Since the beginning of the pandemic, remote work environments have become more prevalent across a wide range of industries. As employees made the transition, some may have found it challenging to maintain attentiveness and high levels of productivity. More specifically, working parents have been tasked with finding new ways to keep their children active, healthy, and occupied — all while maintaining their professional responsibilities.
Keeping employees engaged from home requires a commitment from organization leaders. The investment of time and necessary resources is essential to ensure team members can efficiently operate at peak performance. Below we have outlined four tips employers can implement to better support employee productivity and collaboration.
Limit Distractions Where Possible
Collaboration and maintaining healthy work relationships is essential to a team and company’s success. With communication being a key component of collaboration, employers should consider which communication platforms are strictly necessary and which should be discouraged from use. Having multiple communication platforms can be beneficial in some cases, however, too many can be overwhelming and distracting, especially if employees have to then juggle multiple conversations across different programs.
Communicate Remote Work Efficiencies
Some employees may be working from home for the first time. With that said, employers should be consistently communicating best practices to help employees find work-life balance. For example, employers can cover when their employees are expected to be in their workspaces (i.e. logged into their computer, set up for meetings, attending to clients, etc.) when breaks are allowed, and consistent scheduling. Employers should encourage managers and supervisors to discuss with their team when they are available throughout the workday to ensure tasks and questions can be addressed in a timely manner, to ultimately avoid issues and lag in productivity.
Establish Respectful Meeting Standards
To ensure time together is used efficiently, employers are encouraged to establish clear guidelines for virtual meetings surrounding developing and sticking to agenda items and scheduled time. From set up to scheduling, providing clear instructions as to how to properly manage and operate a virtual meeting platform can drastically help limit technical issues, which can cause frustration and uncertainty down the line.
Provide Creative & Social Outlets
Working from home can hinder the availability and opportunity for collaboration in a social space, making it difficult for employees to channel creativity. However, virtual communication can be used as a social medium, providing a safe and intentional outlet for employees. Employers can facilitate these interactions, through scheduled recurring meetings, and building activities or virtual events that allow employees to break out of their work-shell. Creative space for these extracurricular connections between employees, ideally centered around common interests, can boost employee morale and motivate teams to achieve great things.
When your employees are passionate about their work, feel connected to their organization’s mission, and have the appropriate resources to accommodate their needs, working from home can become a more productive and necessary part of an employee’s routine, leading to increased levels of collaboration and efficiency.
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