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Distributed work is here to stay — how your business can adapt

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It’s no secret that the business world and working environments have changed drastically since 2020. With fierce competition in recruiting for skilled labor becoming a critical issue for businesses, having employees in varied locations around the U.S. or even internationally has become an increasingly common solution. It looks like this distributed work model is here for the long haul, so it’s time to get your business on board.

What is distributed work?

Distributed work is defined as a business that has one or more employees who work in different physical locations. This can range from having different in-person office locations, remote work or a blend of the two — often termed “hybrid work.” Large companies having a distributed workforce is nothing new, as having multiple locations allows companies to meet more of their customers’ needs.

The difference now, though, is the massive increase in remote work triggered in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic, ramped-up competition for skilled workers, and how those factors have combined to impact smaller businesses.

If you’re struggling to keep up with today’s workforce demands, take heart. Distributed work can provide some solutions.

Millennial and Gen Z workers strongly prefer flexible working environments and a distributed work policy fits into that preference nicely. Additionally, distributed work structures have the benefits of increased access to international talent, more productive employees and higher job satisfaction.

How to adapt your small business for distributed work

Making the leap to a distributed workforce can feel daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. Software solutions tailored specifically for supporting a distributed work environment can help ease the transition and make your business run efficiently.

In this guide, we’re going to take a look at important adaptations needed to bring your small business up to speed for distributed work and how to accomplish them.

  • Get your business security up to date.
  • Tap into global talent pools.
  • Maintain quality communication between employees.

Let’s take a closer look at each point below.

Get your business security up to date

When remote work exploded in early 2020 due to COVID-19 office closures, it quickly became obvious that improvements to business security protocols were necessary. Now with many businesses planning how their company will operate going forward, security continues to be a crucial consideration.

What are some security considerations important for businesses with distributed work environments? Here are a handful of important security features you’ll want to think about:

1. Avoid losing business documents with automatic saves

The stress from losing hard work or entire documents altogether is something most people have dealt with at some point. Having to backtrack and redo lost work is tedious and unproductive.

The best way to avoid that ordeal? Automated saves.

With Microsoft 365, your Office documents are automatically saved for you. Whether it’s a document in the company Sharepoint or in your own OneDrive account, your hard work won’t go to waste.

Additionally, Sharepoint allows your company to collaborate on documentation without having to worry about whether the current document is the correct version. An average of 83% of the current workforce loses time daily due to document versioning issues. Microsoft 365 makes it easy to avoid lost time and frustration, with the added benefit of simplifying collaboration.

2. Maintain business security across all user devices

In the United States, 68% of organizations reported being hit by a public cloud security incident when polled in 2020. Attacks like these can cripple your business’ productivity and lower public perception of your company as a whole.

Both Sharepoint and OneDrive offer multiple layers of security to keep your business documentation safe on the cloud servers themselves, including:

  • Virus scanning for documents
  • Suspicious activity monitoring
  • Password protected sharing links
  • Real-time security monitoring with dedicated intrusion specialists
  • Ransomware detection and recovery

With these built-in protections, you can keep your company safe no matter where your company’s distributed work happens.

3. Adopt company-wide security policies

Effective company security policies protect your organization’s data by clearly outlining employee responsibilities with regard to what information needs to be safeguarded and why.

Having clear guidelines set ensures that both your company information and your employees are safe from security threats.

Items to include in your security policy might include:

  • Remote work policies
  • Password update policies
  • Data retention policies
  • Employee training guidelines
  • Disaster recovery policies

This list obviously isn’t exhaustive, so we’d recommend using a security risk assessment tool to pinpoint specific areas your business should address.

Note: Social engineering and phishing are major security threats for businesses of all sizes. To avoid becoming a target, your company must implement strong security practices for your users. For example, using a secure two-factor authentication setup can help prevent unauthorized users from accessing company documents.

4. Ensure communications are secured

Having a distributed work environment tends to mean that most (if not all) communications occur digitally. As such, keeping digital communications secure should be a top consideration.

Using Microsoft 365, you can ensure that your communication remains encrypted.

If video calls are a major part of your business needs, Microsoft Teams offers robust encryption for your calls. Additionally, email through Microsoft 365 offers top-tier anti-phishing protection for your business.

To learn more about available tools for secure business communication, refer to the Microsoft documentation here.

Tap into global talent pools

world map on a computer

The pandemic triggered a drastic reshuffling of how workers view their jobs, leading to what has been dubbed the Great Resignation. In the United States, more than 11 million jobs were sitting unfilled as of January 2022. With jobless claims on the decline, the domestic labor pool is small and competitive.

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed as a small company attempting to attract talent in the current labor market. You’ll want to ensure that you’re offering competitive wages and benefits, but it can be difficult to go toe-to-toe with large corporations.

However, this is another instance where distributed work can help. One solution? International talent.

The distributed work model makes employing remote workers worldwide more seamless than ever before.

A few considerations here to keep in mind, though.

  • You’ll need to apply for certification from the U.S. Department of Labor to hire outside the country.
  • Be aware of additional taxes that might result.

For more information, review the official documentation for this process.

Note: The same standards do not apply to international contractors, but there are special considerations for contractors as well. Read this guide for more details.

Maintain quality communication between employees

Successful businesses rely on open communication for everything from keeping employees up to date on company information to maintaining morale. Let’s go over a few ways to implement quality communication in a distributed work environment.

1. Cultivate a healthy work environment

Company culture can feel like an afterthought when your teams work separately from each other. However, cultivating a strong company culture is vital, especially for distributed work environments.

The first step here is to clearly define the company culture that you want. By setting the company standards early, your employees will be able to benefit from a solid starting point.

