If like many other legal practices, you and your team are embarking on an unspecified work-from-home period, you might be wondering how best to approach it.

It might be the first time many of your finance team have adopted remote working practices – but this doesn’t need to be a barrier to success.

Your team can work just as efficiently from home.

In fact, as a business, you are in a great position. Many job roles are not as easily adapted to working from home, but with a few alterations, you can have a fully functioning remote finance team – here are the best-practice strategies to support your team through the transition.

1. The Right Equipment

First and foremost, it is essential that you provide your finance team with the items and equipment that they usually have at work. As an employer, you shouldn’t instruct your team to work from home and expect them to make the necessary arrangements.

This means recreating their usual workspace to the best of your ability – PCs, laptops, calendars, broadband and even their desk if necessary. The more you can make your finance team feel as though they are still ‘at work’, the less their productivity will suffer.

2. Checking In

Once your finance team are remotely set up and working from home, it is crucial to step-up the amount of contact you have with them.

It is more critical than ever right now to help your finance team feel connected to one another – a lack of connection in your team can reduce productivity (more on this below).

At least once a day, get together with your team on a conference call or a video link so that they can discuss and share any issues or positive news that they would typically share with their colleagues.

With Skype, Zoom, FaceTime and WhatsApp, it’s easier than ever to catch up with your team on video – there’s no reason for your finance employees to feel disconnected from the business and the rest of the team.

3. Changes With Clients

The COVID-19 situation has caused upheaval in many finance practices across the UK. Depending on your clients, there will have likely been challenges in your business brought about by the virus.

Have things changed with your clients? Are you having to re-visit clients or make fast changes to work that you thought was complete?

The change to the interest rate, an increase in card payments and the unexpected beginning or ending of contracts are all problems that are facing practices trying to help their clients adapt to the current situation.

Given these changes, you must spend extra time making sure your team know exactly where they are with clients. Offer extra help throughout this time and be prepared for changing situations with clients until things settle down.

4. Mental Health

Adapting to working from home can be challenging at first and coupled with the stresses of the coronavirus, this can make it even more difficult for employees to change.

Aware of how the current coronavirus situation has the potential to affect the nation’s mental health negatively, the NHS has produced a guide to helping you stay positive throughout the lockdown period which you can find here.

Looking out for your finance team’s mental health throughout this challenging situation will ultimately lead to a stronger team. Remember to have regular one-to-ones with your employees, even just sending a message telling them to contact you if they want a chat can be of significant help.

5. Helping Them Stay Productive

While some employees will find the deviation from the norm unsettling, recent studies suggest that for the right people, working from home can increase productivity levels.

In light of the recent increase in remote working, we have put together a guide to help employees be their most productive selves, which you can share with them (you can find it here).

Using the strategies I have outlined here, it is entirely possible that your finance team can continue to produce their best work while working from home.

Before You Go

We have been working closely with financial practices across the North West to help them through the challenging situation that COVID-19 has created.

Have your business needs changed recently, and should this be reflected in your recruitment efforts?

If you would like to discuss your recruitment priorities and find out how Clayton Recruitment can help, call us today on 01772 259 121 or contact us here.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.