Working remotely is a recent corporate trend which is being embraced and growing popular by the day. But even today in conservative office spaces, working remotely is linked with productivity issues and ineffective communication & delegation.
Productivity always remains at the front and centre of an organization’s operations, but maintaining it is a challenge when it comes to implementing remote working.
The effectiveness of remote working depends largely upon the kind of operations you run, as well as how you get your resources in line to create a holistic plan that helps you deliver on deadlines.
Is it a good idea to let your employees work remotely? Yes and no.
Yes: if your company has the digital aid to cope with the above-mentioned challenges.
No: if you don’t want to keep your employees happy.
While keeping a close watch on your employees working at their desk might give you psychological comfort, but it’s hard to tell if the hours spent at the workstation are being translated into meaningful outcomes.
On the other hand, if you have the digital infrastructure in place to fill productivity gaps, letting your employees work remotely can turn out to be more rewarding than giving them a good raise.
Now let’s look at the challenges and their countermeasures to make ‘remote work’ not only a possibility but also a productivity-booster.
Tracking Productivity
You give your employees the freedom to work from their comfort zone or on the go, but are they giving their best? To know for sure, you can set up a web-based productivity tracker to track your employees’ hours in real time or at the end of the day in the form of a timesheet.
Not only this, a productivity tracker enables you to assign tasks over the portal and keep a tab on the progress with time stamps.
In today’s digitally driven world, productivity trackers have become more accurate and easier to use. Plus, there’s plenty of options to choose from, or you can have one custom made to your specifications.
Conducting Team meetings
Conference rooms have witnessed more arguments than consensuses, but it’s hard to match the in-person presence and talking face-to-face with each member. Plus, you can use the marker and whiteboard to create supporting layouts for better clarity. Such convenience is difficult to achieve on the phone or video call. But this is where technology pitches in to surprise you.
A digital whiteboard, such as the one offered by HuddleBoard, can help you conduct team meetings, collaborate and create plans remotely. With its intuitive, user-friendly interface, you can share ideas, write or draw, upload documents or images and enjoy audio conferencing over an encrypted network. And the best part is you can access it from anywhere, on the go.
Moreover, the digital whiteboard keeps the participants focused on the agenda and minimises distractions.
Sense of belonging
If your employees work outside the physical confines of your office space, it may be hard for them to keep in sync with your company’s ethos. Less interaction with team members and missing out on a lot of office fun are a few other outcomes of working in one’s own silo. This is one of the issues that shouldn’t be swept under the carpet, rather addressed in time, lest you lose talent, and those who stay might lose commitment towards work.
How to tackle this? Organising periodic team meetings and fun sessions whenever possible is one way to give your employees a sense of belonging. If you have remote employees overseas, keep the interaction up and going over video calls, apart from assigning tasks and following up on deadlines.
Benefits for the employers
There are immense benefits to letting your employees go off the hook. When you let them choose the most comfortable space to work in, you know you will get the best work delivered on time.
Some other benefits are:
Cost-saving
Usually, remote employees manage work expenses on their own, including electricity, Internet, workspace and computer. Considering a long-term scenario, this can save you a great deal of money.
Reduces attrition
Nobody likes to lose talent because fresh recruitment and training cost a lot of time, money and efforts. When you let your employees work remotely, the level of contentment shoots up, and stress comes down. Other than remuneration, these two factors determine your employees’ stability in the company.
Access to a broader pool of talent
With the introduction of remote work policies in your organization, you can recruit the best talent regardless of their geographical location.
Initiatives like remote working help corporations enhance productivity, reduce cost and ensure employee satisfaction. It also allows employees to work on their skills while doing what they love.
