The Founder’s and Owner’s Guide To Getting Your Business to Work Remotely

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, working remotely seemed to be all the rage — and for good reason. According to the Wundamail State of Remote Work, 74% of remote workers believe they’re more productive when working remotely than they would have been if in an office environment.

And we can see why; office environments could come with a whole host of distractions. Whether it’s your hilarious co-worker who loves to chat on company time or the wafting smell of toast — courtesy your resident pantry rat, these (often pleasant) disturbances could see your productivity take a nosedive.

Coincidentally, 74% of remote workers also believed that communication technology improves their overall productivity. And at Lark, we honestly couldn’t agree more. During the recent pandemic, majority of us started working from home on our very own productivity tool — and with great results! Not only were we able to continue at almost full capacity, but we also had space and time to focus on the tasks at hand.

It makes for a peaceful, productive day.

But that’s not all.

Having the option of working from home will also allow the downsizing of physical offices, working spaces, or transport allowances. This will not only give you a more agile workforce that’s ready for any crisis but will help to reduce overhead costs if necessary.

Pretty awesome right?

We’re here to help you achieve that.

Whether you’re a founder or a business owner, here are a few tried-and-tested tips to help you put your best agile foot forward.

Support the effort to go remote

C-suite and department heads have a critical role to play in remote working. Take the time to learn more about the IT team’s latest recommendations, and be an evangelist for the systems that work. It’s also important to give feedback to the IT teams on the usability of the systems that they have chosen and hold them accountable for possible improvements. Transparency such as these should be encouraged and modelled from the top, to create a culture of problem-solving.

Support for the system is important, but it’s just as critical to support the people who are using it. Stigmas around the remote working style are still relatively common — the idea that people who want to work remotely either lack ambition, drive, or are simply not hard-working enough. As such, many employees still share the belief that working flexibly could hurt their chances of climbing the corporate ladder.

Support from leaders such as yourself is essential to decrease and eventually eliminate this stigma, and here’s how you can do that: work remotely and encourage your managers to do the same. When managers work flexibly, their employees will follow suit. This will keep your company agile-ready, benefitting the company in the long run.

And if the managers in your company have had unpleasant experiences with older, less intuitive remote working platforms, we completely understand. That’s why we’ve made Lark’s onboarding process quick, simple, and accessible.

Not only will your employees now have an awesome system where they will be able to access everything they need in one place, but you’ll also get them to hit the ground running as soon as they’ve been onboarded.

Hire the right people

It may not seem like it, but one huge benefit from remote working is being able to select the people your business needs. Now that you’re no longer limited by geographic location, you have a wide range of talent to choose from.

And chances are, people who are looking for remote working opportunities are probably used to the idea of working on an agile working platform — which can make onboarding them onto any working software a breeze. They’re also looking to work remotely for a myriad of reasons: whether they’re at home caring for a loved one, or working through a graduate degree, these are all people with different experiences you can tap on to improve your working processes, keeping your company way ahead of the game.

But that being said, it’s also a good idea to be picky. Ask for references of projects your potential employees have done to narrow down the pool of applicants. And while it’s important to assess them for skill, it’s also important to retain the human touch. Schedule face-to-face interviews using Lark’s video conferencing tool, so you can find out more about your applicants in an easy, fuss-free way.

Be Flexible, but establish some guidelines

Companies who are looking to start their remote working journey often worry about how to manage their employees. While employees are drawn to remote working by the flexibility it affords them, research has shown that clear, fair, and consistently enforced guidelines are key to managing remote working teams, reducing the abuse of remote working privileges, and keeping everyone happy.

If your business currently operates in a physical workspace, it helps to ease your employees into remote working. You may begin by implementing remote working for 2 fixed days a week. Or you can even let your employees request for their agile-working days one day in advanced.

No matter what the policy is, make sure managers follow the guidelines consistently so that the policy is fair for everyone.

The flexibility of time is also one of the benefits you can explore during remote working. Now that your employees are no longer clocking in at the same time, you might consider letting them choose a range of when they’re actively working. Maybe Amy from finance prefers working from 7 am-4 pm. Or James from creative enjoys working from 11 am-8 pm. No matter their preferred schedule, try giving your employees autonomy over their working hours — as long as their work gets done.

But when will you know if they’ve “checked in”? Now, you can monitor their attendance through Lark’s attendance function, which gives you the details you need to manage resources.

Sounds awesome right?

But there are some caveats: you need to let your employees know that they have to be flexible with these privileges too. Getting them to understand that they will sometimes need to change their plans can help you manage their expectations.

It’s also worth noting that many employees will probably work…. And forget that their co-workers need their personal time. Fortunately for them, Lark has an out-of-office function that automatically kicks in at a set time every day, making sure that your employees are given the necessary downtime they need.

We’ve come a long way from sitting in cubicles for 8 hours a day. Now, we can work from anywhere we want, anytime we want.

And if you’re thinking, “Wow, this sounds like an awesome idea, but I’m not sure where to begin!” we’ve got just the thing for you.

Moving into remote working can sound daunting, but a great platform can help your business transition into agile working more easily.

We’ve been working on a platform you’ll love: it’s got a full suite of tools such as unlimited minutes of video conferencing, 500GB of cloud storage with real-time document editing and sync, a native calendar, and even an ultra-cool in-chat translation tool.

And best of all, it’s now free!

Get it here, and get Larking today