Victoria is declaring a State of Emergency from noon today, but you already know that. We all know everything we can possibly know about this virus, it is on our screens and our inboxes and our minds.
In our current series on how to do business in the age of self isolation, we bring you a more lighthearted (but incredibly necessary) chapter. How to efficiently run a team while working remotely.
For small business, this is hard. Much of our work culture is about conversations. We assign tasks by chatting, we have meetings, do pow-wows, and now we can't.
More importantly, we can't debrief, destress, or disengage in the way we used to.
There is some technological benefits that we will recommend to ensure that your team (and business) operate smoothly.
Step 1:
If you have Office 365 you are already paying for a feature called Teams. Get everyone logged in. Get them to use the "busy/available" feature like its 2001 and MSN is life.
Step 2:
try the video conferencing feature of Teams. (If you are not using Teams, check out the video conferencing feature of whatever application you do use to communicate. (Slack, Skype.)
Step 3:
Schedule daily meetings (I recommend 9.30am) with your people and explain that everyone is going to be joining the videoconference. Do a trial run today until everyone can log in.
Step 4:
Download the Headspace app and guide your team every day through a 4 minute meditation to ensure they are focused and coping.
Step 5:
Schedule check in on Wednesdays (say 11am) to do a review of how everyone is working, what tasks they are on, and where they need support. Assign tasks that need to be finished by Friday. You may need to make those check-ins daily if you have juniors working for you.
Step 6:
Schedule your team bonding session to be done remotely. We all happen to have a Nintendo Switch, but your team may require something else. Spend an hour chasing Mario around a track together.
Step 7: Your lawyer and business advisors can offer guidance and support. Feel free to call us. 03 9225 5266.
Leila Chalk is the principal solicitor at Forty Four Degrees Lawyers and Consultants.