
Managing a business is a daunting task. Employees are important assets of a business. No matter how excellent your business idea is, you need efficient employees to get the job done. Employees sitting in their cubicles and working diligently day after day have been the common norm until the pandemic has struck. People never imagined that they would be working out of the office. Well, things have changed in the past year and now people are working from home. Businesses were initially skeptical of remote working as they were thrown into this loop without any prior planning or preparation. While some have struck the right balance of virtual working, others are still trying to figure it out.
Whether you are adjusting to virtual working or have already adjusted, one thing is certain. There are more benefits of remote working, and if done right, it will improve the productivity of your remote working team. One of the main reasons why businesses don’t prefer remote working is that whenever they want an update about work or any other information they can’t just casually walk to the workstation of team members. While working remotely the teams are not present face-to-face it can be a little hard to coordinate with each other. Thanks to technology, a lot of things have become manageable. Virtual meetings, brainstorming sessions are also continuing as they used to. Businesses can also manage their employees better with employee monitoring tools.
Wondering how to improve the productivity of your remote working teams? There are a few tips that will help you in improving the productivity of your remote team and help you in achieving your business goals.
Conduct online meetings regularly
Communication within your team and with your team is highly important. Since they are not working in an office setting, you must take additional measures to strengthen your team communication. One of the best ways to strengthen their bonds and check their progress is by conducting online meetings regularly. If you don’t conduct meetings regularly your employees may feel neglected and isolated.
In an office set up, the employees are surrounded by their colleagues and there is always a bust of energy around them. However, if they are working remotely they may suddenly feel listless and unmotivated. To avoid such situations conduct meetings regularly, be it weekly or monthly, or daily, you can decide the frequency of the meetings after discussing with your team. Communicate with them frequently and express your expectations, address the issues that arise, and check their progress.
Creating work environment
One of the few things that employees will miss while they are working remotely is their cubicle. Companies invest a lot in making their workspaces welcoming for their employees. From lighting to desktops, they spend a lot on amenities to make sure their employees are working efficiently. As you already know, well-designed office spaces will improve the productivity and efficiency of their employees. However, while working from home it is highly unlikely that they have well-designed workspaces.
Tell your employees to create workspaces that motivate them to work. You can provide them with tips on how to make their workspaces well-designed and functional. Organized spaces will also lead to a calm and collective mindset and they will deliver their projects on time. You can also send them a standing desk converter or a comfortable office chair or a desktop. Sending them office equipment will also show that you care for them.
Collaborative tools
When working remotely your team must have collaborative tools that will streamline the business processes and improve communication. These tools not only improve communication but also reduce time and effort. For a business to implement its plans effectively it must deal with many departments and having collaborative tools will make the job easy for them.
Be it remote working or from the office, one thing in common: it will improve productivity and reduce workload. From project management to simple communication there are different tools that your business needs. For communication within your team, you need a team collaboration tool that will ease the communication with your team and help you in tracking them. Investing in your collaborative tools may prove to be beneficial for the businesses in both the short term and long term.
Encourage people to take responsibility
Although conducting meetings regularly and collaborating regularly is important, you must not forget that they need their personal space to develop their own routine too. As you already know, no two employees of yours will have the same mindset or active hours. So instead of making all of them follow a common routine, you can help them in creating their routine.
Giving them enough freedom will motivate them in accomplishing their goals. Instead of micromanaging each detail of your team, ask their opinions and take a step back so that they can take a lead. Them taking responsibility in office-related works will motivate them to reach their work targets.
Provide them with feedback
Your team may take time to get used to remote working. So along with being patient and flexible you must also provide them with feedback. Yes! When your team has successfully met the deadlines, praise them. Receiving recognition and appreciation will motivate them to work harder.
Not only positive feedback, but any feedback is also better. If any issues arise in work, your help and feedback can help them in resolving the issue quickly. In weekly meetings talk about the progress your team has made in the past week, thank them for their hard work and show them the results of their hard work.
Wrapping up
Remote working can be quite beneficial for businesses. As you see, employees don’t have to commute to work from their home, which will save them time and effort. So naturally, they will bring more to the table and work with vigor. Over the past few years, the number of people interested in working from home has also increased. Businesses need to adapt to new-age thinking to leverage on young talents.
If your company has decided to leverage remote working then you must have proper guidelines in place so that it optimizes productivity. One thing that you must remember is that, if you want to increase the productivity of your remote workers you must have the right communication and collaborative tools to build a stronger team and reach your business goals.