When COVID struck in 2020, it brought along with it a massive global lockdown. After several months of passing now, a lockdown might not exactly be in force, and work and workflow seem to be getting back on track. However, some of the things stay altered. Employees are still working from home, and you might still be trying to figure out ways to get maximum productivity out of your remote team. Even though you aren’t physically around your employees anymore, there are some things you can do to ensure that your remote team is producing its best output in terms of work.
Ensuring a good work environment when working from home
Having a workplace setup helps tune employees’ mindset into a more work-oriented mood so they are able to focus on the task at hand. This plays a great role in bringing out maximum productivity from the team. In a remote working setup, you will not be able to reach full potential no matter what if your employees don’t get the right environment. For this reason, investing in a desk and a screen for each of your employees will go a long way to go. It will ensure they get a proper working setup regardless of their other living conditions. Your basic and one-time investment will boost not only job satisfaction amongst your employees but job performance too.
Make sure you keep your employees aware of useful tips to remote working. Adhering to these tips will allow them to keep their work environment and themselves more work-focussed. This is important because in remote working setups it is easy to fall for traps such as laziness and complacency.
Using time tracking tools
In a remote working environment, you cannot really go over to your employees’ desks and check on the amount of integrity they are putting into work. However, you will find a wide selection of software tools such as Time Doctor that allow you to keep a remote track of the amount of effort and time your employees are putting in.
You can use these tools to measure not just log in time, but figures like total active time too. For example, the tool can measure the actual time spent typing or on-call, allowing you a more accurate and in-depth measurement of your employees’ given input. In this way, you can ensure dedication on part of your employees even if you can’t be there in person. If you feel laziness on part of your employees, find ways to motivate remote employee members.
Focussing on output rather than on input
In order to achieve maximum productivity from a remote team, you need to acknowledge the fact there is going to be some flexibility in terms of the timings and short-term goals. Your employees are going to go about their work not necessarily in the same guided manner they would at the workplace.
If your employees are achieving their targets in the long run, flexibility of timings and daily goals would prove to be one of the pillars of success in a remote working setup. Find fair reasons to trust your employees and offer them greater autonomy, and your remote working setup can be the catalyst your company always needed for success.
Making online communication efficient
As work continues to go about in the virtual world, Zoom calls have taken over the trends. Chances are you are hopping from one Zoom call to another even within a single day’s span. If so you probably realise that Zoom calls can be exhausting, even if you just need to be present. Therefore, cutting down on the number of unnecessary Zoom calls and conferences will make sure your employees are not getting exhausted for the less productive reasons.
Instead of holding a Zoom meeting for a presentation, you can send out the presentation to your employees on a one to one basis. By doing so, they will be able to go through the presentation as per their convenience, allowing them to give it the right amount of focus. In case there are any queries or follow-ups, those can be discussed over a Zoom meeting after coordinating with your employees. This will ensure that the time spent over the following Zoom call is actually useful for and relevant to each of the participants.
Besides Zoom, there are a number of other online communication tools that can make remote working easier and more efficient. For example, apps such as Slack allow you a wide array of functionality, from group chatting to file sharing and screen sharing. By achieving all of these functions under the same roof, you will save everyone’s time on hopping from one app to another.
Instilling a team spirit in your employees
If your team members aren’t meeting up in person, it is easy for them to lose interest in coordinating with each other. If this happens, your team will lose direction, as everyone is going to want to work in their own way. For this reason, it is important that you make sure to infuse bonding and a team spirit amongst your employees. You can do this in the virtual world through organizing activities like online gaming sessions on days off.
