Although managing a remote team can be difficult, remote work can have a favorable impact on staff productivity. But everyone knows that it’s time to take the essential actions to increase productivity in this new work environment since remote work is fast becoming the “new normal” for many companies.
Without further ado, let’s go over a few fast strategies for increasing the output and effectiveness of your remote workforce.
Time tracking software
Managing a remote team means that your employees are not physically present at the office and that can pose a few problems.
First, you can’t really see what they’re up to during business hours and, consequently, you can’t actually do concrete managing. However, things can be much easier if use a remote worker time tracking tool. This kind of software allows you to:
- Keep tabs on your employees’ clock-in and clock-out times, their break times, and the amount of time they actually spend working.
- See what your remote employees are doing at any time of the workday.
- See what websites they visit.
- Check what apps might be on in the background.
On top of that, good software solutions of this kind also generate productivity reports with charts that precisely show how your employees spend their time.
Host virtual happy hours
Just because you all aren’t together in the office doesn’t mean that you can’t gather around for a beer to unwind after a tough workday. This won’t only boost employee happiness but it will also work wonders for productivity.
Hoppier listed a few tips to keep in mind before you actually decide to host a virtual happy hour. The number one thing to do is to pick a platform. You should consider Skype, Google Hangouts, or Zoom for your virtual happy hour session.Â
They enable you to come together, see each other and incorporate interactive aspects like screen sharing or video. All your visitors need to do is join with a webcam-equipped computer or smartphone.
Then, choose your activity. Games and activities for parties can be hit or miss. Not everyone likes to participate in drinking games, for instance, so make sure to tailor your celebration to the individuals you’re spending it with.
Send out a brief survey with some of your ideas in advance to make sure you’re organizing an event that your attendees will look forward to. Thanks to this, you can change your plans before committing to them.
Optimize for remote environment
Maintaining a commitment to the corporate culture and mission outside the typical workspace is one of the biggest obstacles to productive remote employment. As a result, it’s crucial to emphasize important cultural guidelines and make sure the team can adjust to them remotely.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the ways you may rethink the culture of your remote business to boost worker productivity:
- Create a flexible work schedule to better support worker well-being, which is the main factor in higher productivity.
- Offer significant rewards for good physical and mental health to promote workers’ well-being and, as a result, boost output.
- Develop procedures and practices that advance the fundamental business principles to rekindle employee loyalty and engagement with shared objectives.
- Optimize work from home communication by using a quality headset and tools, such as a noise-canceling headset and collaboration software, to ensure clear audio and video communication, reduce distractions, and increase productivity.
Your most productive hours are a priority
As much as we’d like to, not everyone can wake up early. Some of us simply have a completely different schedule, so we frequently need a few hours after we wake up to even start thinking about work.
For the majority of the time, remote companies provide their employees the freedom to create their own work schedules with some needed teamwork. This framework provides the ideal setting to get into your personal productivity cycle and improve time management.
The secret is to be very specific about when you are at your most productive. You’ll begin to recognize trends in your work once you’ve determined your daily peak productive hours for the week.
This will enable you to use your productive time more effectively. You can plan your workday to coincide with your peak productivity times and save the downtime for less mentally taxing activities.
In the long run, your work productivity, as well as your general lifestyle and wellbeing, will benefit from structuring your workday around your most productive hours.
Keep everyone’s health in check
If your employees feel unwell, you will make no progress and productivity will suffer.
Working from home is a steep slope to losing a healthy routine. It’s simpler to indulge in an unhealthy routine when your refrigerator is right in front of you. And we are all aware of how a poor diet makes us feel exhausted and uninspired.
Additionally, it’s simpler to fall into unhealthy habits like binge-watching your favorite Netflix series and skipping a full night’s sleep when you spend most of your time in sweats.
Even though all these habits are seemingly small, over time, they quickly build up and negatively impact your productivity and general health. Lack of sleep or exercise, for instance, might raise your stress levels and make you feel unable to handle difficult situations or complete difficult assignments at work.
Final words
The sooner you change your habits to better fit the remote work model, the better your success and overall work experience will be. Remote work is here to stay and those who can make it productive will win.
