The COVID-19 virus has created the new reality of working from home or remotely. We have a few best practices for you to keep communicating and collaborating, from both a technical and practical perspective.

Microsoft published a letter from Lily Zheng in their Shanghai office. In this letter, she had three key points for your team and organization.

Your Team:

1. Stay Well
   • Exercise every day, make sure you eat, and have a structured schedule
2. Go All In
   • Don’t put things off. Don’t cancel your standing meetings. Do everything remotely.
3. Support your Teammates
   • Check in on people. Instead of stopping by someone’s desk to chat for a second. Ping them on teams or a random video call to chat. Share photos of you working from home on Yammer.

Your Organization:

1. Share information remotely with live and recorded messages
   • Have daily briefings that you can share a video or a recorded message. That way, people can reference it at different times of the day.
2. Keep it moving
   • Keep your business running and keep your employees productive
3. Big events can be online
   • You don’t have to cancel events, move them online! Microsoft Teams makes it possible for you to host live and recorded meetings and events.

TECHNICAL WORK FROM HOME BEST PRACTICES

Microsoft Road Map to Cloud Freedom

Microsoft has a roadmap that Red Level can help you implement to work from home successfully. Move from an in-the-office network infrastructure to remotely working in the cloud while staying secure.

• User identity and access
• Multi-factor authentication
• Managing devices with Intune
• Productivity applications (Teams/OneDrive/SharePoint)
• Meetings and Collaboration
• Access to Line Of Business Applications (VPN for on-premise)
• Service Monitoring
• Culture and Change management

Teams for Free

 If your organization is nowhere near ready to move everything to cloud, due to the overwhelming amount of work and home life balance. No worries, Microsoft Teams has you covered. Microsoft committed to giving customers 6-months free of Microsoft Teams.

• Office 365 E1 + A1 license
• Government Cloud
• Education
• Not available for GCC High, or DOD

Team Resources

 You can receive Microsoft Teams for free, but where do you start?

Red Level offers a Teams Quick Start that enables your organization to build a culture of collaboration that empowers your employees. We can provide you guidance and insights you can use to help you drive adoption and get the most out of the tool. You may have already started using Teams and other Office 365 tools but need help with data governance. We also offer a Data Governance Quick Start to help your organization best utilize all the tools available.

PRACTICAL WORK FROM HOME BEST PRACTICES

 How to Work From Home Successfully

1. Keep a schedule
   • Whatever your schedule maybe 7-4, 8-5, or 9-6 stick to it!
2. Start work early
   • No commute means more time for “golden” hour work. The morning can be the most productive time to get the harder tasks complete.
3. Dress the part
   • Keep the same morning routine as if you would be heading into the office. This small task can set you up for success.
4. Have a space
   • Having a dedicated space for work will make you more productive.
5. Set ground rules with those in same space
   • Set up ways to communicate while you are working. It can be not coming into a certain room or if you need something text me. Setting up ground rules will keep you focused.
6. Take breaks and enjoy being home
   • Take your dog for a walk or do a quick workout. Do things you enjoy doing while you are home.
7. Leave the house
   • Being at home all the time can mentally start to break you down. Run an errand or get out and see something new. Your mental health is a key priority.
8. Socialize with colleagues
   • Quick and small interactions like sending a message or a quick video call.
9. Social media time trap
   • Set guidelines with social media platforms. Social media can suck your time away. I like to log in an incognito window, so I am not logged in to these platforms automatically.
10. Plan your time
    • Set your calls for the afternoon and get the bulk of tasks done in the morning.
11. Prep meals the night before
    • Prepping meals the night before will give you more time to enjoy being home during your breaks.
12. Keep the TV on in the background
    • Keeping the TV on is a create white noise machine.

How to Work From Home Successfully with Children

1. Daily/Weekly Tasks and Goals
   • Kids can benefit just like you from keeping a schedule and planning your time. Plan daily tasks that they will need to complete. It not only helps them, it helps you.
2. Online learning
   • With schools being closed here in Michigan, there are a lot of resources to use to teach your kids online.
3. Practice instrument or sport
   • Now is the perfect time for them to practice that tuba or work on their dribbling skills.
4. FaceTime calls with friends
   • Have them stay social while social distancing.

I hope these tips will help you in the new world we are living in. If you need help collaborating with your team, please reach out to us at 248-412-8200 or at info@redevelgroup.com