How to make remote working actually work for your business

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With the Coronavirus pandemic going nowhere fast, remote working has become a necessity for so many businesses and employees. Infact, 60% of the UK’s adults are now working from home. What was once a novelty, has now become the new normal and there’s been reports of many big business scaling down their office space by asking their employees to work from home for the majority, if not all, of their working hours.
Of course, there are many positives to working from home. A decreased impact on the environment and less time spent commuting are good reasons but productivity and striking a good work life can sometimes take a knock.
So how can we ensure that the business is running smoothly whilst still being able to work remotely? Read our top tips to make remote working really work for your business.
1. Have Regular Catch Ups
It used to be easy to bounce around ideas in an office environment, but now it’s up to us as businesses and leaders to encourage regular and consistent communication. Whether that’s booking in a virtual morning coffee chat or having brain storming sessions, the channels of communication need to be open.
With 1 in 5 home workers saying they struggle with loneliness, communication is now more important than ever before.
2. Make sure everyone is suitably equipped
Workers are now relying heavily on technology and specifically, technology that works and is fit for working remotely. This means having laptops in good working order with video calling facilities and even mobile phones for staff to use in the absence of an office phone. 62% of remote workers report wanting employers to provide better technology to help stay connected.
3. It doesn’t have to be boring
Working in isolation can easily become monotonous and the effect of living and working in the same space may magnify any issues workers have with their job, especially if the role is of a repetitive nature. Boredom may set in which will reduce motivation and in turn increase procrastination, especially if no one is there to hold them accountable. To combat this, you may want to introduce virtual socials, mix up the workload of your staff or ask your employees to come up with their own ideas of how they can improve their workflow.
4. Collaborate with each other
It’s easy to fall into a pattern of working in silo and not feeling the need to talk to others but it’s vital that you can carry on collaborating with projects and sharing ideas and information. This goes hand in hand with communication, the more we communicate, the better we can work together.
If you are providing devices to be used by your at-home staff, find out how we can help provide COVID-secure IT assets.
Find out how we helped to support over 1000 remote workers.
Statistics correct as of September 2020 according to finder.com