WFM business model - ready or not.

For some businesses, Work From Home (WFH) is the primary business model. Companies have built an entire culture adapted to this lifestyle and ways to measure work-life balance. For the remaining businesses, they have been thrown into the deep end of the pool, and not only expected to tread water but to swim with relative ease. To keep everyone afloat, there are good lessons we can learn from experienced businesses and workers.

The key to working from home is clear communication with your boss – and knowing exactly what’s expected of you.

According to a great article on this subject, Coronavirus: How to work from home, the right way, the primary key is communication. The key to working from home is clear communication with your boss – and knowing exactly what’s expected of you. Whether you are working from home as a job description or feeling quarantined due to the coronavirus, a work routine and scheduled communication with your manager/supervisor keeps everyone aligned and connected. Here are some other good tips:

Employee:

Treat WFH like a job. Keep your routine as close to possible as to when you prepared to leave for work. Make your bed, your coffee and dress for success. Take physical breaks with mini-workouts even if it’s a walk around the block.

Stay in touch with your boss. They used to be around the corner, so stay in touch by phone or video call. Make sure you have clear objectives for the day and every day of the week.

Find a location where you conduct work and keep it a work zone. This way you can turn it on and off when needed. Try to avoid migrating around the home working from bed, the sofa or areas where kids and other family members tend to congregate.

Change your modem password and create a more secure 12 character password. Always download the most current software for your computer. Always use a VPN service to encrypt website data. Don’t mix business and personal communication and files on the same computer. Always be suspicious of phishing and email impersonation emails. When possible, work from a cloud-based software platform that provides a firewall between your work and your computer.

Stay positive and take breaks to enjoy your family members if they too are staying home.

Employers:

Set the agenda and the examples of what to expect between you and your associates. Establish times to connect on phone or video calls that are part of the routine. You are responsible for keeping morale up and a sense of teamwork. Prepare for every call. Include personal interest in your follow up to make your associates feel empowered and appreciated.

Provide the necessary tools and equipment for WFH employees and consider the details. Do they have a company computer, printer, paper supplies, and communication software/hardware tools? Proper training on the various cloud-based business platforms to conduct work is critical to being productive, including letting your software companies know that training at home is allowed.

Stay positive and make sure that if you are the manager working from home that you follow your own advice to stay healthy and productive.

Performance Bonds - Prepared for the Coronavirus

Force Majeure

This may be a trigger that comes into play for the unexpected delays caused by the Coronavirus - the first time around. But now that we have been told this is a pandemic are we protected for new contracts?

So let’s ponder this for a moment. But not too long if you are still signing contracts. An uncontrollable event usually triggers the execution of a performance bond and with some leeway to acts of government. Performance bonds take into consideration labor, materials and the ability to work. In a recent article written by Surety Bonds, Performance Bonds and the Coronavirus what may be overlooked are the shortages of face masks required for laborers to perform their work. Further in the article, it states that three causations are required to pass legal scrutiny.

• The event was unforeseeable

• The event was unavoidable

• It was impossible to overcome

Well, for newly penned contracts, can a contractor even get past the first criteria if the CDC and WHO have declared otherwise. Also, a pandemic starts somewhere, and in this case China. It may not take a pandemic if the next virus outbreak begins in the U.S. as an epidemic and we take the same course of action again.

Now would be a good time to include specific language about viruses and even a Coronavirus, since (these have been around a long time (check your Clorox cleaner label). Contact your legal counsel and maybe Surety Bonds to see if you would be protected for contracts you are willing to sign after January 2020.