Go Work Remotely is a style that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. Executing their duties from wherever they please
As companies across America consider reopening their workplaces in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, they face many new concerns: Most of those concerns are fear of the unknown. For centuries we have gone to merchants to buy our goods and services. COVID-19 may have flipped that business model upside down.
Go Work Remotely Permanently are the questions that accountants and small business owners are asking themselves. I hear a lot of employers do not like the remote working model. After much debate with colleagues, this is what we came up with against typical arguments against like the remote working model.
Go Work Remotely – Do Staff communications suffer?
A lot of communication in the office is non-work related. So if communication is limited to phone, email, Zoom, and the use of other modern tools, I think communication will be more business-focused.
Go Work Remotely work policies are hard to enforce
My old boss Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, and Republican Presidential contender against Trump in 2016 used to say, “Bad incentives drive bad behavior”. Develop policies that help employees thrive, and in turn, so will the company.
Oversight of Employee Performance
Another one of my favorite quotes from Mrs. Fiorina was “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Employers ask themselves; how can we be sure employees are doing their jobs. Go Work Remotely monitoring is not as hard as it sounds. Create policies that are not subjective and flexible. An example for me as an accountant might be to say, “I need 20 tax returns done by Friday”. It does not matter to me if you prepare them between the hours of 9 am to 5 pm or 7:30 pm and 3 am. The twenty tax returns are a “measurable” metric both employee and employer understand, 20 = 20, not 14.
Will visitors be allowed in the office? If so, what will the protocols be for each type of visitor allowed?
There will not be an office, so no need for visitors. On those rare occasions, a face to face is necessary, you can rent a conference room for less than $50 an hour from companies like WeWork or Regus. Go Work Remotely and rent space when you need it. They can worry, and implement, those protocols that will most likely be handed down to us by some government agency.
What are the circumstances under which employee travel or visiting clients’ offices is allowed?
If employees will travel or visit clients, they will need to adhere to guidelines that will ensure their safety and address the firm’s liability if they or a client gets sick? Again, these protocols most likely are handed down to us by some government agency.
The following are policies being implemented daily by all types and sizes of business. I am all for safety, and I would not like to see not even one person contract the disease, or worse. But these policies below all say the same thing to me “Stay Home…close the Office Go Work Remotely Permanently”
- Creating capacity limits for the office and gathering places.
- Closing of coffee bars, lunchrooms, and other gathering places.
- Reconfiguring workspaces to allow for social distancing.
- Installing safety panels between desks.
- Wearing masks.
- Avoiding handshakes.
- Instituting one-way traffic patterns.
- Limiting capacity in elevators.
- Making hand sanitizer available and requiring its use; and
- Monitoring employees’ temperatures.
- For clients, such protocols can include contactless pickup or drop-off or digital delivery of documents.
I realize that not all businesses cannot operate Go Work Remotely. And those that cannot, need to take this pandemic and the predicted second wave very seriously. What I am saying is do not be scared to try something new because it’s never been done before. People adapt quickly, and COVID-19 has forced very rapid change, like it or not. This is your chance to try something new.