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How to Improve Productivity Of Your Remote Employee?

Ever since COVID 19 came into existence, the world has been chaotic. Everyone is stressing over this inescapable virus and wishing for the ‘normal’ days to return. The government shook hands with the World Health Organization (WHO) to take the matter into their hands. Work from home productivity has been in question ever since they implemented lockdown, advised the social distancing policy, and brought attention to the work from home option. However, the HR software played an important role in helping businesses and HR managers overcome.

Work from home is simply working from a remote place, usually the employee’s home, rather than the office. Even though we had the technology and the resources to work from home, it was somehow considered a bad idea because of the prejudice that “…well, the productivity is not as high as compared to working at the office.” However, with COVID crises on the door, the companies had no other option but to implement work from home. An SAP Concur survey reveals that 88% of the Indian workforce prefers to work from home. Quite contrary to the traditional belief that work from home decreases productivity, 69% of the respondents believed that their productivity increased by working from home.

We all understand that working from home can be distracting. Employees who share their living space with their parents, spouses, or children may face difficulties concentrating due to distractions in their homes. We all have seen clips of children raiding their parent’s official ‘video’ interviews/ meetings. The employee’s efforts to focus on work and help with the household at the same time can often prove to be larger than life tasks. The first question that pops up in our brains after reading the statistics mentioned above is with all given cons, how can work from home productivity be increased?

Methods to Increase Work From Home Productivity

The answer to the doubt mentioned above lies in taking simple steps. Here are some tips that an employer can use to enhance employees’ work from home productivity.

Insist Them To Stick To A Schedule

Remember when you were working at the office? You insisted the employees follow a fixed schedule from start to end in the workplace. But now that they work from home, these set boundaries tend to vanish in thin air. When the work keeps extending for longer hours on a regular basis, the employees may feel frustrated and might not give you their best. You should create a strict schedule using a timesheet management tool with fixed working hours and persuade the employees to follow it closely. Any work incomplete at the end of such working hours must be carried to the next day. This will ensure that your employees are not bombarded with work twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week.

Encourage Them To Create an Office Space

Changing the working areas daily is not practical. Sometimes, in migrating from one room to another, your employees might misplace something. It wastes a lot of time to start a search party for the lost thing. Encourage your employees to set up a separate working area in their home. Allow them to set up and organize a desk for all their documents, equipment, and tools to enable quick access to them when needed. This will save their time from moving from one place to another, and you will be able to divert their undivided attention to their work.

Motivate Them To Confront Communication

Miscommunication, or in some cases, no communication at all, disrupts the flow of work. Not having access to the office environment where your employees can communicate with the colleagues immediately might reduce their morale. To have a smooth workflow, you must ensure that they have access to continuous and steady communication devices. A constant connection to the network is unavoidable to stay available for communication when colleagues try to contact each other.

Lay Rules For Staying Away From Social Media

The biggest nemesis of productivity is social media. Unlike the workplace, an employee’s home does not have a strict smartphone policy. They likely have their cellphones with them when they’re at home, and hence it is easy for them to get distracted by the constant notifications. It is the case with everyone, even you and me – Once we take the phone to check ‘just one notification,’ we know the drill. A minute transforms into ten, and by the time we realize that we were supposed to be working, a few hours are already wasted. The employee must avoid getting sucked into social media. It would help if you had control over how much time the employees spend on social media. Hence, enable the embrace of some of the best time management tools to ensure that the employees’ time is well managed. With less time wasted on social media, your employees are likely to be more productive.

Make Use Of Unique Features

factoHR offers unique features that can assist the employers in enhancing their workers’ productivity. One of these features is the geofencing tool that virtually “fences” a particular area. When the registered device enters/ exits this area, the attendance is automatically registered.

Another remarkable feature of factoHR is the selfie attendance that prevents attendance theft by the employees by allowing the employees to click a selfie while registering the attendance.

Insist Them To Be Equipped with Necessary Tools

Employees should use tools and equipment that help them run their tasks and time better. Having such mediums that manages their tasks and keep them connected to the employees’ functions is a boon. Tools like Trello, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc. are examples that can keep the team connected and enhance the working from home experience. In addition, the companies also can be equipped with appropriate remote work monitoring tools. Because, as employers/managers, it is your task to insist they have all the necessary applications and tools installed in their computer system.

