The outbreak of Covid-19 has displaced everyone out of their comfort zones. Businesses have been vastly affected as they are being forced to face the challenges posed by the new normal. Implementations of overnight changes have disrupted routines all over the world.
With the recent rise of Covid-19 cases in Singapore, living with Covid-19 can be an intimidating thing to do. Practicing safe management measures at work is more pertinent than ever. Taking care of yourself physically and mentally needs to be a priority.
Yet still, work needs to get done. Keeping this information in mind, what are some ways teams can better prepare for the new normal while working? In this article, we will be sharing 5 tips that can help you to ride the new normal wave at work.
Set up a better home office
Creating a better home office is the first way teams can better prepare for the new normal. Over the past few months, telecommuting has been established by many organisations across the globe.
As a result, the creation of home offices so that individuals can work more effectively are on the rise. While employers juggle with these novel changes, perhaps it is time for employees to make themselves a little more comfortable when working from home.
Considering investing in multi-purpose furniture and incorporating brighter lighting into your work space could be a start. Including greeneries and electronic equipment to enhance your work routines could be another possible idea worth looking into as well.
It is also especially important that individuals create a marked-off space so that they can differentiate their working environments from their homely space. This will help employees who have to work-from-home maintain their privacy. It will also enable them to contribute attention to work more effectively too.
Making these slight changes to your new working environment can help boost productivity and engagement levels while significantly contributing to your work life balance too. Learning to juggle both personal and professional lives by creating a home office is one way to ride the new normal wave when working.
Have back-up and risk management plans
Individuals should create back-up and risk management plans so that one can better ride the new normal wave at work. The pandemic has created quite the havoc and can easily overwhelm people with its fear and negativity.
Leaders and teams should consider spending some time to plan on what can be done to expose employees to the least amount of risk. They should also plan which protocols to adopt to keep the organisation running smoothly when dealing with a crisis contemporarily.
In cases where individuals face difficulty in handling their work, teams can have substitute employees take on the workload in the meantime. Where employees need to take a day off, teams need to be ready to put their back-up plans into action effective immediately.
As such, teams can adjust to the changes by having back-up and risk management plans so that they can prepare for the new normal sooner than later.
Keep communication channels alive
The third way that teams can better prepare for the new normal is by putting energy into keeping their available communication channels alive. This is a critical step to ensure that employees remain in touch with each other. It also ensures that they can continue work processes without them getting disrupted.
Team members can also assist one another by creating a dedicated channel for communication needs. Keep communication channels alive by first establishing trust within teams. Regularly update your co-workers with credible information and recognise efforts. This can build confidence in one another and promote a positive work attitude in all.
Support your colleagues’ mental and physical well-being. Check in with each other and encourage yourselves to keep healthy. Keep open lines of support and make it a habit to ensure that everyone is well and on the same page.
Keeping communication channels open for feedback is also an important factor. Using feedback as a constructive tool can be a motivating form of communication when working remotely. It can also help one ride the new normal wave at work better too!
The fourth way that teams can better ride the new normal wave is by maintaining team spirit. With remote working becoming a norm in today’s world, retaining a sense of togetherness between colleagues is of utmost importance.
In order to ensure that the team spirit between colleagues is continuously maintained, create informal virtual events to allow interaction. Hold virtual parties where colleagues can come together, outside the context of work to reconnect with each other.
When team spirit is instilled in every individual that is part of a social group, it allows room for creativity to take stage while allowing colleagues to come together to achieve success collectively.
By holding informal virtual events despite the limitations of social distancing during this period and instilling the strong spirit of teamwork within individuals is also one way that teams can better ride the new normal wave while working.
Implement safety measures
Teams can better prepare for the new normal by implementing safety measures to keep functioning effectively. The unforeseen changes have thrown many individuals off balance. Thus, it is important for individuals to follow safety protocols in these unprecedented times.
For teams that have to return to the office to work, stress is highly likely to take place in individuals. Additionally, anxiety can also undermine one’s well-being. According to an article published by Forbes.com, “creating a positive work experience mirrors the safety people perceive at home”. The work experience for teams, when enhanced by leaders, can supply a kind of “psychological safety” for employees.
Teams can assist and cooperate with their superiors by practicing safety measures and protocols should they be required to go back to the office at this time. Some examples of these safeguards include thorough disinfecting of worksites and practicing social distancing. Others include ensuring ample supplies of hand sanitisers, and establishing routine checks of temperatures.
As the uncertainties posed by the pandemic continue, it is important for individuals to practice safety measures when working at the office so that teams can better ride the new normal wave.
The numerous challenges posed by the new normal are all surmountable by teams as long as they put in the effort to better prepare for plausible problems that they anticipate might come their way.
We hope the 5 tips we have shared in this article will help you to tackle the challenges you may be facing so that you and your team can emerge from this difficult time stronger than ever before!
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