7 Tips to Boost Productivity for Your Remote Workers
You can boost productivity and improve your team’s morale through smart remote working solutions. To keep your employees engaged and support a healthy work-life balance, we recommend that you:
1. Embrace virtual collaboration
2. Stay connected with your team
3. Schedule breaks into your calendars
4. Manage calls with phone systems
5. Ensure great device functionality
6. Implement deadlines
7. Consider rewards
If you run a business that relies on the input of remote workers, you may have concerns about productivity levels.
There are numerous benefits to having employees working from home or remotely. In the right conditions, morale and comfort can be improved, health can be bolstered and team members can be more flexible in their work.
If remote working solutions are not carefully implemented, however, employees may experience a reduced sense of motivation and a feeling of disconnectedness that might not have occurred in a traditional office setting.
This article explores remote working solutions that will prevent these negative side effects, boost productivity and generally improve the wellbeing of your remote employees.
1. Embrace virtual collaboration
Many task-based softwares are accessible via the cloud, enabling your team members to make use of essential programmes from any location. As long as there is a reliable internet connection, changes and updates to documents and tasks can be made in real-time using this approach.
There are many project management resources that can be accessed via the cloud, including Asana, Teamwork, Trello and Monday, whilst DocuWare, our document management solution, can provide access to vial documentation, automate workflows and eliminate data entry, making remote working much simpler.
Furthermore, providing platforms that can be used by the whole team – wherever they’re based – can help you to streamline your workplace analytics systems and keep track of performance.
2. Stay connected with your team
Video conferencing applications like Zoom and group IM tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams can help you to keep in touch with your remote team. This means they can request assistance or advice and you can provide them with updates whenever required.
These resources also offer a boost in morale, providing a strong sense of teamwork even if each employee is alone in their home office.
This sense of connectivity doesn?t always need to be about work. You might consider holding ?virtual coffee mornings? or other opportunities to socialise, helping the team to bond.
Take a look at Keeley Travis’ mobile connectivity solutions right here.
3. Schedule breaks into your calendars
It’s good to retain a strong sense of routine throughout the workday, even if a portion of your team is not office based.
Your team members should be encouraged to stop for lunch halfway through their day.
We recommend that breaks are firmly scheduled. This is possible whether you observe a set workday structure or if you decide to implement flexible working hours.
These pauses will help employees to avoid the temptation to overwork, encourage them to take a little exercise and provide them with a period of time for personal business such as non-work related phone calls which might otherwise interrupt their flow of productivity.
4. Manage calls with Phone Systems
Poor network coverage is a problem that often arises for organisations wishing to implement remote working solutions.
If members of your team are working from different sites – or are likely to be on the move for any portion of the day – the chances are that they won’t always have a perfect internet or mobile connection.
Luckily, VoIP phone systems and other cloud-based phone connectivity options are available, making your employees contactable at all times, whatever their location. Keeley Travis provides numerous flexible solutions of this kind, including state of the art Gamma phone systems.
5. Ensure great device functionality
It?s important to keep track of the devices used by your remote workers. Computers, tablets and mobile devices should be updated regularly to ensure that they are functioning at the right speed, have proper security protection and do not run the risk of developing problems.
Your workers should be supplied with devices that work perfectly and connect to a network easily and consistently. This is one of the most effective means of increasing productivity. It will also help to guard against frustration and improve morale.
6. Implement deadlines
Deadlines are a great way of providing goals towards which your employees can work. They can help remote workers to organise their day and prioritise tasks.
Implementing deadlines will make it easier to measure the performance and productivity levels of your team. They’ll also enable you to suggest changes that can be made to improve each worker’s ability to complete work on time.
Consider the work hours of your staff and take into account any individuals based in different time zones before setting targets of this kind.
7. Consider rewards
Nothing boosts productivity like a sense of appreciation. Think of ways in which you can reward your remote workers for a job well done.
Incentives you may offer to encourage employee performance include vouchers for experiences, tech upgrades, fun events and health-related gifts like gym passes or spa days.
Implementing collaborative platforms, maintaining connectivity, encouraging breaks, managing phone systems, keeping devices running smoothly, sticking to deadlines and offering rewards can ensure that remote workers stay motivated and productive.
It?s important to remember that most companies experience teething problems when setting up remote solutions and transitioning from traditional office-based work, but the tips provided above should help your organisation to succeed and reap the benefits.
For further details of available software and systems to make remote working easier and more effective for your team, contact Keeley Travis today.