Prevent Them From Losing Themselves To Work

A healthy mind and body is a sign of increased productivity. Your employees’ work efficiency tends to be the highest when they are healthy and happy. Take your time after or before office hours to talk to them and encourage them to focus on themselves. Advice them to eat healthy food and take proper sleep. While your employees are working from home, suggest that they take a minute or two to stroll around the house after sitting for long hours. Inspire them to create an atmosphere that helps them feel at ease. Your workers’ productivity will increase when they are comfortable and can focus better.

Make Anti-Pajama Dress Codes

Working from home means that besides their family, no one else is going to see your employees the entire day, especially in the lockdown. The basic instinct of any person in such times is to wear comfortable pajamas all day long. However, during the work hours, make a policy for the employees to dress like they’re going to work. There are two reasons for doing so. Firstly, in case of sudden meetings, they can be presentable and ready, saving them from embarrassments. Secondly, it is impossible for anyone to feel productive in pajamas. There is a reason pajamas are meant for lounging and sleeping in.

Request Them To Have A Protocol With Their Family

It is a bittersweet experience of spending all the time with the family (more sweet than bitter). Usually, we would go home from work and spend a few hours with family, and then either we go to sleep or are busy with our cell phones. In the lockdown, however, we spend all the time with our family. The situation of the employees is no different. They have to spend their whole day with their families. The family members will likely enter their ‘workplace’ or unintentionally distract your employees with discussions. It is better to encourage them to set rules for the family members to avoid such distractions. If they have children at home, suggest that they give them some tasks to keep them busy. Give the family time slots where they can call or talk with them.

Help Them Draw A Line Between The Work And Personal Time

Like how one must refrain from working after the work hours, one must also refrain from doing the household chores during the work hours. Strictly set out rules for the employees to complete their house chores before or after work hours. Doing their tasks during work hours not only wastes the work hours but also delays the official assignments. However, setting separate work hours and personal hours will allow your employees to focus on their work and complete it within the deadlines, while still having enough time for their chores.

Allow Them To Tune In For Inspiration

The main benefit of working from home is that your employees don’t have to worry about disturbing your colleagues. This is an excellent opportunity for them to tune in to their favorite jams and draw their focus into work. We are all well aware of how music can help any individual in increasing their focus. Using their favorite tracks or instrumentals can keep their spirits high, and their productivity eventually increases. The point to keep in mind is that the music shouldn’t be very distracting. Music can help them zone out from the surroundings and focus entirely on their work.

Interesting Statistics To Know About Remote Work

• 85% of the companies found that with a flexible work schedule, the productivity of the workers is increased to a great extent.
• By giving a thought to the global pandemic situation, by 2028, about 73% of the team will get remote employees.
• More than half of the workers (61%) desire to thoroughly perform their job in a remote working environment.
• Nearly 37% of the remote workforce believes that taking regular breaks is the most suitable way to upscale their productivity.
• Remote work culture brings productivity for parental staff too. About 50% of the fathers and 49% of the mothers agreed to it.
• When asked if the remote working mode really helps the workers to perform more work, about 91% of the employees said yes.
• According to 83% of the workers, their productivity does not confine to the office place only.
• To keep the whole remote team connected, the maximum used tools are Zoom (36%), Microsoft Teams (19%), Skype (17%), and Google Hangouts (9%).

• In total, about 58% of remotely working employees found that their productivity was the same or improved compared to the pandemic situation. Among them, 55% were able to concentrate more on their work while working remotely.

At The End Of The Day…

Working from home is not just about saving the time and money spent on the commute to and from work. It is about staying safe in these crises and yet, not compromising the work quality. If the company is taking the initiative to pay the workers for working from home, you must ensure that they work efficiently and they do not let the workplace’s absence affect your organization’s productivity. With approximately 67% of the companies thinking about making work from home a permanent change, it becomes essential for the employers to find a way to increase and maintain their employees’ work from home productivity.

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