tool as is zoom.us for video and screen sharing. Microsoft teams works for multiple people online too. There are many tools available and many which are free to use. For example, Slack and Zoom will give you, in my opinion, plenty of use for the free version.
To complement the agreed outcomes previously mentioned, set milestones and have reporting and feedback in place so that your team know they can discuss where they’re at, any problems they’re facing, and tap in to support they may require.
Telephones
If you’re not using VOIP, (Voice Over IP which is basically internet phones that can be plugged in or connected anywhere in the world) all is not lost, your service provider should be able to put redirects in place for you easily so that calls can go to a dedicated mobile and the person responsible for answering can simply answer and arrange a call back by the appropriate member within your team.
Health
Finally, whether its self isolating in the hopes of avoiding illness or to reduce the risk of spreading it you should definitely be eating healthy and getting exercise. Germs can fester in central heated homes and offices so it’s important to keep a fresh air flow, get out for some regular walks in the fresh air (and rain) and keep eating plenty of nutritious fruit and veg so that your body is at its best to fight off illness.