Transparency in the Remote Office

Most employees love working from home.   

There are so many advantages – less time spent in the car or transit, a better work-life balance and generally less stress.  

However, there is one type of worker that is not as excited about the concept.    

The owners and supervisors. To them, old habits die hard. Supervisors tend to feel better when they see work being done at the office.  

The fear is that working from home will turn into email ghosting, 3:00 PM kitchen dance parties with the dog and a general lack of productivity.   

Those fears are misplaced, but it’s easy to understand where they come from. The move to a remote workplace is disruptive and with any disruption comes fear and anxiety. Just saying that things are going to be ok isn’t enough. Things need to be demonstrated.   

That’s why Microsoft’s work-from-home solution was designed with all the normal checks and balances that allow a traditional office to function.   

Here are some of the ways that Microsoft Teams is helping managers, supervisors and owners keep tabs on what their workers are up to.   

1 – Instant messaging   

Teams allow you to connect with your workers instantly and privately. You can provide feedback, assign tasks and share information quickly and seamlessly. Additionally, you can create multiple team chats that allow you to manage multiple people that are assigned to the same task, at the same time.   

2- Read notifications  

Don’t fear that your messages are being ignored. You can tell if your employee has seen the message or not with reading notifications. And, if more time has passed than you like, you can give them a quick little nudge for an update.   

3 – Status updates  

You can tell if someone is tied up with another task with the simple red (unavailable), yellow (busy) and green (free) status indicators.   

4 – Quick meeting set-ups  

It’s easy to set up meetings and connect face-to-face with Teams video teleconferencing – all integrate-able with Microsoft Office 365.   

5 – File sharing and open editing  

You can quickly share files with staff and with open and instant editing capabilities you can track what work your staff are doing and when they are doing it.  

6 – Positive reinforcement  

Not all supervision should be negative or corrective and Teams has many fun features that will allow you to give your staff a virtual fist bump when appropriate.    

If you’re looking to make to move to a digital workplace, why not try our limited WFH48 package, which starts as low as $1,995 CAN for qualified businesses. With it, you can be up and running remotely within 48-hours.  

Click here for more information.