Posted by CorporatieMedia on
Housing associations have taken many steps in recent years to work independently of place and time. But with the baptism of fire for working from home, how do you ensure productivity is carried from the office to the living room or kitchen table? CorporatieGids.nl spoke about this with Ronald Verweij, owner of The Sourcing Company.
“There is still a lot of difference between different corporations in how far they are with working from home,” Ronald starts the conversation. “Most have now arranged the technology and can get started at home, although they may not have done so before. In addition, you see that a number of corporations still have cold feet and that, for example, they want to monitor whether employees are actually working. It takes some getting used to.”
Data, Focus, Rhythm
There is no doubt that working from home is fundamentally different from doing the same work at the office, according to Ronald. “At The Sourcing Company, we introduced working from home for our employees when we were founded thirteen years ago, and you notice that you have to set up some other systems for this.” The core of this is the realization of 'Data, Focus and Rhythm': “First of all, it is wise to create an overview that provides insight into the progress of the work, for example via a dashboard. For example, we monitor that calls are not put on hold for too long and we keep track of the status of orders. ”
'With each other'
“It is also good to schedule a daily meeting with employees at the beginning of the day and to see – via video calls – how everyone is doing,” Ronald continues. “During this check-in three questions are central: how are you feeling, what do you want to achieve today and do you need help from colleagues with your work. This is how you maintain the feeling of being 'together'.”
“Finally, the fear that nothing will happen when working remotely can also spread. This creates a situation in which employees take too little rest and fly from one video call to the next meeting. Therefore, make sure that people also find their moments of rest, for example by taking a clear break a few times a day.”
Extra alert
According to Ronald, the step to working from home is technically quick. “After all, all you need is a good connection. What you as an organization should pay close attention to is security. People now often work on their own computers or laptops, which are systems that you have no control over. As a corporation you have to pay attention to this and monitor it, for example by performing a virus check at least once a day to detect any malware. Incidentally, the use of your own hardware is no reason to panic, but as an organization you have to be a little extra alert.”
Microsoft Teams
According to Ronald, The Sourcing Company can help housing associations take the step towards working from home. “We focus on pleasant and productivity-enhancing work. For example, by making the step to Microsoft Teams. When corporations use this as an application to get in touch with each other, keep track of the agenda and as a dashboard to promote collaboration, it supports the transition to a new way of working. To get the most out of Microsoft Teams, we recently also made a webinar available, which corporations can follow for free.”
“We also help housing associations with the step to the cloud,” Ronald continues. “Teams is part of Microsoft365 and runs in the public cloud. We can help corporations to migrate to this. If corporations find that still too big a step, we can also guide them in the step to a private cloud.”
stayer
According to Ronald, the fence is now over when it comes to working from home. “I recently spoke to someone from Microsoft who said that the digital transition is accelerating more than the years of CEO attention so far due to the coronavirus. The need breaks the law, but even after the crisis the world will look different in the digital field. There will be a mind shift where people will realize that video conferencing works fine and you don't necessarily have to go to the office for a meeting. Or that employees are more likely to choose to work from home for a day instead of going to the office sick, because they know that this is supported by ICT. Working from home will therefore be a keeper, also in the housing association sector.”
Source: CorporationMedia
