Remote work has always had an appeal for both employers and workers. Over the last year or so, an unprecedented number of businesses has leapt and transferred their employees online. Suffice it to say that this has produced mixed results, as both anecdotal evidence and actual studies documenting the effectiveness of the new practices started popping up. Some companies claim that remote work has increased their workers’ productivity and overall quality of life, while others have struggled to shift position.
The truth of the matter is that each company is unique, its situation – unlike that of any other business. Most are affected by a plethora of factors in various ways. Consequently, it’s challenging to effectively study the transfer to a virtual office, especially during several ongoing crises.
As a result of this being an unprecedented paradigm shift, we simply don’t have the data to predict the ramifications of moving to a virtual office on a large scale, both in the short and long run. How will it affect employees, their productivity and business process? It’s hard to tell.
We know that you can take steps to help improve productivity in a virtual environment. Implementing industry best practices, such as using BPM software, has been known to boost productivity and smooth out the bumps along the way. While there is no sure-fire way to implement a virtual office successfully, there are steps that companies can take to improve both the productivity and the experience of their remote workers.
Avoid Burnout
Burnout is bad for business. Stressed, overworked, and unsatisfied employees have abysmal productivity and horrendous turnover rates.
A virtual office can be a real boon in some cases, but it can also create nightmare scenarios where everyone is burned out, because as much as 70% of remote workers feel the need to overcommit. Being available at all hours of the day guarantees burnout – and recent research bears that out, with 40% of remote workers claiming that they’ve experienced burnout during the pandemic.
This is why employers need to be extra diligent in their efforts to avoid employee burnout. You can take steps to identify and prevent burnout – such as instructing HR to be more open on the subject, focus on employee recognition, be on the lookout for the signs, and cool things down when needed. Moreover, many remote teams take personality quizzes to understand each key role player in their team, and based on the findings, they assigned tasks. This way, team members get to work on what they are good at. The team at gaming and brain training platform Solitaired, for example, require small breaks at the end of each hour where their team is encouraged to play solitaire games and avoid burnout. They found it was a major contributor to a 23% improvement in productivity.
One of the most effective work from home tips is to avoid multitasking during work. It depletes the attention as well as work output. Leverage tools like fireflies.ai that save your time during meetings by automatically recording the sessions and taking meeting minutes. This is very useful as it helps you stay focused on the conversation during online meetings.
Invest in IT Tools
A virtual office’s productivity is directly proportional to the quality of its IT tools. This is just a fact – remote workers use IT tools to get their jobs done, synchronize tasks with their colleagues, report to management, track progress on projects, etc.
Naturally, the human element in the equation limits what could be achieved with even the most powerful of IT tools. However, the importance of having the right set of online solutions for maintaining high productivity in a virtual office can’t be overstated. As your team works from a distance, it’s important to have effective workforce management in place to measure their productivity and engagement, so you can know what’s going well and where there’s room for improvement in your remote work model.
To the relief of most companies, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to invest time and money in the most expensive, complex solutions on the market. Sometimes, what’s right for you and your needs can be found at a pretty reasonable price. However, the very baseline for remote office work is almost universally a right BPM product. It is also best to ask your employees what they think is best for them. Send your employees a pulse survey and wait for their responses to make a decision.
Having the ability to track progress, communicate seamlessly, and report in a transparent environment on a single platform can boost productivity and employee morale.
Eliminate Distractions
One of the problems that the employers of remote office workers face is that they can’t effectively control the distractions that plague the working process. The truth is that while it is easy to blame social media for disruptive distractions, it’s by far not the most pervasive or impactful source of distractions.
Using the same space for work and personal matters is inherently distracting. A cluttered workspace invites distraction. Co-habitants of the employee can create an endless stream of distractions. The constant need to multitask to find the balance between work and family, chores and personal errands comes inevitably with the work-from-home model as a package deal.
In an office environment, employers can enforce policies that reduce distractions directly. Doing so in a virtual office is much more challenging and requires much more communication and discussions with each employee – however, it can be achieved.
Employees can arrange to dedicate a space for work apart from their private spaces. The importance of a cleaner working environment could be explained to them. Most social distractions can be mitigated through discussion with the offenders. Mono-tasking policies can be implemented in the company to avoid pulling employees this way and that. Cutting down mass video conference time in favour of personal communication with employees is also a good idea.
Finally, there is the issue of social media distractions. Employees in a physical office tend to take a very dim view of efforts to curb its use, let alone working in a virtual office setting. There are solid moral and practical points to be made both for and against disallowing social media during working hours. Employers and workers will have to examine them carefully so that both sides can reach a compromise.
Establish A Routine
The flexibility of the virtual office can be a double-edged sword. It is undeniably useful for the employee because it allows them to make a broader range of personal arrangements with fewer worries about time constraints. That’s all well and good when it’s a “one-time thing,” but if erratic working patterns become systemic, they may cause severe drops in productivity, bottlenecks, and various other issues with the business process.
This is why employers should take steps to prevent their workers from falling into a disjointed working routine. It is up to the company how they will deal with each employee’s issue, but it’s essential to establish that home offices’ flexibility is not to be exploited lightly. Even employees afforded a greater degree of autonomy should establish a stable routine, with lapses in it being the exception rather than the rule. This will help them focus and be productive and accessible to the company and their colleagues.
Additionally, a time blocking app can help you make time for every single task. It will improve the balance between their personal and work life. They can easily spend time with their family, work on their personality and have a quality sleep without nightmares about the work.
Keep To Schedule
Creating a clear and workable schedule is key for keeping productivity up. Using a BPM solution will undoubtedly be your best bet for resolving scheduling issues. Business process management tools allow you to set tasks, track progress on them in real-time, and communicate with all the people involved in an organized manner.
The transparency of a BPM-driven system both gives workers peace of mind, keeps them in line, and motivates them to perform well promptly. This is why its implementation is of paramount importance when it comes to running a productive virtual office.
Mind the to-do List
Both employees and employers need to be mindful of the to-do list. Employees need to take it seriously, as it is an essential aspect of the company’s business processes.
Employers themselves need to consider the implications of putting things in it and shuffling them around. What are the capabilities of every particular employee to tackle tasks? Does adding extra tasks to a particular employee’s to-do list risk overburdening them? Will shuffling things around as complications pop up stress the employee?
Will the additional added tasks distract the employee and prevent them from doing their job well?
Giving your employees the resources to plan their day is a crucial step in maximizing productivity and ensuring that tasks get done on time. That’s where a time management worksheet can come in handy. By breaking down their day into specific hour-by-hour blocks, they can prioritize and schedule tasks according to importance and urgency.
While it’s important to challenge employees, a lack of communication regarding each individual’s bandwidth can lead to a downward spiral for all parties. Management could feel frustrated because of all the unfulfilled tasks. Employees, on the other hand, may harbor resentment and decreased work satisfaction that can affect their mental and physical health. All these can affect the productivity of the business as a whole.
At the end of the day, carefully considering the to-do list when handing out tasks is one of the many steps employers can take to improve productivity in a virtual office. Figuring out what other things need to be done to optimize a company’s business processes may require a lot of back and forth with the workers, as well as analyzing the data you get from your BPM system. However, the potential rewards of doing so can be great indeed.
