By: Dr. Nirmal De Silva

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting individuals & organizations across the globe. Over the last few days, the author of this article has been speaking to a number of Company Owners & CEO's across Sri Lanka & Asia. It is evident from these conversations that the fear & uncertainty of the future is something that is in the mind of every business leader. Whilst some Companies are better prepared to deal with the situation others are no doubt visibly struggling. At the moment most of the countries including Sri Lanka is in a lockdown scenario in order to contain the spread of the virus. Within the last few days, workers from across the globe are being asked to “self-quarantine” & practice “social distancing.” This has resulted in working from home (remotely) being the only option available for work. It can be argued that the 'work from home scenario has created a number of operational pressures & challenges to decision makers & technology departments within Companies.

In Sri Lanka if you are not a Technology Industry based Company, there is a good chance that you may have not even thought about working from home or business continuity practices until this pandemic. It is also evident that Small to Medium Enterprises (SME's) would be the least prepared for this scenario from an overall perspective. Even larger Companies who assume that they have the tools & processors in place to allow employees to work from home without any disruption seems to be having various issues when rolling it out in practice. The lack of adequate training, testing & collaboration seem to be some of the main reasons for this.

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the best practices & tips when it comes to implementing a work from home strategy for a Company & what are some the free tools that Sri Lankan Companies can use to ensure a productive work environment in case they do not have any sophisticated (or paid) tools & infrastructure. Before we discuss some of the best practices on working from home or remote working it is important to understand some of the common challenges associated with the same. Some of the main issues often cited by employees include distractions at home, collaboration & communication issues, staying motivated & time zone related issues & Wi-Fi (internet) connectivity related challenges. Therefore, these factors need to be taken into account & understood when implementing a work from home procedure throughout the Company.

Exemplified below are some of the aspects that you need to keep in mind (& inform employees too) for a work from home scenario to be both productive & effective. These need to be considered as tips & not a mantra.

1. Information Manual: It is prudent to create a simple information manual & step by step guideline for employees to understand the processors involved when working from home. This can ideally include logging details, screenshots with instructions, security guidelines, troubleshooting information, FAQ's & key points of contact for help, approvals & escalations etc.
2. Instructions & Briefing- It is important to ensure that every employee is briefed & are aware of the expectations during the work from home period. If you have regular morning briefings usually in the office for example you should continue to do the same even when working from home of course via an online tool. Also explain to your employees what type of support will be provided to them during the entire work from home period.
3. Mind-set & Discipline: Working from home requires a work oriented mind-set & not a lazy or vacation mind-set. Just like going to office one needs to set a daily routine, keep oneself occupied & get adequate rest (of course not more than required). It is critical to set targets & develop a practical action plan to achieve them. Communicate this clearly to the employees & re-iterate to them that their typical work scope remains the same. Employees should also be made aware of creating the right, conducive environment when working from home including organizing a decent table, lighting & cooling.
4. Infrastructure & Support: In order to be productive & less disrupted, the Company will need to support employees with the necessary tools & support. This includes providing strong & stable internet connections (data), laptops (or if not at least smartphones) & adequate voice connectivity. You cannot expect employees to use their own personal funds to support the necessary infrastructure.
5. Encourage Social Connectivity & Family/Personal time: Companies should encourage the employees to use the additional spare time they may have during the work from home period (lockdown) in order to spend quality time with their families, engage in a hobby or activity that they have always been passionate about, stay connected with friends & social networks whilst maintaining physical distancing. Employees can also spend time to learn a new skill & think about a start-up or business idea. Companies can encourage this by sharing with employees a range of resources that they can use for this purpose (many already available online for free).

Now let's explore what are some of the free tools that Companies can use to ensure that the work from home process is both productive & effective. Kindly note that only the free tools & platforms are exemplified in this article in order to ensure it benefits a broader spectrum of SME's in the country who may not be able to afford expensive tools or technology infrastructure.

• Communication- There are a number of work collaboration & communication tools available for free. Some examples include Slack, Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, & Google Meet. If a company can allocate a small budget then tools such as Discord & Basecamp are helpful as well.

• Productivity - Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Drive are all very good tools to use whether it is for presentations, worksheets or written documents. These files can be saved to offline versions as well if required. Spark is another tool that can be used. This smart email tool helps categorize emails from every account & allows one to prioritise the emails that matter most while filtering out the less important ones. Zoho Remotely is another such tool which enables designing & conducting training programs, make audio calls & collaborate on documents among various teams. Another tool that can be used is Cisco WebEx which enables Companies to do video conferencing, online meetings, screen share & webinars. Similarly Workona is a tool which is useful for tab management, organizing projects, meetings & workflows in the browser.

It should be noted that a number of Technology Companies have stepped up to support people around the world by offering their products & services free of charge for a limited time as a result of Covid-19. These offers will definitely help companies (especially SME's) set up work from home processors relatively easily & most importantly free.  However, it is important to keep in mind that most of these offers are available for a limited time (few months) & at some point, Companies will be expected to pay for these products & services should they decide to continue using them. So it’s best that Companies use these resources now when it is available for free, since no one can predict for sure how long this lockdown period would continue.

This article has exemplified what are some of the key aspects that need to be addressed in order to ensure that working from home is both productive & meets the requirements or objectives of a Company. Also highlighted are some of the free tools available for Companies to use from a communication, collaboration & productivity perspective. So whilst social distancing & self-isolation is an absolute necessity to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, it is important that Companies & SME's in particular are aware of how they can ensure business continuity & the various tools available to use. There is no excuse for Companies unfortunately in the modern day for ignorance or lack of awareness. Similarly it is also a cardinal sin to be aware of the various tools available & not using them when it is needed the most.