Work-from-Home for a Gifting Company

Work from Home

Hey guys,

So today we talk about how as a gifting company, we manage Work from Home and the system we put in place for everybody to ensure efficient remote working.

Working from Home brings a splash of anxiety and stress as Covid cases seem to be on the rise and with no option left, we are to operate our businesses from home.

For us at The Good Road, the news of Delhi announcing mini lockdown was no less than a nervous breakdown as we had our pre-booked orders staring at us saying, "You better get us delivered."

So, what did we do?
Did we keep operating like we already were? No, because we wouldn't risk our employees' safety.

So then, did we regret getting the projects that we did? Obviously not!

"You learn from your experiences," says a quote and that's exactly what came for our aide.

Despite our work being dependent on physical presence because we got to pack the orders and dispatch, we have streamlined it in such a way that we can operate the process from home with just the actual packing and moving team at the workshop in rotation, following all sanitary protocols.

So, here is what we have learned to make Work from Home effective: Team Management & the right Technology is the key here.

There are a lot of apps and tools that help you organise your work, define deadlines with reminders and review the work that’s done.

1. First us, it’s Trello!

At The Good Road, we use Trello and trust me it's a game changer. You can create boards for different teams and departments, assign tasks to individual beings, decide timelines, check it off when the work is done, reschedule if something got missed and so on. And the best thing is, that individuals can put in tasks for each other across different boards. And all of this can be viewed by all team members which helps everyone stay informed of who is doing what.

2. Next up is Daily Stand-ups.

It’s extremely important to stay connected with the team members on a daily basis while working remotely. It might seem like a tedious process and you might wonder why do we need to meet every day on the video call but, trust me when I say, it’s extremely easy to feel disconnected and with so many distractions around, meeting and chatting with your team before starting your work everyday only gives a clarity of what needs to be done, it serves as a motivation, and you keep up to date with what’s happening in the company across different departments.

So at The Good Road, we start work at 11am and without failure we do a team meet everyday at 11:15am where we discuss the day’s agenda.

3. Google Tools to our rescue!

We have all our worksheets, client details, deliverables saved on Google drive via Google Docs, Sheets and more. All the Workbooks are well defined and accessible to our teams to work on and update. We also follow digital attendance on Google Sheets. Google Meet has been our buddy to stay connected and have our team meetings. It has also been our source of retaining that personal connection.

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Moreover, we don't just focus on work deadlines, but also focus on keeping the employee moral up. So, here are some tiny little things that we follow at The Good Road to keep up the spirits.

  1. We ensure that we have team calls in the morning and before we call for the day. There may not be major updates, but it is just to acknowledge that the day was good and well worked.
  2. Once in a week or so, we try having breakfast or evening tea over a virtual meet. This makes the team feel bonded.
  3. Before we end our work calls, we have a group chit-chat about the series being watched among the team members, the food tried at home, the books being read etc.

 In these uncertain times, as a business, it's not just about keeping the business going but also holding the employee morale too.

Hope some of these ideas come handy and you could take inspiration for applying these with your team as well :)


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