Almost two years of remote work arrangement has allowed employees working from home to settle comfortably in this new setup. Since it’s most likely here to stay, the only thing that you should do from here is to enhance your processes to ensure your employees get everything they need to produce excellent output despite not being in a traditional office setting.
During the first months of flexible work, many tried to go through their day as if they were still in the office, but that can be a challenge because a relaxed atmosphere is one of the benefits of working from home.
Instead of promoting stiff work habits in a home setup, you should take this chance to allow your personnel to experience a better work-life balance. Although it looks like a breeze, accomplishing tasks in a place where you sleep and relax also comes with unique hurdles that require one-of-a-kind solutions.
To help your employees smoothly perform tasks and further their professional careers even from home, below are things you can do.
Work Equipment
When officials announced news of the first lockdown, many people thought it would only last for a couple of weeks, and then things would get back to normal, but almost two years into it, we know from experience that that isn’t the case.
Most of your staff probably opted only to bring home their laptops and a few documents, but now that the shift is starting to look more permanent, it is your job to provide them with better equipment. For your employees who do processor-heavy tasks, it’s best to give them a PC build that has powerful RAM and spacious storage, so they can seamlessly finish demanding work.
Programs and Software
Besides equipment, your team would also need programs and software to improve their work. When giving out equipment, having them installed with essentials, like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud, can help them power through tasks. Furthermore, it’s also great to outsource security and support services from a trusted IT company since your staff will be working under different networks, making them vulnerable to external threats.
You can also extend your support package by employing other communication software exclusive to your team, which can help you feel more secure when exchanging confidential information.
Additional Tools
Programs and software are vital, but additional tools can enhance your personnel’s work and expedite various company processes. For instance, tools like cloud storage including, OneDrive and Google Drive, let your employees quickly access data and assets in a secure method, so no information leaks out during work.
Some programs offer payroll and clock-in services, giving you the convenience of creating payroll and monitoring the tasks your team members are currently working on.
Comprehensive Instructions
Suppose you’re one of the companies that have resorted to utilizing a skeletal workforce to maintain social distancing in the office. In that case, there’s a high chance that most of your employees still aren’t used to working remotely.
To help them become used to the new normal work setup, you can give out training in the form of a document or check in on them at least during the first week of their work-from-home shifts to help them be familiar and create an effective schedule. It’s also good to enroll them in cyber security courses to help them safeguard classified documents from internal and external perils.
Direct Communication Line
Even with the abundance of apps available for your company to use, there are still many factors that can compromise your line of communication. Considering that you and your employees are working in separate locations, you don’t have the leeway of talking to them when you need to the most.
To maintain a reliable and steady communication line, you should use at least three applications to ensure what you want to say will reach your staff. Emailing must be an essential part of your basics, especially when exchanging documents, but you can also use Microsoft Teams or Slack for more casual conversations.
Frequent Updates
When working in individual spaces, a lot of communication is lost, which you can partially make up for by frequently checking in with your team. However, it’s not easy to spread critical information throughout all employees in a remote work setup. For efficient company-wide communication, you need to send out frequent updates regarding the most recent changes in different business processes.
You can keep your staff posted by holding virtual town halls and sending newsletters. It’s also a good idea to use newsletters to boost morale by commending exceptional employees in most of your updates.
There are plenty of things you can do to help bolster your team’s productivity without adding more stress to their lockdown routines. By providing them with work essentials and keeping them in the loop, you can help them advance their careers.
