It’s clear that we are facing a long-term period where most of the work force will now be working remotely using web platforms to access work and to communicate. Businesses need to adapt quickly and decisively to promote good communication and to help employees adapt successfully.

It is imperative that businesses provide tools and structure in order to facilitate workers in getting information and managing work.

SharePoint and Office 365 provide excellent opportunities to communicate to workers and to facilitate structure in work processes.

Ultimate Forms provide additional capabilities to make these tools work great.

Here are some recommendations on new processes and tools which should be implemented in SharePoint to promote effective communication and to facilitate remote work processes:

• Company Announcements should be facilitated through the SharePoint home page using structure such as the News Web Part to provide daily updates to workers and inform of new policies and processes. This should be tied to automatic email triggers so that company-wide communications can be promoted on the home page as well as email in one coordinated process. This must be a priority handled by one manager giving daily updates to emphasize and promote the importance of these changes.
• A smart FAQ System is vital to answer the questions that workers will have ongoing. This should be provided in a user-friendly interface where users can drill into specific information and not be overwhelmed with a “wall of text”. Accordion sections can be used to allow expanding information that is specific to the employee.
• Team Sites are now a critical tool to manage sharing documents, tasks and information amongst team members. Team Managers should be trained and assisted to utilize these sites to promote communication and disseminate tasks and work on a team-wide basis through a central portal. Team Members should check this page on a continuous basis and provide updates to show status on work. It is especially important to show how these sites should be used as more than just simple document repositories.
• Employee Portals should be created that act to manage providing information to employees and to ensure that all employees have reviewed all necessary updates. Like an Onboarding Process, it isn’t enough to just broadcast updates to employees. Proactive steps should be taken to ensure that employees sign off that they have read required information.
• Guidance should be provided on using web meetings and preferred chat client since this is now a common and critical means of communicating with other workers. Training and instructions should be provided to help workers effectively participate in and organize these meetings.

Because these changes to our work have come so suddenly and in an unprecedented manor, we are all scrambling to adapt. Now is a critical time for those managing key technology platforms to address the needs of the business to solve these new challenges.

Contact Infowise for a web demo so that we can show how our tools let you solve these key challenges.