Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the Austin Business Journal. See the original post here.
Indeed.com managers handed over their "ultimate guide to working from home" — a 19-page document that could be useful to managers and employees as the coronavirus forces more of us to telecommute.
Long before America’s professional and collegiate sports leagues canceled or anyone was worried whether President Trump might have caught COVID-19 from the press secretary for Brazil’s president, Austin’s Indeed.com implemented a companywide policy that all employees work from home.
The job-search and hiring company, which is among Austin’s largest technology employers with about 2,000 on its payroll, announced the work-from-home policy on March 4 so it's had a bit of time to work kinks out.
Indeed’s move is proving prescient — and a shrewd business move — as America has woken up today, March 13, in a different world due to the COVID-19 fallout. As more companies move to make their working environments remote, Austin Business Journal asked Indeed’s Paul Wolfe, the company’s senior vice president of global human resources, for some advice on how companies could transition to remote working most effectively.
Since Indeed’s forward-looking decision, Rodeo Austin, Austin's big PGA golf tournament, South by Southwest and other big events have all been canceled. Some local schools have even closed.
As of Friday morning, two presumptive positive tests for the virus have occurred in Travis County, and more than 132,500 people worldwide have been infected with about 5,000 deaths, CNN reported using data from the World Health Organization.
In the United States, 1,264 people have been confirmed as having contracted the disease. To date, 36 people have died. Health officials worldwide, however, have warned those figures will rise once countries test their populations. As of March 9, The Atlantic magazine could verify only 4,384 Americans had been tested.
Indeed's Ultimate Guide to Wfh- V1. March 6, 2020 by ABJwanderson on Scribd
Here's what Wolfe had to say about telecommuting:
What tools or systems have made working remotely possible and effective?
With so many different communication vehicles today, like video chatting/conferencing, email, online chatting and phone calls, it is important for everyone to get comfortable with communication technology to stay connected and work efficiently together.
We are encouraging our team leaders and managers to communicate expectations clearly, with planned deadlines and specific goals laid out for their team members. Rather than communicating these goals over chat platforms like Google Hangouts or Slack, we are creating shared documents with goals outlined and scheduling meetings to discuss these face-to-face over Zoom.
Have you discovered bugs or roadblocks that you’ve been able to solve? How did you solve them?
It can be easy for a manager to find themselves busy with their own responsibilities and prioritize their work over maintaining that communication cadence with their team members. The downfall of a traditional remote working arrangement is when the employee feels isolated or forgotten about. Many employees report that they are actually more productive when they are able to work remotely, but staying connected is key to making them feel valued and part of a team.
What advice would you have for businesses looking to telecommute? Do those recommendations change according to the size of a company? Do certain systems need to be in place the larger a company gets?
When implementing a remote working arrangement with a team, it is important that the manager make expectations of each team member clear from the beginning. Recent studies have found that checking in with employees often and consistently results in successful manager relationships with their remote workers. It is important that the team members working remotely do not feel isolated, so frequent check-ins are a great way to stay in touch. Face-to-face, or voice-to-voice, is the most effective way to make sure your team members feel included and connected while working remote.
