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Guide to Working From Home

As a small business owner, you may be used to working from home already, and so may your team, but these are very different circumstances that we find ourselves into the normal working from home routine.

Over the past few weeks as the threat of COVID-19 has increased, the nation has been forced into ‘lockdown’ and for most that has meant a shift to compulsory working from home, but also with the addition of perhaps partners, kids and animals to keep you company.

So, we thought we’d create a quick Guide to Working From Home to share some tips which you might find useful to support you and your family in your new working from home scenario. We hope you enjoy it!

Your New Working Environment

Working with your team

The first tip in our Guide to Working From Home is communication. Your regular team meetings can stay in the diary even though you are all at home. There are many different online tools that mean you can all still meet and see each other; it will just be done virtually. Some of the free tools you could use include Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.

Online Training

Your team’s working days may have changed a little with working from home, with fewer meetings, etc., and so this could be the perfect time to introduce some online training.

Take a look at our learning and development page for our recommendations, or get in touch if you’d like to know more about how you can implement E-learning. We will have some online courses coming up soon, so do keep an eye out for our updates on this if you are interested.

Another online learning tool we’ve recently discovered is Kahoot – you can design simple quizzes for testing knowledge or even just something for fun!

Networking

For any regular business networkers, you may be missing that interaction with your peers at the moment, but there are online options. Of course, there is LinkedIn where you can stay connected with other businesses, but there are also a lot of other communities popping up. Our friends at All-Star Marketing Club have started the Business Owners Lounge group on Facebook, check it out here.

Health & Safety

Just because you and your team aren’t in the office, it doesn’t mean that general office safety measures shouldn’t still be put in place. Although you can’t physically check how your team’s work station is set up, it might be a good idea to share this DSE workstation checklist with them so they can check they are set up correctly, you can find one on the Health & Safety Executive website here.

How to Stay Sane!

Team Socialising

The How to Stay Sane section of our Guide to Working From Home is just as important as the business section!

If you’re looking for a way to socialise with your team during the current coronavirus crisis, one idea could be a virtual pub quiz. You can host your own or, if you search online, you’ll find there are many people hosting quizzes. What better time to make new friends!

We particularly like the idea of this 7-day online murder mystery challenge ‘Beware the Isolated Easter Bunny’ which could be a fun virtual alternative to a team night out…or even something to entertain the kids whilst you work over Easter. Speaking of which, we mentioned our Guide to Working From Home was for you and your family…

Kids

Celebrities Keeping Them Entertained

If you have children and need to keep them entertained, you’ll have probably noticed that The Body Coach, Joe Wicks has been running daily online PE classes.

A whole host of celebrities have come out of the woodwork to help kids right now…

Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse will be hosting free online dance classes for children and adults alike, Myleene Klass has been doing music lessons, David Walliams has been providing a daily story and Bear Grylls has teamed up with the Scouts to produce a Great Indoor Adventure.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-O3WknJuxo/

 

Free Learning

A local business, Boost Math’s Tuition is also offering free daily maths lessons. Find out more in Caroline’s video here, and you can sign up here.

Rosetta Stone is giving three months of free language learning to all school children who want to keep learning at home – you can find out details here – https://www.rosettastone.co.uk/lp/freeforkids/

Museums with Virtual Tours

The originals are out of reach for now, but you can still see world-class art – without the queues or ticket prices as museums now have online tours. Check out this article for 10 of the world’s best virtual museum and art gallery tours.

Zoos with Webcams

Zoos are live streaming animals so isolated families can watch, here are 12 live animal webcams to get you through social distancing.

Art and Crafts

The team at Bella Crafts have been working hard to keep you and your family entertained during this difficult time and have been creating kits and materials that they can post to you. Take a look at their website for more info – https://www.bellacrafts.co.uk/

For any knitting enthusiasts, you can still keep up to date with the latest knits with Pom Pom magazine’s digital mag – https://www.pompommag.com/product-category/downloads/

Languages

If you’ve been thinking about learning a language, then lockdown could be the perfect time to do so online. As well as the Rosetta Stone offer above, here are a few others.

Take a look at Babbel, which is offering free lessons and there is also an offer running for a 6-month free subscription.

Also, Memrise – the fastest way to learn a language – has a 7-day free trial.

How Kate Underwood HR Can Help You Today…

We don’t offer free dance classes yet, but if you’re worried, have questions about our HR Coronavirus Updates or just want to have a plan B, then please do get in touch.

We’ve taken a leaf out of our Guide to Working From Home, meaning our office is working remotely so that we can ensure we are here when you need us.

Click here Book a call for when it suits you.

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