The pandemic has led businesses to shift almost their entire measures and processes remotely. Employees were told to work from a few years back, and this had happened all over the world. The traditional workplace practices of in-person weekly meetings, brainstorming sessions, and discussions were all thrown out the window. Remote work has now even become the new normal for many businesses in the past years. They had to deal with remote staff, distributed or global teams, attempting to maintain a high level of productivity completely. This being said, businesses must concentrate on developing productivity norms that account for both the quality of the work that is delivered to the organization, as well as the wellbeing of the individuals who are doing the work. The only way to successfully manage remote teams is to do it in this manner.
Businesses collectively have difficulties managing remote staff and teams that would not exist if everyone worked from the office in the first place. This is only made more difficult by the uncertainty the pandemic presents. For this, certain ways of enhancing the productivity of employees that work from home have been discovered. There are things that you can do to make sure that your remote staff will make the most of their time, all while meeting all their deadlines.
Productivity in Remote Work Environment
The subject of productivity is very important when working remotely. Since managers and supervisors are unable to visit employees’ desks to check on them now, managing them and checking up on them from time to time has become a problem. But by putting the appropriate procedures, tools, and rules in place, they can certainly ensure the efficiency of their remote staff. This is now the time to take the essential actions to analyze and boost productivity in this new standard work environment, where remote work is quickly becoming the “new normal” for many firms.
Establish Clear Means of Remote Communication
The cornerstone of successful teamwork, effective brainstorming, and a strong team connection is effective communication. It is particularly important for remote teams that depend on regular sharing to stay in sync and work more effectively together. But since the pandemic, communication has shifted online and helped remote work become prevalent. Therefore, it is imperative that new communication guidelines be defined immediately. The initial step would be choosing the channels of communication that will be used throughout your business process. For meetings, training, and other real-time communication, synchronous channels like Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams, etc. can be used. On the other hand, asynchronous channels like emails, Slack, etc., can be utilized for casual conversation, document sharing, instant messaging, and more.
Adapt your internal communication policy to the needs of remote workers by defining essential components including frequency, channels, goals, and when communication should occur. Additionally, make sure you update all team members on all rules and keep a record of everything.
Additionally, you may establish rules for email notifications, away messages, and one-on-one check-ins with teammates. Thus, establishing explicit standards aids in preventing misunderstandings and disputes among team members. Additionally, it increases employee productivity by cutting down on pointless phone calls and drawn-out email threads.
Optimize Company Culture for the Remote Setting
Maintaining a commitment to the company culture and mission outside the typical work space is one of the biggest obstacles to productive remote staff. As a result, it is crucial to emphasize important cultural tenets and make sure the team can adjust to them remotely.
Some ways that you can redesign your remote company culture as a means of employee productivity would be by implementing flexible work hours. With this measure, you can provide a better and healthier work-life balance for your remote staff. It actually tends to be the key driver of greater productivity in general. Moreover, you can offer substantial mental and physical health incentives, to show your remote staff that you value and support their wellbeing — which then may lead to an increase in productivity. Also, you should create processes and actions that can promote the core company values, as a means of reinspiring employee engagement and commitment to common goals.
Encourage Remote Staff to Maintain Physical and Mental Well-being
Burnout is a typical occurrence for any employee, much less one who works remotely. It should be a goal to prevent that for your remote teams, just as you would want to avoid it for your in-office employees. Make sure your staff is not working themselves to death, and urge them to keep track of their working hours. One of the ways to encourage your remote workforce would be by implementing a fitness challenge within the company. It can be a great method to promote physical wellness in the workplace. They can all set weekly and yearly exercise objectives together. Their coworkers’ friendship and the company will encourage them to consistently pursue those objectives.
Assuring the health of your remote workers is important because it directly affects their output and performance. The better they feel physically and mentally, the more effectively they can complete their work.
Reward Good Work to Inspire your Team to Perform Better
Acknowledgment and appreciation of good work are essential to motivating your employees. When they are working remotely, it is even more important. It is because there is a greater danger that their hard effort would go undetected. Therefore, it is your responsibility as the manager to recognize those members of remote teams who perform above average.
For instance, you can thank strong performers with a card or email. Additionally, you might think about publicly praising the efforts and accomplishments of your remote staff on social media. Additionally, thoughtful recognition options include timely virtual appreciation get-togethers, unexpected meal deliveries, cost-free technology upgrades, bonuses, paid vacation, etc.
Rewarding outstanding performance encourages resources to perform even better by making them feel valued. At the same time, being recognized in front of others motivates everyone. It establishes and raises standards that everyone in the organization must meet. This boosts the effectiveness of remote teams overall since everyone strives to do better and is rewarded.
Key Takeaway
Globally, the culture of remote work is here to stay. So it is imperative that businesses update their resourcing plans to reflect the changing hybrid workplace. The effectiveness of distant resources may be hampered by a few obstacles. To maintain the effectiveness of your remote staff, the broad procedures stated above can always be combined with a resource management solution. It might even be difficult to lead distant teams at times. However, properly managed remote staff and personnel are much more productive than conventional teams based in physical offices. The key is to identify potential or existing productivity-reducing situations and address them before they become a problem. Nothing compares to the performance that a remote worker and a remote team can produce when done properly.
While occasionally difficult, trying to maximize productivity with your remote team is a worthwhile task. But before your remote labor starts putting in more effort, all it takes is a few little adjustments to your culture and management.
