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As a Managed Service Provider (MSP), you need to know the best ways to take your team remote during this Covid-19 critical time, including following these 3 C’s for how to commit, communicate, and celebrate in this new reality.

As more and more employees are working from home, you’re tasked with ensuring that your business’s transition from in-office to at-home goes smoothly. At Crewhu, we’ve come up with three C’s for you to follow to take your team remote in the most productive ways possible. First let’s cover some best practices when making the switch.

How to transition to remote working

While most modern offices use some kind of cloud-based solution for storage and management, it’s more important than ever to implement cloud-based software so that your remote workers can maintain productivity and collaboration while working from home.

When employees start working from home, it is not uncommon to experience a slight dip in productivity as your team adjusts to this new working environment. Try these best practices to prevent that from happening:

• Set clear expectations of roles and responsibilities.
• Schedule regular virtual meetings so that employees have something on their calendar each day.
• Ask for feedback from workers about their remote experience and what could improve.
• Encourage employees to create separate workspaces in their homes where they won’t be distracted or disturbed.
• Emphasize company values and shared goals and how remote work can still push teams forward to set and reach objectives.
• Remain flexible throughout the transition. Employees will have questions, concerns, and anxieties as they adjust, so be open to change and understand that things may not always go as planned.

One of the most important things you can do is to support your employees’ well-being as they adjust to this “new reality” of not being able to leave their homes right now. Encourage your team to create a work/life balance, including helping them be more productive while finding ways to keep up their positive mental health.

It’s important for you to be a resource and a guide for employees as they shift their roles and alter their work-life balance.

Now let’s dive into Crewhu’s three C’s for a successful remote working model during this time of change.

Three C’s for a successful remote work plan

1. Commit

The first “C” is to commit. This concept focuses on setting expectations and clearly defined roles for each employee. Without clear expectations, employees may feel confused, frustrated, or unmotivated to continue to perform well while working at home.

Consider this the “function” level of your remote work model.

It’s up to you as the leader to manage and set these expectations so that everyone is on the same page to foster success in your new remote work environment. Allow time and space for feedback and questions so that if something isn’t clear, employees can check-in, ask questions, and nail down responsibilities.

2. Communicate

Another major part of successful remote work is ensuring that employees have the tools available to keep seamless communication as a regular part of their day-to-day.

This is the “support” level of your remote work model.

Support means using email and instant messaging services like Slack or Microsoft Teams, and video tools like Zoom, and other devices like headsets, monitors, and cameras to improve the quality of virtual communications.

Employees should still feel like they’re part of a team when working remotely, and the best way to encourage collaboration is with the most effective communication tools.

Remember that you also need to keep in close communication with customers. Let them know what the company is doing to address the changes, offer ways to help them through this challenging time, and make sure they always know how to keep in contact with you and your team.

3. Celebrate

You know how crucial it is to create a work environment that’s the right amount of professional and the right amount of recognition and fun.

This is still an important consideration to make when the team moves to working from home and is considered the “foundation” level of your model that’s centered around recognition and relationship management.

Part of encouraging positive attitudes and keeping employees engaged is celebrating the successes, no matter how big or small. This is as simple as:

• Celebrating daily wins and communicating to the team when something goes well, including the transition to remote work itself.
• Scheduling a daily virtual meeting to keep employees engaged.
• Scheduling lunch or happy hour meetings after work where employees can get together and chat with each other via video.
• Sending around thank you emails after a project is completed successfully.
• Providing rewards when the team is showing good behaviors, teamwork and collaboration.

Recognizing the achievements of your team maintains the identity of the team and shows everyone the progress being made toward shared goals. When one employee wins, everyone wins.

Crewhu helps MSPs increase customer and employee retention. Our tools make it easy for teams to stay connected while working remotely, including gathering feedback, employee recognition, and engagement solutions. Contact Crewhu to get started.