If you have never worked in a remote setting but have recently found yourself in this situation, or if you already work and want to improve your team's productivity, read our recommendations:
- Ensure that all team members have the necessary tools to work remotely and that they are of quality, if you have not developed rules and procedures to use these tools before, now is the best time to do so. Outline the responsibilities that each remote team member must take on, from documenting their tasks to submitting reports.
- Concentrating on the comfort of your home can be harder than you expect. Watering the garden, dusting the furniture, or playing with your dog can become a major distraction. To avoid getting bogged down in household chores, try to find, and organize a place in your home where you can concentrate and get into work mode effortlessly (stay away from kitchens and bedrooms, they are distracting, seriously). No less important is a stable internet connection and a comfortable workstation in the designated area of your home.
- The role of management is crucial in ensuring productivity remotely, so monitor it regularly. Managers should not only ensure a level of permanence in productivity, but also encourage its growth. However, don't think for a second that micromanagement can help: tracking people down and checking in every two seconds to ask if they're still in front of the computer is not a healthy approach. Instead, you should really worry about whether task statuses are regularly updated in your preferred activity tracking tool. Knowing the current project status is always important, don't hesitate to remind your most forgetful team members to track the status of their tasks. It is true that some small issues can get lost when we cannot communicate face to face with our team, but this will not put your business out of action if key tasks are tracked accurately.
- You may think that organizing daily catch-up calls is too much, but we strongly recommend you do it anyway. And if you already have them, keep up the tradition throughout the period of remote collaboration. If not, implement this practice as soon as possible. Even if your team is well coordinated, when remote work happens, daily sync calls are a necessity. In short, during work time, try to focus on the work; after all, your colleagues' productivity depends on how well you are doing your part as well. Remember that everyone is at home and has private matters to manage.
- The productivity of a team working remotely will directly depend on their maturity. Senior professionals can manage their time more efficiently than juniors because of their experience in estimating the time to complete tasks. Consequently, a junior team will require a more holistic management approach. If you are managing a junior team or forming one, you will have to check on their issues and activities more frequently and will most likely over-communicate. You'll also need to educate them about any changes to the team's infrastructure related to the new way of working, and make sure that the roles and responsibilities of each team member are clear and contact points are known.
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