Remote Working
Working remotely has been, for many, an essential requirement in 2020, enforced by the Coronavirus pandemic. In this blog, the LEAP team look at how you can work remotely from home as well as how to create a healthy working environment for your team through four top tips for working remotely and how this could lead to business success.
The Coronavirus has been a catalyst for working remotely from home in 2020. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that at Facebook, working remotely from home now forms part of their long-term plan. Last month they announced that over the next ten years it is likely that 50% of Facebook employees could be working remotely. Satisfying employee desires and creating business prosperity are the reasons quoted for the shift in thinking. So, is working remotely from home right for your team?
Four benefits of working remotely from home:
1. Ultimate flexibility
As a manager, having an appreciation of working pattern preferences will let your employees flourish. Some people perform best in the mornings and may suit an early start coupled with a mid-afternoon finish, meanwhile others take a while to come to life and would benefit from a later start and finish. Allowing this flexibility when working remotely from home could see employee satisfaction improve and encourage long-term loyalty.
2. Time and money savings
It might sound obvious, just think about the time and money savings that are made when you don’t have to travel. If an hour-long commute is removed from your employee’s day, you’re saving them one hour a day, five hours a week or 100 hours in an average month. This is sure to be welcomed by your employees and haven’t we all felt this benefit when working remotely.
3. Reduce your carbon footprint
Removing the need to commute has a positive impact on your employee’s carbon footprint. This could be an important factor when attracting talented millennials to work for your company. Millennials currently makeup 30% of the world’s population and are said to be the generation most concerned with environment change.
4. Increase in productivity
Research by office furniture company Office Reality found that working from home boosted productivity with fewer distractions from colleagues. In times gone by, working remotely from home wasn’t an option due to concerns about distractions however many companies are now reaping the rewards having seen how dedicated and productive teams can be while at home. So, if you’re looking to get more out of your team without increasing personal overheads, this could be the answer for you.
Remote working equipment – how to manage a team remotely:
Look at learning to manage a team remotely as a career development skill. Create a weekly managerial checklist and stick to it as much as you can. It will soon become a habit and you won’t notice you’re doing it as part of your management routine. Here are four top tips for working remotely that will help you manage your team effectively:
Tips for working remotely:
1. Keep in contact
Have set weekly check-ins with your team. Set up a consistent day and time each week to call every team member. Treat them as check-in calls to establish the overall health and wellbeing of your team rather than work-related calls.
2. Technology
Have the right technology in place for working remotely. Working remotely should not stop your team’s CPD (Continuing Professional Development). Show them how serious you are about their professional development, a CPD hub such as Leap Like a Salmon can help you achieve this. The LEAP CPD Hub is a personalised learning tool that helps capture, manage, and connect learners’ development experiences and preferences in a simple, user-friendly interface. As a manager, you can log in to your employee’s account to track and monitor their professional development and future needs at the click of a button. Find out more about the layers of the LEAP CPD hub here.
3. Make it personal
Avoid always sending an email, phone your team instead as a way of letting them know that your virtual door is always open. The more you speak to your team on the phone, the more they will realise that the “airwaves” are open, and they’ll feel able to talk to you about (almost) anything.
4. Set boundaries and expectations
Respect the working hours you have in place with your team. If they finish work at 5 pm and you need to contact them at 5.20 pm, consider whether it can wait a day. Setting expectations about the day to day work expected by your team should eliminate the need for after-hours phone calls. Your team’s free time should be treated as precious with the boundaries between work and home life kept separate. Learn more about prioritising your workload here.
Finally, working remotely from home could open a new world of talented candidates for your business. Geographical proximity to a workplace is a thing of the past when it comes to hiring new talent. Tech Crunch believes working from home and having flexible working hours will let companies look nationally, and internationally for the best talent. If a candidate has good referrals and their previous work stands out, the geographical location shouldn’t form part of the hiring criteria. Their skills and ability in the role could benefit your business massively.
As we adjust to the new ways of working remotely from home, ensuring you have simple rules in place for your employees, engaging with them regularly, taking their CPD seriously and recruiting the best talent will help you and your team find your feet in the remote working world. You’ll likely see productivity skyrocket and you’ll have an all-round happier team on your hands, and you’ll be rewarded with the ultimate employee compliment – loyalty.
Thanks for reading and please do share and let us know how you get on with continuing to work remotely. Should you have anything you want to ask us, please do get in touch here:
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Keep positive and curious
Karen Waite
