As some parts of the country are in local lockdown and we’ve all been encouraged to work from home again we need to get set up properly for working from home.
For 7 months now businesses have been making excuses for poor service and blaming working from home. Frankly, apart from a few badly hit sectors, if you haven’t adapted by now then it sounds a bit hollow. (If you want ideas on how to adapt then watch Hudson Business Advice’s old ‘One for All’ Covid videos or book onto their 30 day Makeover course starting 1 November – see www.hudsonbusiness.co.uk for further information).
Employers still expecting their team to work from their premises need to have a pretty good risk assessment, and some types of business may also be called upon to explain WHY they can’t mitigate risks by working from home.
Make it easier to work from home with:
- VOIP phone system for external calls or an alternative method of contacting the team. I have a VOIP phone but I also use Answer It answering service to take messages or redirect calls.
- Paperless systems. Even the smallest businesses can store information in the cloud for free or cheaply. Where possible send out information electronically to minimise the number of people touching a document. I use the business version of Onedrive.
- Online signatures for contracts, accounts etc. I use Signable and Accountancy Manager for the two sides of my business.
- Internal communications for managing work. Invest in a workflow system. I use Trello, Active Campaign and Accountancy Manager for the different aspects of my businesses
- Informal internal communications such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.
There are plenty of other cheap or free ways to run your business from home now that we have time to catch our breath and plan.