Turning your own space into your workplace is not a newlyย introduced practice. Remote workforce or employees working fromย homeย hasย not been a veryย old tradition for businesses.
The only difference is thatย remote working, a decade ago, was considered as a perk or facility given to the employees.
But now it has become an absolute need for the organizations to keep floating during the ongoing global crisis ofย COVID 19.
As soon asย theย World Health Organizationย declared it as a pandemic, governments responded proactivelyย and imposed partial or complete lockdown in their countries.
Andย theย survival of industries turned out to be a major challenge.
Studies prove WFH productive and reliable working model
Inย theย presentย scenario, work-from-home emerged as the greatest survivor that has kept companies operational, evenย during the time of emergency.ย
According to performance-based remote work statistics, 85% of businesses confirm that productivity has increased due to remote working and 77% have experienced a remarkable decrease in operational costs.
Moreover, according to a global poll in 2018 conducted by Kantar, a data and insights firm, among 33000 respondents, 32% valued a job where they could work from home.
Global tech giants and experts support WFH
Social media platform Twitter has recently urgedย itsย employees to work from home, in a bid to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Similarly, one of the worldโs largest IT companyโs Indian subsidiaryย IBM Indiaย hasย made work from home a reality forย 99% ofย itsย employees, amid the outbreak of this pandemic.
But being a novel concept, many are struggling in communicating and keeping their remote workforce engaged and productive.
And thus, here we are today discussing those 8 key ways to deal withย challenges you face to manageย your work-from-home employees and make them efficient and productive.
To-do list for management to make their remote teams efficient
Create digital meetups:
Employees must be surely missing their lunch breaks and munching snacks with their buddies and besties.ย
A study reveals that 19%ย ofย people feel loneliness as an important challenge faced while working remotely.
To deal with this and counter their loneliness, managers can keep the teams connected and arrange some innovative sessions to keep their workforce engaged.
The discussion may includeย sharing ideas, setting new goals and ways to achieve them. The discussions should be kept casual so that employees can collaborate more.
Apart from work,ย fun activities can also be a part ofย your remote working sessions.
This will help managers boost their teamsโ morale and keep them engaged in their work.
Short video calls during lunch and tea breaks could make employees feel more connected to their teammates.
Setting upย effective communication
It has been found thatย aย lack of proper and uninterrupted communication is a major hurdleย in a way to executeย theย work-from-homeย concept better.
Thus, keepย your remote teams updated with advanced communication tools.ย
Believing a statistic, 83% of respondents use technology to collaborate in real-time.
So whether it is sharing ideas or their work, the delayed response may lead to making your workforce unenthusiastic and less productive
Optimizing non-working staff:
As discussed earlier,ย few sectors that canโt be assigned with remote working, viz. on-field sales team, manufacturing department, etc.
Thus to utilize them during such times, becomes the biggest challenge for managers.
Hence, training and development sessions can be arranged for them to nourish their skills and keep them updated with the on-going developments in the company.
Generate health advisory
Amid this outbreak of coronavirus, through e-mails or during on-call meetings & conferences safety precautions and health tips should be issued and discussed within the organization.
Also, advice related to maintain workplace hygiene must be passed during daily meetups.
Moreover, employees must be engaged in suggesting vital health precautions.
Forums or discussions should be organizedย regularly to make your teams active and collaborate more.
Keep information & help at fingertips
Employees may face some difficulties in setting a remote workplace at their home.
Thus, HR managers should keep the concerned departments connected and on their toes to deal with any technical glitchesย thatย occurred, in real-time.
Adding to this, an advanced and digital platform needs to be introduced to keep the important and relevant information accessible to the employees.
Thus, quick information flow and immediate solution to the queries avoid wasting time in unproductive tasks.
Track performanceย & appreciateย theย talent
Monitoring performance and calculatingย theย productivity of remotely activated employees can be a daunting task for managers.ย
Butย theย inclusion of advanced technology in your organizational structure can ease out such tasks.
Through tools like daily time-sheets, project records, managers can monitorย theย teamโs performance.
While it has been experienced that creating a healthy competitive environment fosters innovation and boosts productivity.
Thus rewarding the top performers will not just increase employee engagement, but will motivate under-performers to becomeย competitive by leveraging their efficiency.
Sense of belonging: creating a loyal & motivated workforce
Developingย a sense of responsibility and belonging in your employees is closely relatedย toย their motivation and commitment towards their work.
Including yourย taskforce in important discussions, and making them a part of critical decision making, create a more loyal and productive team.
Managers should have clear and shared visionย along with mentoring sessions to boost their involvement and engagement.
Maintain payroll cyclesย ย
Companies are dealing with disturbed finances and incurred losses due to this lockdown. Moreover, the future of the economy seems to be in dark.
Amid such situations, releasing timely salaries is a big challenge for management.
Thus, an innovative approach should be opted by the companies of clearing partial payments, which will keep them motivated to work without giving the extra burden on finances.
Shifting the focus onย productivity and efficiency
Above mentioned were some of the key ways to keep your employees engaged in their work while working remotely.
But along with keeping employees motivated and giving freedom, seriousness and dedication should equally be checked.ย
Now we will highlight some vital tips for management to maintain the productivity and efficiency ofย anย organization โ
It should be clear with your staff that work from home is not any holiday to be enjoyed.
Thus, freedom and relaxation given should be used to concentrate more on your tasks, rather than utilizing them for your personalย works.ย
Thus, a strict check should be kept on employees through timely follow-ups on their tasks. Daily worksheets should be submitted by all employees as a record of their workย done.
Digital attendance punches canย help keepย track of their accurate working hours and justify theirย accomplishments.
Partnering withย theย latest technological HR management system, along with attendance leave management can also be done in a fun way, even when employees are working remotely.
Study of improved efficiency withย aย modern HR management system
The chart of companiesโ efficiency and productivity using existing HR management software is shown below as per the deployment model โ
Concluding thoughtsย ย
The extended lockdown may result in taming the spread of this coronavirus.
But on the other hand, precautions should be taken and companies shouldย continue work from home,ย strictly followingย the above-mentioned tips and ways to maintain the productivity of their remote teams.
But to avail all these benefits and executeย theย above mentioned tips, having a robustย HR management systemย is the primary need. One suchย trusted name isย BatchMasterย HeRd, which is empowered withย theย latest tools and features, providing a digital and effective platform to manage your teams.ย
HeRdย provides both web-based and cloud solutions, making it easier for even remote implementations.
So turn your remote workforce into a result-oriented and productive team, and bravely face this global pandemic withย BatchMasterย HeRd.ย
