If you’re reading this in an office, you’re in the minority. If you’re reading in your spare room, on your couch, or at the kitchen table, then you’re in the vast majority.

With COVID-19 forcing so many of us to abandon our usual office, we’re experiencing the brave new world of #WFH.

Here’s innovative tech company LiveTiles’ key strategies for adapting to change.

1. Support your people

Employee wellbeing tops LiveTiles’ list of priorities. Make sure your staff know they are supported and remind them of the services available for them, like employee assistance programs. LiveTiles already has a global workplace wellness movement, LiveSmiles, but the company also created a new product to help businesses check in on staff wellbeing: LiveVibe. LiveVibe lets businesses stay connected to their remote workforce to understand how employees are feeling and analyze real time feedback with intelligent features like day-to-day experience surveys.

2. Get the right tech

This is vital now that meetings, workshops, even watercooler chat, are all online. This massive shift has led to an exponential increase in adoption of online working products like Microsoft Teams, as businesses the world over scramble to move their workforces online with as little fuss as possible. LiveTiles leads the industry in Microsoft Teams implementation and expertise, and responded by creating Microsoft Teams Support Services. The new service allows businesses to get Teams up and running in a few hours and offers ongoing support and other helpful resources like tips and tricks videos.

3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

There are obviously huge downsides of working through an unprecedented pandemic. The uncertainty, the economic repercussions, and the personal challenges, from anxiety about the future, to kids yelling for attention at home. It’s business unusual. But there are some upsides too. Problems are the fuel that feed innovation. In short, if we’re forced to change, we’ll figure out how to do it.

With the business, education, healthcare, and not-for-profit sectors all severely disrupted by the pandemic, LiveTiles partnered with Microsoft to deliver the Industry Support Services Program with the aim of using the rapid implementation of Teams to keep vital services running online.

4. Brainstorm new ways to connect

As a team, LiveTiles came up with ideas to keep everyone connected during isolation, then chose the most popular ideas. The results included Yoga and meditation sessions on Teams, cooking demonstrations during lunch breaks, flexible hours to allow for kids, online happy hours in fancy dress, and more. Don’t be afraid to consider new ideas to help staff stay connected, engaged, and happy.

5. Accept that change is inevitable (but could be for the best)

People’s perceptions of work are changing. Do we need to be in an office to be productive? The old concerns around monitoring staff seem especially stale and outdated now. The bricks and mortar offices so many have relied on as the epicentre of their professional world might not be necessary anymore, now that we’ve seen how much can go online, and how fast. This could lead to organisations considering WFH as a new frontier that promises new ways of being productive and cuts expensive operational costs. The vital thing is to continue to adapt and evolve during this time of business unusual.

Revolutionize your intranet with LiveTiles. Find out more here.