The growing concerns surrounding the spread of Covid-19 is forcing business owners to look at alternatives for how they can stay operational yet protect their staff, customers, and suppliers. For many businesses, one option is to initiate a remote working policy and have all employees work from home. But how is that manageable?
Some companies embraced remote working many years ago and they have proven it can be done; one prime example is Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress website and blogging platform. This is a billion-dollar company with around 400 employees and no offices, that’s right, not one office.
The technology available to us all today makes remote working easy and productive. Aside from email, we have Skype, Zoom, Slack, Eko, WhatsApp, and more. Even the good old-fashioned conference call is effective.
One of the most important factors to making this work is having a project manager or a project management tool. The aforementioned Slack is one such option, as is Thailand’s own Eko, developed by Korawad Chearavanont as an alternative to Slack and other apps.
Change is difficult for many, but when circumstances such as those confronting us all right now arise there is a need to embrace change and make it work for your business.
Once a company masters the remote working process they can continue to use it to their benefit once the Covid-19 crisis passes. It opens the door to engaging the skills and talents of freelancers and consultants from all corners of the world. This, of course, expands the capabilities of a company.
There is another benefit to embracing remote working and that is staff morale. There are times when some staff may need to be at home for personal or family reasons, giving them the option to work from home while still being a productive member of the team gives them a boost and shows them that the company respects their needs.
At Vivaldi, we started to explore the potential of remote work in early 2019 and we have not looked back since. If you would like to discuss our experiences with this and how we make it work for us please feel free to get in touch.
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