Enabling a Productive and Healthy Remote Workforce
Companies managing remote employees are shifting focus to maintaining productivity. What does productivity mean, now that employees are working with their spouses, children, trying to home-school and establishing boundaries between work and home is harder than ever?
While much of our focus is on business continuity, employers are responsible for supporting employees to avoid burnout and maintain open communication at all stages of the business.
We’ll look at some ways companies can engage their remote employees and ensure a successful WFH environment.
4 “Facilitative factors” for the success of working from home:
Maintain Employee Engagements –
Employees need support now more than ever. Providing resources keep your employees happy and balanced. You might want to consider:
- Offering sessions/courses to keep employees motivated and engaged such as:
- Time Management
- Health Management
- Financial Management
- Conduct surveys to get employee feedback, act based on results and communicate appropriate changes
- Provide support for laptop/desktop equipment and other necessities like transport of desktops, chairs, etc
Encourage employees to establish a routine–
Without a commute to an office, it’s easy to feel like each day runs into the next. Establishing some sort of routine can help not only increase productivity but employees set boundaries on their mental energy and time spent. Some ways to help facilitate this include:
- Scheduling regular calls
- Simulate office conditions at home
- Maintain fixed hours
- Unwinding – Take scheduled breaks of 5-10 minutes at regular intervals. Walk around the house, get outside if possible or do a few muscle-stretching exercises.
- Participate and facilitate meaningful goal settings aligned with current productivity expectations.
- Managers should trust their team and be available for them when needed.
Communication–
How are you connecting with employees consistently? Though many of us are self-distancing with family, none of us are seeing a variety of people regularly and in times of uncertainty, need to hear from our employer. Here are some ways to do it:
- Consistent and efficient communication across various stakeholders like leaders, managers and team members.
- Stakeholders’ support – the support from one’s team and other teams like Infra, HR and Admin are crucial for overall success.
- Virtual open-door policy – make sure your employees know you’re available and they can ask questions.
Technology –
We are living in a time of changes in technology on an almost daily basis. Without the ability to be together physically, relying on technology to stay in touch and enable efficiency is critical. Make sure you incorporate the following:
- Right Support Mechanisms – Do people know how to get in touch and use existing technology to do so?
- Strengthening remote-working capabilities – Make sure employees have what they need to be successful from home meaning access to files, collaboration tools and so on.
- Improving Data Security and Cybersecurity – What was previously kept on lockdown is now being shared across work and personal computers, make sure your company is set to share securely so employees can focus on the task at hand.
Employees are the most vital force in an organization and making sure they have the resources they need to not only be productive but healthy is essential. Prioritizing each of these areas will translate to long term growth well beyond our current lockdown period and ensure success.