Second, reinforce the culture that you’d like to create. Setting goals, establishing performance metrics, fostering accountability, building trust with employees, and being open to feedback from workers all help reinforce a healthy company culture.

And third, it’s important to prioritize the mental and physical health of your employees. Encourage vacation time, allow for flexible working arrangements, and make mental health support a priority.

2. Foster open communication

Digital communication is key for distributed work environments, so keeping open and transparent channels for communication is imperative.

Email and chat tools are communication fundamentals, but fostering communication itself can feel a bit daunting.

Here are a few suggestions on building healthy communication for your distributed work teams:

  • Make empathy a priority.
  • Greet employees every day.
  • Create a virtual water cooler to encourage socialization.
  • Announce company updates directly.
  • Give recognition and feedback regularly.

By encouraging clear, focused — but also fun — communication, your teams will grow to trust each other and interteam collaboration can flourish.

Distributed work is the ‘new normal’

Building your business toward a distributed work model is a solid investment in growing your company in the future. Tools like Microsoft 365 offer an all-in-one solution to take the pain out of transitioning your business, so take charge of your business’ future today.



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The Synergy of Leadership and Project Management

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Businesses today fiercely compete with each other to achieve success and become leaders in the industry. But to do this, companies need to know how to keep their clients interested, ensure they’re manufacturing the right products, and create trendy advertisements relevant to their demographic. All of these factors come under project management. An accurate measure of success for any company stems from how well it manages its projects and ensures they hit all the right deadlines.

However, managing a project well can only occur under one circumstance if there is an efficient leader on board to oversee the progress. A thriving business requires the synergy of leadership and project management skills to drive toward success. This combination of leadership and project management creates a force that boosts team performance, fosters innovation, and helps achieve project objectives.

So how can a leader become the best project manager? Here’s what you need to know:

How Can A Leader Get Better at Project Management?

Project management is a skill. You must know how to delegate the task, guide your employees, help them when they feel stuck, and ensure the final product will get your client’s attention. However, you must know your client’s needs well and match them with the current industry requirements. This involves researching the latest market trends, establishing a realistic timeline for your goals, and outsourcing a team to accelerate the process if needed. For many leaders, becoming a project manager can be overwhelming.

If you are unsure about how to become an effective manager, establish trust with your employees, or create a feasible timeline for a product, you should explore and learn product management roles to gain a better understanding. In addition, there are various resources out there that can help you become an effective project manager. From free online courses to books and seminars, the resources available are plentiful.

What does it take to be an Effective Leader?

A leader guides, inspires, and provides clear visions to their employees. Your role is pivotal in motivating and supporting your workers as they attempt to tackle numerous projects that come their way.

Modern leadership model

To be an effective leader and manage projects better, here are some factors you need to consider:

1. Create a Vision

Before you can work on any project, you need to visualize it. This lets you picture what the final product should look like, what goals you need to achieve to get to that level, and what areas of the project you need to work on to make your vision perfect.

The best way to capture your vision is by setting realistic project objectives. You want to ensure that the outline you present is specific to the client’s request, has measurable metrics and that your team can easily do it without feeling overwhelmed by the load. Furthermore, your vision should be relevant to the market trends and follows a strict timeframe so that you can complete the project on time.

Most clients have a small margin for error and delay. While they can cooperate with you and give you more time to finish your work, don’t make them wait long. Hence, always start with a vision. Your employees may also feel inspired by your vision and find it easy to follow and work with you interactively.

2. Encourage Collaboration

Your team needs to be on the same page. A project’s success is not an individual accomplishment. The people responsible for hiring must know how to coordinate, communicate and work together to achieve the right results. This is why you, as a leader, involve your team in the process as much as possible. By nurturing collaboration, you encourage your team to be more supportive of each other and work unanimously towards a common goal.

For this reason, discuss the project with your team at length. You should be open to their ideas, listen to their insights on your proposal, and explain your ideas to them clearly. Your employees should never try to attempt work on the project in isolation. Instead, they should be more forthcoming with each other and choose to work in harmony in completing every task.

You can further instill a collaborative spirit in your workers by celebrating their milestones, holding the entire department accountable for mistakes, and giving every team member a chance to present their concerns without prioritizing one department over the other.

3. Promote Learning

No matter how skilled and talented your employees are, there is always space to learn more. As a leader, you need to cultivate this spirit. Your employees should have a positive attitude towards learning and acknowledging their mistakes. They shouldn’t be afraid to reach out and ask you if they made a mistake and what areas of their expertise need further improvement.

Additionally, it would help if you created a learning environment. Don’t act as their only source of information; instead, allow them the space to explore new avenues, make mistakes, and motivate them to become curious about learning more. Try to arrange meetings before tackling significant projects so that you can discuss past mistakes, build on ideas and compare the progress your team makes on every project to establish how steadily your team is performing.

The more you give them the space to learn and explore, the better the outcome.

Project manager holding a project kick-off meeting

Final Thoughts

Effective project management is the hallmark of a successful business endeavor. However, to do so, you need a leader who understands the nuances of running and maintaining these projects. Companies need to work around the clock to keep their clients entertained. This is not easy since, as a business, you need to stay on top of changing trends, anticipate consumer needs, and steer your enterprise in that direction.

The best way you can ensure you can manage your role as a leader and combine it with your determination to tackle every project that comes your way is by giving yourself the space to learn and explore. Once you can do that, project management is all about creating a vision, fostering curiosity, building a team, and funneling effective communication.

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Leadership

How to Build Upon the Legacy of Your Family Business — and Make It Your Own

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