Keeping Employees Safe, Secure, and Productive as we Reopen (Webinar)

I recently joined Heinan Landa, the CEO of Optimal Networks for a webinar. The topic was how to keep employees safe, secure, and productive in various scenarios for office reopening. We discussed a framework for balancing the risk, cost, and intrusiveness of various IT solutions in a work from home (WFH) environment. Our conversation focused on IT security, but that same decision-making framework applies to many aspects of work life now, including how we hire people in the pandemic economy.

I recently discussed remote work strategies with our IT partner, Heinan Landa of Optimal Networks.

Lots of people have shared work from home productivity tips, but I invite you to think beyond "surviving" remote work, and instead use this time to gain a more enduring productivity advantage. We know from experience that productivity soars when you unshackle it from the synchronized everyone-in-one-place-at-one-time working formula. (But admittedly, your mileage may vary depending on who else is home with you.)

Because of the disruptions in the economy, I plan to periodically share updates on what we are seeing in the local job market. I am not claiming to speak for the whole job market, just for the senior staff level of the association and nonprofit sector in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area. We conduct more searches in that sector than most search firms, and from our years of experience, we know what the numbers normally look like.

During this time of social distancing, our clients are conducting video interviews instead of meeting candidates in-person. So here are a few tips for a productive video interview.

If you are an employer scheduling the interview, we recommend planning an extra 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the call to test technology and work out any kinks. You might also want to offer alternate times (i.e., after your kids are asleep).

For candidates, best practices include:

As a completely virtual company (we've never had an office) we are often asked, "Which provider do you use for video conferencing?"

And our answer is, "Several of them."

Because we like having options. And that's true now more than ever as some conferencing providers are getting overwhelmed. Redundancy is comforting. We're scheduling our calls with a backup plan now.

In late-2018, we made the leap to a new file management system, Google Suite, and Office 365 - including the most transformative element: Microsoft Teams. Now 16 months later, we cannot imagine life without Teams.

We've been getting requests from organizations who are just now migrating to Teams so we created a short video to illustrate our approach:

Here are some of the insights we learned along the way:

So, you've been told to work from home for the first time. And you've read a few blog posts about how to be productive. Meh, most of that advice might not be right for you. As someone who has worked from home since 2002, I'm here to tell you that you are not likely to be terrifically productive right away.

Covid-19 suddenly increased attention on remote work, and many employers and local governments are strongly encouraging it. But because remote work is still uncomfortable for some managers, I wanted to share a few thoughts we learned in the past 18 years.

If working from home full time is something you're considering, you should think twice about it before jumping in. It definitely has its advantages: less money out of pocket for commuting and lunches, afternoons off because you just feel like it, and even working in your PJ's from your favorite comfy chair. As great as that sounds, it's not for everyone. It takes a certain discipline and mindset to be successful at it, says Carla Young, writing about the topic for Openforum.com.