Tips for Managing Your Business During Omicron

As we go into 2022, unfortunately, we are again in the middle of a Covid outbreak. This time it is the Omicron variant which you are probably more than familiar with now. Considering that we are looking at possible restrictions again, this is an excellent time to reflect on your office or team. In this article, we here at Interactive Accountants want to share some tips and ideas to help manage your office and team morale in these challenging times.

Get Comfortable

It may sound like a no-brainer, but having a comfortable workspace strongly impacts your productivity. Some things to consider along these lines include your office environment and home environment. For example, if you are currently working from home due to the pandemic, some ideas for you and your employees to consider revolve around finding a way to still enjoy work. One thought to possibly implement is giving your employees comfortable chairs or back support. While we all know that sitting at a desk all day isn't great for your body, there are ways to improve the situation. A great starting point may be to make sure your employees either get a good office chair or back support pillow because the less pain you and your employees are in, the happier and more productive you will be.

As a business owner, it is crucial to prioritize your employees' mental and physical health to do their jobs well and enjoy doing them. Working with your team to ensure they are happy in their environment is critical, whether that be working from home or in the office. Considering the office, it is necessary to consider your employees' comfort levels in person meetings while we are still in a pandemic. Some employees may thrive at home, where they can work on their home turf, while others may like to get out of the house and be in the flow of work at work. We here at Interactive Accountants value ideas like these because even though they may seem obvious, many people don't like asking for help. It is a collective job for all of us to work together regardless of the situation.

Track Your Workflow

A more practical tip we have to share is managing your workflow and tasks. Keeping track of everything going on in your business is vital to success, and sometimes you'll need to do more than keep everything on sticky notes. Finding a good workflow software is an excellent way to manage tasks and your business. Having a collective place where jobs and information are stored can and will help your business grow. Tracking work as it is done on more than one computer or location enables you to save a lot of time. Here at Interactive Accountants, we use these types of the software ourselves to help everyone stay on task, and that is what we want to help you do as well.

Finding an effective system to track the movement of your business can be broken down into two main areas, first, things to do, and second, things accomplished. Looking at things to do, goes beyond creating a to-do list and crossing things off as you go. It means knowing who is doing what and how to maximize your employees' efforts. This can be as simple as putting people they seem to work best at, even if it may not have been the original idea. It is a good thing to make changes in your business when you see an opportunity for improvement. We have some key strategies to share on the tasks accomplished side of managing your business. Keeping track of hours worked is an important one, especially while not all of us are in the office at this time. Keeping track of these hours is essential for payroll and knowing what tasks or jobs take up more of your time. Reflecting on how you and your employees spend your time may give you insight into things that may not have been considered before. It is advisable to take these times when things are uncertain to look in and see where there is an opportunity to change the aspects of your business that are not serving you and keep the things that do.

Stay Connected With Your Team

When looking at what best helps your business, your employees should be the number one variable. People run businesses for people, including employees; if they're not functioning at their best, you won't either. So it's essential to stay connected with your team and keep office morale up, and in the world of Covid, this can be difficult to do. Some ideas we have put in place for our own business is to have lunches together in the office or through the camera. These lunches are scheduled once a month and sponsored by the company. Connecting with your team beyond what needs to be done is a great way to boost productivity. Simply put, your employees like to know you care, not only about their work but also about them. Our business makes it a habit to stay in touch and foster a friendly and productive work environment, regardless of the current Covid status, because our team has been with us before the pandemic and will be with us after the pandemic.

Essentially, now is not the time to throw in the towel just because Omicron is currently complicating life. Now is the time to reimplement yourself into your business and your team.

Here at Interactive Accountants, we can help you do this, and we have extensive knowledge on how to help your business thrive through financials and operations.

Helping businesses grow and succeed financially is our number one goal. We are here to help! If you're still not convinced yet to give us a call, feel free to look at our other blogs regarding the help we offer various businesses and offices.

If you are a professional that works with a team, schedule a free consultation here with our owner Matthew Shiebler, CPA. He's been practicing accounting for over 25 years now and is a business owner, just like you!