The new norm for businesses of all sizes is now working from home. It’s a prevalent trend accelerated by the severity of the current pandemic. 

Although many people see remote working as a positive or even an advantage, it has its challenges. While some companies have gone completely remote, the majority still report to a head office. 

The adoption of flexible work-from-home schedules may be fraught with complications, even with the best work from home software and other forms of technology for working remotely. Depending on the company, some businesses have a schedule while others allow teams, managers, and individual workers to choose their level of flexibility.

Leading in a Remote Work World

To showcase good leadership, managers can find that they need to relax their reins a little while ensuring the productivity of their remote workers is still at the desired level. 

It’s also beneficial to be able to try new things through technology and how meetings are run. Never be afraid to try out and research different programs to find the best technologies for remote work that’s suitable for your team.

Working from home offers a lot of flexibility and rewards, but it also comes with a lot of other responsibilities. Rethinking the conventional workplace necessitates a versatile attitude. 

However, by asking the right questions while forming your distributed team, you can avoid the most common pitfalls and help your team become more productive. 

Remember, even the best remote tools to measure work from home productivity will not be effective if management does not understand the human aspect of their teams. Here are a few more actionable tips for improving efficiency among your remote workforce.

1.  Implement Time Management Tools

Employee satisfaction and efficiency suffer as a result of poor time management. Some employees may struggle to complete assignments on time or at all, while others may take on too much work at once, resulting in job frustration and mental fatigue. 

Remote worker tracking systems allow you to monitor your whole team from the comfort of your own home. Remote teams can improve their motivation and productivity by using tracking apps that provide accurate information on which websites are being used and for how long.

This allows the employees to properly manage their time and gives you a breakdown of how much time they spend on different tasks and clients. This enables you to evaluate employee engagement, reduce ineffective meetings, and boost overall efficiency. 

However, it’s important to make sure you don’t end up utilizing time tracking as a way to micromanage your team. Give them enough space to thrive at their work and reel them in only when necessary.

2. Effective communication

Communication is crucial to the success of a remote team. In reality, a lot of workplace contact takes place in very casual settings. It’s not uncommon to ask a coworker about an email while getting a cup of coffee or to learn about a new feature update while talking in the corridor. 

In reality, these impromptu meetings and collisions are popular and useful for delegating fast tasks, following up on unrelated things, and even brainstorming new ideas. These forms of communication are not present in a remote working reality.

For this reason, managers are left with audio and video conference tools to aid in remote meetings. There is a myriad of communication solutions to choose from and plenty of them do the job well. Some prominent examples are Discord for audio communications and Zoom for video calls.

During meetings, video conferencing may help everyone stay on the same page. Seeing your teammates in person helps to promote a sense of belonging and adds layers of communication through body language cues.  

3. Measuring Performance

Accountability is a major issue in every workplace, but it’s particularly important in virtual teams. Digital team members can easily waste their time because they have the freedom to set their schedules and work independently. 

Although some remote workers can operate efficiently with little or no supervision, many others need some degree of supervision to ensure that they are productive. The team must set specific goals on what work must be completed, who will complete it, and the desired timeframe of completion.

It’s a good thing that there are resources and solutions that solve the problem of how to measure work from home productivity. The best remote monitoring and management software tools, fortunately, enable businesses to monitor employee hours and contributions, ensuring that everyone is held accountable for their tasks. 

This information can be used in performance evaluations to evaluate how effectively team members use their time and to provide insights that can help them be more productive.

 4. Limit Distractions

It’s best to advise your employees to log off of Facebook, Instagram, and all other personal social media accounts. To minimize the likelihood of other at-home disruptions, create a game plan for your day and set clear limits for yourself when ‘at work.’

It is important to designate different work and play areas in home-based work, where feasible. For instance, advise your employees to use their bedroom desk for work and their living room couch for relaxation. 

This will help them mentally link the various areas of their home for either work life or personal life and this, in turn, will increase their productivity while working from home.

5. Recognize Your Employees

Taking action to show your workers that you care for them beyond their paycheck can have a significant impact on their success and well-being. 

It’s not enough to dangle ineffable money and prizes for an uncertain period as a means of rewarding success. Reward an employee right after they finish a job so you can communicate precisely which behaviors they are being credited for. 

You are likely to see an increase in remote employee productivity through this management tactic.

6. Focus on Outcomes, Not Activity

Even if you do have the best remote team management software, refrain from remote micromanaging. 

For what it’s worth, you must not try to handle every element of your team’s work, particularly if they’re spread out over several locations. 

Instead of concentrating on activity or hours worked, assess the team’s performance based on the outcomes.

7. Be Flexible

Recognize that your team has a lot on its plate. That isn’t a reason for not getting things done, but it is a justification to rethink the definition of the productivity of remote workers. 

It’s no longer appropriate to punch a clock for eight hours. For many people, regular work hours are also not applicable. Instead, put your faith in your team and give them the independence and flexibility to complete work on the timetable that best suits their needs. In the long run, it’s for the good of your squad.