How can employers improve productivity while keeping remote employees happy?

Remote work has become a permanent mode of work for many businesses. Many businesses allowed workers to do their jobs remotely to help smooth the curve and safeguard the vulnerable amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 restrictions are decreasing, so what comes next for remote employees?

If they want to succeed, businesses must do more than just allow for remote work; they must also find ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of such work. They need to center their efforts on connecting dispersed workers virtually, providing them with the resources they need to accomplish group objectives.

Since most employee engagement is a direct result of the work of a manager, employers bear the onus of keeping remote workers happy and productive. As it stands, it seems we could use some tried-and-true methods to keep our remote staff members content and thus more productive.

Because of the dispersed nature of remote work, these techniques focus on new forms of teamwork to boost morale and productivity. So this article covers tips on what you can do to keep your remote employees happy and, thus, highly productive. 

5 tips for best practices for remote teams​ 

1. Establish clear lines of communication - When working remotely, it's important to establish clear lines of communication from the start. This means having regular check-ins, setting up a system for messaging and sharing files, and agreeing on when and how team members will be available to each other.
2. Define roles and responsibilities - It's also crucial to make sure that everyone on the team knows their role and what is expected of them. This can help to avoid confusion and overlap in work, and ensure that everyone is pulled in the same direction.
3. Set goals and deadlines - Having well-defined goals and deadlines is important for any team, but it can be even more crucial for remote teams who may not have the same level of day-to-day contact. This can help to keep everyone on track and focused on the task at hand.
4. Trust and respect each other - One of the most important aspects of any team is trust and respect, and this is especially true for remote teams. Without these two things, it can be very difficult to get work done effectively.
5. Take advantage of technology - There are a lot of great tools out there that can help remote teams to stay connected and work together effectively. Utilizing these tools can help to make working remotely a more positive experience for everyone involved.

Be prepared to face the obstacles of working remotely 

​When working remotely, verifying or clarifying information without asking a coworker can be difficult. Having all your standard operating procedures (SOP) in one convenient location is one way to deal with this issue.

Trying to track down customer information is probably the least efficient method there is. It is important to centralize all user information in one place to make it easier for your support staff to do their job.

Finally, assist remote workers in setting up permanent, comfortable, and secure work areas within their homes. Whether it's supplying headsets, ergonomic chairs, or wrist guards to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome, these measures all help.

Every action you take can help your team members adjust to the new realities of remote work. Your workers need a company culture they can lean on during difficult times.

Provide emotional support

​Well-organized communication is the most efficient method of managing remote workers and influencing their motivation and productivity. They need to know they are appreciated and that their work contributes to the company's success.

Half of the remote workers in a recent Gartner survey reported longer workweeks in the past year. As a result, people are already exhausted and have no idea how to rest.

Recognize the difficulties your staff is experiencing as a result of working remotely and show them that you care. Digital fatigue may result from an increase in online meetings, email threads, and documentation trails. Don't drain your team's energy with goals that can't be achieved by ignoring the realities of their lives and starting over and starting over again with an impossible set of objectives.

Do not be discriminatory 

The best part of going to work is getting to spend the day chatting it up with your coworkers over lunch and a few good laughs. This would be challenging to reproduce in an off-site environment. A common downside of remote work is the isolation it can cause.

Set aside some extra time each day for a casual team chat to help everyone feel like they belong and build rapport. Taking time to relax and have fun is important for our overall health. Indeed, nearly 70% of millennials say that talking to their coworkers is very important to them in their work. 

Facilitate daily check-ins 

Facilitate regular one-on-one and team check-ins via phone call or video chat. It's a tool for building rapport and setting priorities, which will keep your remote team members focused and invested in their work.

Make it clear that you can be reached throughout the day via messaging apps for any questions or issues they may have. Set virtual office hours, so remote workers know when you're available for meetings or calls. 

Do not be inflexible 

In the case of remote workers, it's more important to evaluate performance than attendance when making hiring decisions. If you aren't a regular 9 to 5 worker, you cannot treat your business like one.

Allow them to pick their own hours if possible. Why not accommodate the agents' varying time zone preferences now that they've been hired?

Make the most of your independence. Employees are more likely to experience burnout due to the risk of digital exhaustion. Think about ways to reduce stress as well. If someone wants to work fewer hours per day or fewer days per week, make it so. 

Ask employees to set up a separate workplace 

We rarely give any thought to the way we keep our personal desks in order when we're at the office. Some people may not even have a dedicated office space at home, instead choosing to do their work on the kitchen table or even the bed. But the reality is that how we arrange our home offices significantly impacts how productive we are overall.

Inspire your remote workers to set up a private office space wherever they choose to work. The very least that could be done to improve productivity would be to designate specific areas as work and relaxation spaces (the walls' color is irrelevant here). 

Improving employee participation with a modern intranet 

A modern intranet can aid in achieving all of the aforementioned objectives by serving as a central meeting place for all employees. AgilityPortal is one example of a modern intranet platform that helps teams communicate, share information, and collaborate more effectively. In a nutshell, it provides a team with all the resources they'll need to achieve their goals.

Even after the pandemic ends, remote workers will remain a permanent fixture in the labor market. It is still the norm for workers to conduct business from a variety of off-site venues, including their own homes and other locations. Companies with an eye toward the future will thrive if they provide a platform to help their employees succeed from wherever they happen to be.

Conclusion  

Key performance indicators and deadlines are important, but so are employees' motivation, initiative, happiness, and satisfaction with their work. Standard methods like time tracking, video conferences, and regular meetings in group chats are useful for managing employees' knowledge and monitoring their performance, but they don't provide insight into employees' motivations, worries, or frustrations. Using a modern intranet like AgilityPortal, you can check in on your remote team and ensure everyone is on the same page.