{"id":719,"date":"2020-04-01T11:59:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T15:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sage-people-scraping-ca.local\/?p=719"},"modified":"2025-05-07T10:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:05:26","slug":"effective-remote-workforce-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/effective-remote-workforce-preparation\/","title":{"rendered":"4 steps to prepare your organization to become an effective remote workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmploying people<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t4 steps to prepare your organization to become an effective remote workforce\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Headashot\t\t\t\tCharlotte Penny<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tens of thousands of office workers around the globe have
been told to work from home as governments take action to prevent the spread of
COVID-19 (Coronavirus). But what does this mean for your workforce?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means many office-based employees are now predominantly,
if not 100% remote working for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19
pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s up to organizations \u2013 particularly HR and People teams
\u2013 to ensure that employees feel supported through this unprecedented situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the benefits of remote working?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If your employees are working remotely, ultimately it allows
your business to keep functioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For HR and People teams setting up your organization to work
from home might not be straightforward, but there are some clear benefits \u2013
ones that employees really value too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, more than 80% of 3,500 employees<\/a> we polled globally placed importance on flexible and remote working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is it about working from home that employees\u2019 value? A study<\/a> found that 91% of employees believe the biggest benefit is a better work-life balance, closely followed by increased focus and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the fact there are great benefits to working
remotely, it takes thought and planning from the HR and People team for it to
really work. Here\u2019s the four steps you\u2019ll need to take to prepare your
organization for remote working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Establish what you need for your employees to work from home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Employees might get by just fine at work and have everything
they need. However, that might not be the case when they work remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operationally, employees will need the right equipment,
whether that be a work mobile, a laptop, perhaps a second screen and the right
software. However, to get remote work right, it goes much further than
that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managers and their employees will need to keep in regular contact \u2013 possibly more so than normal. Employees may need more frequent virtual meetings to talk when they\u2019d usually just walk up to a desk to chat. Also, it\u2019s important to check on your employee\u2019s health and wellbeing<\/a> regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speak to people managers and employees to ensure that they\u2019re aware of what equipment they can access and get that posted out to them. Identify where they might need help or regular check-ins to support their wellbeing, keep them motivated and productive whilst working from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Design and highlight resources that are available<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy for an employee in the office to walk over to HR
and ask where a policy lives on a system but for employees who work remotely,
it\u2019s not quite so simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might take your HR and People team five minutes to find a
policy but say if 10 people ask the same question every week, you\u2019re losing
nearly an hour of your teams\u2019 time. To avoid such a manual process, create a
centralized online filing system for all your policies if you haven\u2019t already
done so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, highlighting the resources goes beyond just policies.
Walkthrough all the resources that are available to your people. Details on
your health and wellbeing initiatives to support employees, internal updates or
even top tips for remote working and advice for parents working from home with
children are likely to be important to your employees. By making them available
online, employees can then review in their own time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, autonomy is important for any employee, but especially those who work from home. Give your people the abilities to self-serve so that they can go and search for the documents they need when they need them. It will help your people to get the resources in a timely manner, as well as removing administrative time from your HR team that can be used to focus on more strategic tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Make sure your data is up to scratch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Do you have the right data for your people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees when they start will give personal data such as
names, date of birth, addresses and emergency contacts but only your employees
will know how up to date they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask your employees regularly that the details you hold are
still correct. The likelihood is you\u2019ll never need to get hold of an employee
via their personal number but ensuring that all your data is correct and as up
to date as possible will mean you can get hold of them should the need arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, by checking and amending your employee data, your reporting will be more accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Effectively communicate the changes to your people<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Doing great work on designing and creating useful resources
without sharing them would be a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speak to managers and employees to show them around some of
the new things you\u2019ve created to support your remote workers. Why not create a
video, or share as part of a virtual meeting? It could be a good way to circulate
your new resources and answer any questions your team may have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, consider asking your employees for feedback and input.
By asking your people what they think, either by a survey link or simply via
email, they\u2019ll be able to identify any gaps in support or resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managers play a critical role in the employee feedback
process, including taking action based on the results. It\u2019s vital to
reinforce the importance of your team\u2019s participation so they feel their
contributions are valued and being listened to when working from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, you and your employees are in these uncertain
times together and will resume normal working operations soon. This can be an
opportunity to explore new experiences, both as a team and as individuals.<\/p>\n \n

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The changing face of HR<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Download this free report from Sage and discover how the modern HR function is vital to an organization’s growth and success<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet your free report<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Colleagues\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Subscribe to the Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is your organization gearing up to be an effective remote workforce during COVID-19? See the steps HR teams can take to ensure that employees feel supported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1660,"featured_media":8147,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"business_type":[99],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[76],"imagine_tag":[234],"coauthors":[327],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employing-people","business_type-medium-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ca","author_name":"Charlotte Penny","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1271693425.jpg","imagine_tags":{"234":"HR"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada English","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/8147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}