Working remotely uses different muscles, as it were, than going into the office every day. What is gained by reducing commute times and increasing flexibility can often be lost in a lack of social interaction and collaboration. As many organizations that didn’t have prior experience with the whole team working from home have now settled into this arrangement, ensuring that your employees feel motivated, engaged and connected should become a top priority to ensure both their productivity and well-being.
Productivity while working from home
Nicholas Bloom has some thoughts on that. The senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) co-authored the oft-cited study on productivity for employees working from home. The 2015 study found a 13% increase in performance of the test group of employees who were working from home compared to the control group of employees who still worked in the office. The study largely serves as a defense of working from home arrangements and the productivity and lower attrition rates associated with it.
But now, Bloom argues, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employers to rapidly switch to work-from-home arrangements, productivity levels are more likely to fall. He says it stems from a number of factors specific to the current situation, including the distraction of children who are now at home and in need of supervision/entertainment; inadequate or unsuitable spaces for work as a result of unanticipated home working requirements; and lack of choice to work from home.
As we all know, flattening the curve is our most important task right now. The declines in productivity associated with working from home as described by Bloom are, unfortunately, an unavoidable side effect of our current situation. With our productivity tips for remote workers, you can address some of the common pitfalls of productivity for remote workers and make the best of our current situation.
Set your team up for success to work from home effectively
As you’re likely already a couple of weeks into a new work from home arrangement for your team, you’ve probably already gone over the many strategies for quickly implementing a work from home arrangement that started circulating in March. If not, articles about working from home, running remote meetings and working from home with kids are all good places to start.
But if you and your team have been working remotely since physical distancing requirements were first put in place, you have likely already weathered the initial adjustment period, where setting expectations and getting everyone up to speed on communication tools would have been the main priorities.
Now, your task as manager becomes all about motivating your newly-remote team while everyone is dispersed.
Your first step is to take the pulse of your team. Perhaps some of them were reluctant to work from home or had never done so before. How are they adjusting to working from home? Do they have everything they need? Are there any changes you can make immediately that will have a big difference for these workers? It could be as simple as troubleshooting an audio issue with them to improve their remote meeting experience.
For more enthusiastic remote workers, checking in is still a good idea. Are they happy with the working from home arrangement? Do they need more or less support in any specific areas?
These check-ins do double duty. First, they help you address concerns that can have an immediate impact on your team’s productivity, motivation and engagement. Secondly, checking in with your team gives you an indication of where your focus should be. For example, perhaps your team is very comfortable with online meeting tools, but members express their desire to manage projects better. Having an idea of the direction your team needs is an important first step in continuing to manage your new remote work arrangements.
Communication for Innovation
Once you’ve addressed any immediate issues your team may have, what are the longer-term goals you need to accomplish? Keep in mind that as our “new normal” comes into focus, you will have to shift your attention away from the immediate concerns of making sure everyone is able to work from home, and instead focus on the ways your team can successfully contribute to your organization’s needs in a post COVID-19 world.
Innovation looms large in Nicholas Bloom’s warning about home working arrangements in our current climate. Bloom argues that a lack of in-person collaboration can have a big impact on innovation in the future. He suggests video calls specifically as a way to stave off employees’ feelings of isolation and the threat of distraction that audio calls don’t go far enough in addressing.
Are video calls enough? That’s up to your specific situation. Here are some other working from home tips for success in improving your team’s long-term viability and ability to innovate.
Communication processes
You may first want to investigate communication tools that can help you replicate the things that were working for your team before everyone was at home. Video calls that replicate face-to-face meetings fall into this category and can help you continue your daily stand-ups or coffee break check-ins. And if you haven’t set up frequent, regular check-ins with your team, you should consider doing so, as increased communication can help dispel feelings of isolation and disconnection on the part of your team members.
Optimizing workflows
Next, help your team work better. One way to do this is to streamline communication processes. For example, think about establishing an official policy on which communication tools should be used in specific cases and for requests with different urgency levels.
Beyond communication processes, examining other inefficiencies in your team’s workflow can help you identify where you can make improvements. Is now the right time to get the project management software or personal productivity tools you’ve been investigating? If budgets don’t allow for that, look at productivity tools in your current software setup or free tools such as Trello.
Focusing on your employees’ well-being
Up until now, our tips for working from home effectively have centred around changes that can be made to your employees’ workflow. But during these extraordinary times, your employees likely have a lot going on in their lives outside of work. Recognizing these are unprecedented times, taking that extra step to check in on your employees’ well-being can go a long way towards making your employees feel connected and engaged.
It starts with setting a positive tone for your employees. It doesn’t mean you should sugarcoat legitimate setbacks or bad news, but being supportive of your employees and having a positive outlook can go a long way in giving your employees the confidence in you and your organization that can help promote productivity.
Next, it’s important to model a healthy work/life balance. When everyone is working from home, it can be hard to separate work from one’s home life, so it’s especially important to make sure that your employees are making that separation in order to avoid burnout and continue productively contributing to your organization’s success.
One way to do so is to check in on your employees’ lives. Remind them to get outside (safely) for some exercise. As far as you can, encourage your employees to make grocery trips when it’s best for them or to step away for an hour or two to take care of their kids. Understanding that your employees’ day-to-day lives have changed and require increased flexibility can help them focus when at work because they have the ability to step away when necessary.
Another way is to mobilize corporate programs. Remind employees of your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and encourage them to use it. Investigate other supports available through your benefits provider such as wellness apps.
You can also pivot corporate wellness programs for our new situation. For example, Win4Youth is the Adecco Group’s physical activity program that encourages employees to track their activity hours in support of a matching donation by the organization to Plan International. Under this banner, the Adecco Group now provides instructional videos over their intranet that identifies safe and fun activities that employees can do to continue their physical activity while in isolation.
Engagement through social interaction
Feeling disengaged from work can lead to lower motivation and productivity. And, as Bloom established, innovation requires in-person collaboration for success. Setting up scenarios in which social interaction is encouraged can help address feelings of loneliness.
Virtual happy hours are a popular way of reproducing the incidental social interaction workers get when going into the office. Every Friday afternoon, for example, the teams here at Adecco meet via group video call to share about how our week has gone. It’s a chance to put aside our work and just enjoy each other’s company. Another option is to schedule an extra 10 minutes at the beginning or end of team calls to give everyone a chance to catch up.
Another way to keep your employees engaged is to celebrate milestones. Celebrating work anniversaries and birthdays play an even more important role now in engaging employees and bringing together coworkers for that all-important social aspect.
Evaluating the future
Take this time to evaluate your current state. When physical distancing requirements are lifted and everyone can go back to work, what are the lessons learned in terms of workflow and operational processes?
Ask yourself: has working from home worked? What successful elements can you take from this arrangement into the future? As work from home arrangements were heavily encouraged during this time, it was an easy test case for a more permanent work from home arrangement for your workforce.
Beyond working from home, have there been any operational changes that have worked for your team? This may include things like changes in team responsibilities or organization of work, workflow processes, and new initiatives. And, don’t forget to evaluate any gaps in your team’s capabilities so that you can seek out training in the future.
Use these basic tips to help your team adjust to working from home and keep your team motivated, engaged and productive as we continue to physically distance.