Employers' Guide to Winning at Remote Work

With everyone forced indoors due to Covid Pandemic, the only option left was to work remotely. At first, the majority of the people didn’t like it. However, as time passed, the benefits of remote work became apparent.

Many firms continued with the trend and let employers work from home even after the pandemic restrictions were lifted.

That wasn’t the case for the majority of the employers and managers, however. The urge to go back to the old ways is too strong. The only issue is that most employees don't want to go back to the old days.

If you’re an employer or manager who wonders how to keep everyone working at their best, remotely, you’re in the right place.

We’ll help you understand why employers love working from home and how you can get the best out of them.

Let’s begin then, shall we?

Top 5 Reasons Why Employees Love Working from Home

While many employees have their reasons to love working from home, here are the top reasons why they love it.

Eliminates Commute

Getting to work and back home is time-consuming. Depending upon where they live, they can expect to spend an hour or more commuting to and from work.

That’s some precious time being wasted away. Let’s also not forget how the commute can be tiring and eat into their earnings as well.

Working from home eliminates all these issues. An employee saves time, money and the trouble of commuting. Less time commuting means more time with their families.

No one will willingly choose to be stuck in traffic than spend some extra time with their family.

Better Work-Life Balance

Working from home has many benefits and the prime among those is how your work-life balance improves. Providing for your family is the primary driver of any employee.

That required them to be away from their family and at work. Working from home allows them the option to be around family while providing for them.

This is especially a big win for young couples who’re raising kids. Not having to commute and working from home gives them more time with their kids.

Moreover, even for people without kids, working from home frees up a lot of time and funds for them. These can be invested into doing things they enjoy.

Better Productivity

Believe it or not but it turns out employees are more productive when they work from home. A study conducted by Great Place to Work found that working from home resulted in a significant rise in productivity.

There are multiple reasons behind it. Not having to spend precious hours commuting, better work-life balance, the comfort of home and most of all not being stuck in overly lengthy meetings have played their roles in raising productivity.

Employers should take this bit as a big win for themselves. Not only do they get a more productive workforce but they save a lot on office space expenses.

Better Punctuality

There is one thing employees dread is oversleeping, getting stuck in traffic or being in a long line waiting for a cup of coffee. Basically, anything that may lead to them arriving late to the office is something they don't want.

No one enjoys having to hear an earful from the boss for missing a meeting or the HR taking note of your login time.

Working from home eliminates this completely. As mentioned before, eliminate commuting and you have an employee who is less prone to being late.

So chances are high that they will always be on time at work and for meetings. Thanks to not having to commute, they will also be high on energy.

Flexibility

Working from home technically means you can work from anywhere as long as you have good connectivity. This opens up a world of possibilities for the employees.

Many hospitality establishments already offer Workacation plans. These are basically work + vacation plans. An employee thus has the option of working from any destination they desire.

Employees may also choose to spend a week or two with their relatives. Working from home enables them to do so while continuing to work and add value.

Now you understand why your employees might want to continue working from home. Let’s now understand how you can get the best out of employees working from home!

Top 7 Tips For Getting The Most Out of Your Remote Workforce

Like it or not, remote work is here to stay and grow. Follow the tips below so you can have your workforce productive and at their best even when working from home.

1. Set and Review Performance Expectations Regularly

An employee’s work becomes easy when they know what work and how much of it is expected from them in a given time frame.

Simply clocking in working hours should not be the measure of work done. This applies to working from the office as well. As an employer, you should set performance expectations from your employees early on.

Establishing a milestone system works as well. The system should enable you to track and monitor employee performance.

Reviewing the performance expectations regularly also helps you optimize for peak employee performance. This way you can get the most out of them.

2. Stay Organized yet Flexible

At the end of the day, what matters most is to get the work done at the right time, manner and of the required quality.

To deliver on those three objectives, you will be required to keep the team organized and on the same page. However, you should also allow for flexibility within this organized framework.

Letting employees put in their work hours as they find suitable is something you should allow for. As long as the three objectives are being accomplished, if an employee prefers to work in the morning or evening shouldn't be a concern.

This added flexibility allows the employees to work during times they feel they’re most productive. This translates to a higher quality of work put out by them.

3. Avoid Lengthy Meetings

Remote working environments on such a scale are still uncharted territory. What works in the traditional work environment cannot be guaranteed to work in the remote work environment.

We’ve all been in meetings that could’ve just been emails or even an internal memo. The old way of having lengthy meetings to discuss a few points is not only draining but unproductive.

Such meetings should be avoided in a remote working environment. These can not only cause screen fatigue but also lower productivity in employees.

Keep meetings only as long as necessary. Always stick to the agenda of the meeting while keeping the discussion quick and precise.

4. Allocate Time for Team Interactions

Building a strong team is necessary even for remote work environments. Projects require teams to work together in collaboration to ensure timely delivery.

Building a team requires them to interact with one another, both in terms of work and casually. Make sure you create a work policy that encourages interactions among all the team members.

Having a bi-weekly or weekly short team call can also prove to be very helpful. Talk not only about work but also about other casual topics to promote bonding between the team members.

Keeping everyone in sync is also necessary. Knowing what work is going on and which part is assigned to whom makes collaboration a whole lot easier.

5. Create a Collaborative Framework

While remote work environments can be beneficial in a lot of ways, they have their downsides too. Working from Home limits how much social interaction an employee gets.

This may result in lower productivity. A way to ensure this doesn’t happen and to promote more interactions between employees is to create a collaborative framework.

Create a framework that requires employees to interact with one another multiple times a day. This simulates office socialization to some extent.

Moreover, such a framework ensures more effective team building and communication among your employees. As a result, the team as a whole works more efficiently and showcases high levels of job satisfaction.

6. Resist the Urge to Micromanage

Micromanaging all your employees is not only harmful to them but also to your business. It only raises the level of employee job dissatisfaction.

While yes, it is difficult to monitor if an employee is actually working or not but micromanagement is not an option. If you’re able to successfully set performance expectations, it is easy to track the amount of work done.

As long as the employers are delivering as per expectations and the clients are happy, other things won’t matter.

The trick is to establish trust between you and your employees and among the team in general.

7. Find a Good Communication Solution

As your remote workforce grows, so will your communication requirements. While off-the-shelf solutions like Skype and Microsoft Teams are good enough, they leave you wanting more features and functionality.

Being able to communicate internally is important and so are all external communications. The solution should be such as to allow for all forms of communication, be it instant messaging, voice calls, video calls, etc.

Additionally, advanced features such as enhanced security, conference calling, hunt groups, etc. can make your remote workforce safe and productive.

If you’re wondering where you could find a solution, look no further. ConnexCS has a Cloud-based PBX that can take care of all your communication requirements and more.

You can head to our product page to know more about all the amazing things it does!

Ending Notes

The way our world functions is changing. While not all changes are led by technology, it surely is playing a big role in this change.

Working from home is not a trend but a shift in the work culture. The employees definitely love this change and there are plenty of reasons why employers should love it too.

There are some concerns about remote working but if you follow this guide, you’ll have an easier time getting the best out of your remote workforce.