Is your Creative Team set up for remote working? Here's a quick checklist.
Whether it's the prospect of the Covid-19 virus becoming widespread and your office needing to close, or you're simply looking to run your business in a more cost-effective way with an offshore or offsite creative team; you'll need to have a plan in place to manage your teams remotely.
Below we've split out checklists into four key areas, Hardware, Software, Processes and People. This is by no means a complete list, but hopefully a handy guide to help you manage your creative teams when they're not in your office.
Hardware
Are your team equipped with laptops?
Do they have wireless modems with enough data to work remotely?
Do they have colour printers and scanners or access to them (If needed)?
Do they have access to a lightbox, cutting mat, tablet and work phone (If needed)?
Does your staff have access to any other stationery they might need?
Software
Do they have the right/latest software e.g Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office, G Suite / Drive and your timesheet platform?
Can they connect to your servers remotely to access and store files, fonts, imagery etc? If not is there a temporary solution?
Do you have an FTP service set up for large file transfers?
Do you have conference call capability, e.g Zoom / Skype etc?
Is your team communicating through an instant messaging service like Slack?
Is your team connected to project management platforms like Asana or Monday?
Does your team use a shared team calendar?
Does IT have remote access to staff computers should something need fixing?
Does your team have access to passwords and logins for essential 3rd party sites and software, e.g timesheets, image and resource library’s etc?
Processes
Do you have a clear meeting structure to enhance efficiency e.g P.O.S.T?
Have you put in place daily Work In Progress (WIP) meetings with your team?
Do you have scheduled check-ins to ensure work is delivered on time?
Have you created a process for creative presentations, both internally and to clients?
Have your Account Service teams sent briefs and supporting material ahead of the briefing to allow creatives to digest the information and come to briefings ready with questions?
Can you ensure conference calls for briefings only have key decision-makers involved to avoid meeting paralysis?
Can you push back deadlines and allow for more flexibility with your clients?
Is there a clear policy around expenses and claims, and is your team aware of it?
Have you clearly outlined the expected 'office hours' including start times, lunchtimes and end-of-day time?
Have your Traffic Co-Ordinators and Project Managers got everything they need?
Are there clear lines of reporting in place between the Strategy, Account Service, Project Management and Creative departments? Does everyone know what they are?
Have you created a Working From Home / Remote Working playbook for your team?
People
Has HR clearly outlined Leave and Remote Working policy and requirements to your team?
Are you showing an understanding that working from home is not always an office environment, and can have distractions beyond your team's control.
Have you considered your team's Personal Circumstances may also make it difficult to function at their regular speed?
Have you considered your teams mental health? Has HR outlined a clear Mental Healthy policy and communicated it to your team, and have you checked in with your team on a personal level to find out how they're doing?
Have you considered ways to make your remote team feel integrated rather than isolated? What team building activities can you do that will foster inclusion?
Do you need to bring on any freelance or 3rd party support?
Hopefully, this helps and if you think of anything else that should be added in please feel free to add them in the comments section so we can share a more comprehensive list.
