More and more businesses have mandated that their employees work from home (WFH) in the ongoing effort to minimize the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
The concept of Work From Home is increasingly being adopted by businesses around the world.
Among many benefits of using WFH, one is that it allows a business to continue processing work when office building becomes inaccessible for the staff.
The call centre industry is one of the industries that are known to account for the mass employment of fresh graduates from the universities or polytechnics. Irrespective of the course you have studied, you can easily fit into the call centre setting if you are determined and hard working. The fact that the job description varies makes it difficult to restrict the recruitment of a call centre agent to a particular field of study.
If you need to have your designated staff work from home in the most effective way, ZRG team is here to help with our experience, knowledge and solutions.
We have gathered and put together useful tips that can be used for working remotely, possibly for an extended period of time during a DR condition or due to change in business strategy.
1. Stay Connected to Your Coworkers
Working from home might help you focus on your work in the short term, but it can also make you feel cut off from the rest of the company. Instant messaging, community engagement threads, and video-conferencing can make it easy to check in with coworkers and remind you how your work is contributing to the bigger picture.
Making these check-ins a regular part of your day when at home can also be a great way to add some structure. For example, consider having employees begin the day with a 15-minute call with their managers to provide a more direct communication channel. Employees can get specific questions answered before diving into work and managers can adjust priorities without creating confusion.
2. Clearly Communicate Expectations
For managers, clearly state what you hope your employees to accomplish in a given day. Employers are often wary of offering remote work opportunities for fear that employees will take advantage of the policy. However, 65% of employees think they would be more productive at home than in the office.
To mitigate the two, determine how you’ll track productivity. Where activity logs might imply distrust and facilitate discontent, consider gauging productivity by tracking completed tasks, or utilizing a task-management platform to make progress visible.
3. Outline Responsiveness and Availability Expectations
To ensure that tasks are being completed on time, communication guidelines need to be clarified and set with managers.
Are employees expected to be online and available over the course of the entire workday, or just during set hours? How are WFH employees expected to handle their meeting schedules? Setting clear expectations allows employees to better coordinate personal matters alongside their work responsibilities and be more productive.
It's also important to set guidelines for preferred modes of communication. Doing so holds remote workers accountable and predetermines a set source of information.
Our Favorite Internal Communication Tools: Google Hangouts, Zoom, Slack, Employee Apps
4. Evaluate Your Policy Frequently
To ensure your work-from-home policy is as successful as can be, regularly check in with your team and managers. Ask the important questions: has productivity increased? Are there any major project delays. Are you finding it difficult to keep tabs on team performance? Additionally, use surveys to find out how the employees themselves feel about the current communication and adjust accordingly. Two-way communication is absolutely key.
5. Lead with Trust
Having so many workers at home can make it tempting for a manager to check in frequently and micromanage from afar to ensure task completion, but doing so will only create problems for your team.
A successful WFH policy requires you to trust your employees. If employees fail to act responsibly, act accordingly, whether that means adjusting the policy or addressing employees individually. When you trust employees as much as you value them, your business will only be rewarded.
At ZRG, our aim is to help in making WFH strategy work for you, especially if you're doing it for the first time. We hope that you can benefits from the above tips and get the most value when using WFH approach.
