Telecommuting Tips from DeLeon & Stang
If you are working from home, like countless others around the world, here are some of my firm’s tips on how to be successful at telecommuting! Sure, you may have lost that dreaded commute…but even so, your work day may be extended—and exponentially more complex. Being available to both your family and your employer simultaneously is no easy task. However, you can simplify the balancing act by putting a schedule in place and making expectations clear. Our firm has not suffered interruption since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, because we managed to plan and implement a system for telecommuting. Here are some of our tips on setting up a successful system:
Our cloud-based system allows us to work from anywhere at any time.
We equip our team with state-of-the-art laptop computers with video capabilities and additional monitors if needed.
We share our Outlook calendars across the firm, so we all know where each other is and what’s on our daily agendas.
Using the Microsoft Teams program allows us to communicate with each other, meet with clients and coworkers, share files, and share screens when we need to. The mute button comes in handy, especially when there are kids bouncing around in the background!
Voicemails from our office phones are electronically transcribed to our email.
The Comcast “Softphone” apps allow us to answer and respond to calls as if we were at our desks.
We provide our clients with electronic ways to send us their documents safely and securely, and we are alerted when they have done so.
We find ways to keep things fun! Virtual happy hours with your team are an excellent way to commiserate and share your day!
We provide our clients with their final engagement materials electronically or in hard copy form, based on each client’s needs and preferences.
If our clients and coworkers need us, they can chat or email us on our various platforms at any time.
Most importantly, we are dressed from head to toe, even while telecommuting…because we never want to be caught on a video conference not wearing pants! 😊