With COVID19 Pandemic raging havoc around the globe in full swing, remote work or work from home is now a reality for millions of professionals throughout the world. Organizations are now encouraging and helping their workforce in working remotely from safe precincts of their homes.
The Coronavirus outbreak has changed how professionals work in an organizational setup. Industry experts believe that this change will last for good. Several multinational corporations have already started planning for long term remote working configuration, while several others are assessing alternatives to conventional office setup.
Remote working is no longer just a choice that stands in contrast to the conventional office format but has now become a necessity for organizations as well as for their workforce. The situation has also exposed professionals to several incongruities regarding remote working since several organizations are now directly under its ascendency.
Time and again, research and surveys have revealed that the majority of employees find remote working far more productive and efficient, however, this has not been the case for several individuals who rather prefer keeping their workplace away from their homes.
Following are some of the remote work best practices one must be mindful of, to increase productivity and efficiency while working remotely.
Clear and Coherent Communication
One of the biggest challenges for teams in collaborating while working remotely is because of the lack of a well-ordered communication. While solving this problem is not rocket science, it is important to identify the factors that add up to this challenge.
Identify and Introduce Proper Communication Tools: It is important to understand the requirement of the team by observing the frequency of communication between team members. Not all of the communication can be carried out over emails and is one of the reasons why quick team messenger tools are taking over ferociously.
Typically a remote worker uses no less than five tools of communication
- Chat
- Video conferencing tool
- Voice call
- File sharing tool
While the requirements of communication channels may vary from team to team, it is recommended that remote workers should have these five modes of communication at all times.
Not-so-Complicated Communication: The team members need to have an uncomplicated communication, both verbally as well as grammatically. One must ensure that all the written communication must be flawless to ensure concise communication. This makes room for tools that mitigate grammatical errors.
Similarly, a coherent verbal communication can be the ‘make or break’ factor for efficient collaboration between team members.
Be Prompt: Every member of the remote working team needs to show the utmost promptness in communication. This is one of the most important factors to ensure the team’s productivity and efficiency.
Setting Goals, Short and Long Term
To quote Thomas Carlyle, “A man without a goal is a ship without a rudder”.
This is analogous to remote working as much as it is to a conventional office setup. It is important to set daily, weekly monthly and quarterly personal goals to crush deadlines.
Working remotely may sound convenient, however, professionals who are new to the norm struggle to keep up with the collaborative goals. Setting a periodic personal goal requires an individual to comprehend his/ her capabilities along with observing the most productive hours of the day.
Keeping track of productive hours is the key to setting realistic goals. This also helps the team in assessing the timeline for the collaborative goal and thus results in a successful conclusion within the deadline.
One of the most important factors while setting goals is to ensure that they are not too exasperating. It is important to assign realistic goals to oneself as it attenuates the chances of drawbacks.
Focus On Result
Setting up goals is not sufficient. It is important to set a bounty in the long run and work daily to achieve it. Result-oriented goals and collaboration lead the team towards a common and timely conclusion.
It has been practiced and observed by experienced remote workers that setting personal goals help in increasing productivity while identifying and working towards a common result keeps the team motivated and driven.
Focusing solely on the result also alleviates the complexities of indulging in processes. For example, in a particular remote work team setup, every member needs to focus on what needs to be achieved (individually) by the end of the day or the week, rather than how it needs to be achieved and what measures must be applied to lead to it.
This is one important practice believed to bring success not only to remote workers but to entrepreneurs and businessmen.
Embracing Tools and Technology at Your Disposal
With endless tools and technologies at your disposal, collaborative remote work is equally, if not more, productive than conventional workspace setups.
Remote working is only possible because of the advancement in cloud-based technologies and tools. These tools are as easily accessible as the internet itself and have completely mitigated third party installation and programming procedures.
Like for instance InfinCE – A remote work tool, an all-in-one infinite cloud platform to enhance your remote working ability, efficiency, and productivity. With innumerable live chats and video calling options, InfinCE helps you communicate faster and coordinate effectively with your teammates.
Today, there is a cloud-based tool for almost every task that one needs to indulge in and these tools serve their purpose effectively. Leveraging these tools will not only save you time but will also help in increasing end-on-end efficiency for the entire team.
With an array of tools to choose from for each process, however, it is easy for an individual to get absorbed in the process itself rather than the result, thus the use of each tool must serve its purpose. Keeping yourself updated with new and efficient tools is the key here.
Mental and Physical Well Being
Guess what! People have more time for themselves than ever before.
Millions of employees are working from the boundaries of their homes in a pandemic-ridden world. This situation must be leveraged to improve mental and physical wellbeing.
This can only be possible when a daily routine is followed that not only leads to improvement of productivity but also allows an individual to indulge in activities that lead to better health.
From listening to soulful music to reading a book and enjoying a cup of tea, expert remote workers partake in activities that bring mental and physical satiation.
Final Thoughts
These tips will help not only in achieving better productivity and efficiency but also in attaining a stable work-life balance. It is also important to understand that remote working is not an adverse scenario for employees and a completely new world order of work culture may be in store for the entire world.
All you need to do is embrace it and enjoy its benefits!
Focus on the result! Yes! We get so wound up in process and meetings! It’s outcomes we need to be focussed on.
Yes, Louise. Meetings without a definite outcome are very ineffective.