working from home Archives

Journalists, forward-thinking business owners, and employees alike have touted the benefits of working remotely for years. While cloud technology once made it a viable option, the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly turned it into a necessity. The transition to remote work was not without its growing pains, but as experience has shown, it has been the single most important factor in allowing business to stay open.

So what will happen to your organization when it’s safe to go back to the office? Will you resume business as usual, breathing a sigh of relief that you’re done with Zoom meetings? Will you brush off the brief period of having your employees working remotely and get back to normal?

What Normal Will Look Like

You will undoubtedly have the option to resume work on-site, and in many cases that will be necessary. However, something will nag at you as you try to move forward: there is no such thing as getting back to normal.

Why not? First, we’re not done with the pandemic. It will continue as we go into the summer. As Ed Yong writes in The Atlantic, “the only viable endgame is to play whack-a-mole with the coronavirus, suppressing it until a vaccine can be produced. With luck, that will take 18 to 24 months. During that time, new outbreaks will probably arise.”

Here in New Jersey, Governor Murphy agrees with that assessment. Quoted in a Politco article, he says: “The notion that we’re going to go back to some sort of, let’s just turn the clock back to three months ago, I just don’t see it.”

A Long-Term Remote Working Reality

With new outbreaks will come more quarantines, sending employees back to working from home. Simply, that means your company’s remote work setup is here to stay for at least the next two years. The best thing you can do in the short-term is refine your remote operations.

But there’s a bigger picture here: businesses shouldn’t see remote work as a bunker in which they hide. Instead, they should take full advantage of the flexibility and productivity that can only be achieved by working remotely. As Enrique Dans writes in Forbes, “Shouldn’t the lessons learned during lockdown and the fight against COVID-19 encourage change?”

He continues: “If many companies have been forced to try out teleworking, should they not, once the emergency is over, move on to offer their workers flexible systems that allow them to work from home, in a climate of trust that will enable them, for example, to avoid rush hour and be more productive in the process?”

Though it may not seem obvious, your business has been given an opportunity to approach work in a new way. With a permanent remote solution, you can now be more flexible while maintaining employment and optimizing productivity.

Solutions to Smarter Remote Work

Many business owners fear that remote work environments don’t allow them to see, understand, or review employee productivity. That’s why any remote working solution should include tracking and reporting capabilities for time and tasks.

But the same recommendation holds true for businesses operating 100% on-site. It isn’t a foregone conclusion that people working in proximity have the same oversight and quality control that modern employee tracking tools provide.

In fact, the steps you can take to ensure employees can not only work productively, but also achieve the agility to shift between on-site and remote setups. These are just a few:

Give your employees some guidelines on how to optimize their productivity while staying sane at home. You can read 15 tips for doing just that right here.
Take some internal surveys and discuss remote setups with your teams. What’s working and what isn’t? As soon as you’re out of panic mode, you’ll get a clear-eyed sense of how to implement things the right way next time.
Prepare your employees for the reality that they may be back at home again in a month, two months, or more. While there is plenty of uncertainty to come, you can mitigate confusion by drafting a clear preparedness plan and sharing it with everyone.
Make sure you have the right remote working tools. Slack and Zoom aren’t the only things that are going to run your business. You need to power core processes and your biggest operations remotely as well. Centralize things as much as possible, and favor systems instead of collections of tools.

Take the First Step Now

If nearly every prediction is correct, we’re all in for a very bumpy ride throughout the next year. Arguably, the biggest bump has already happened. But we can’t let subsequent disruptions have the same negative impacts on business. Working from home isn’t just a necessity— it’s a competitive advantage.

Sending employees home to work and optimizing their productivity can go hand-in-hand. You’ll need to be prepared next time. The good news is that your experience has given you all the information you need to make the right decisions, especially for a more permanent remote work option. Start setting it up now so your future can look much more certain.

Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, countless companies are being forced to set up their employees to work from home. Finally!

My company is virtual which means I’ve been working from home for more than a decade. I admit that some people are better predisposed to this. I am one of those people. I’m able to get more work done from my home office in the morning than I did in my previous office job. How? By following these very simple rules.

Rule 1: Get dressed (and showered).

No, you don’t have to put on a suit and tie or a professional outfit. But don’t sit around in your underwear either. Gross. Get up, get showered, get dressed and get to work. Oh, and brush your teeth too, please. There is a very big psychological boost when you start your workday like this. You’ll feel better about yourself. And you’ll definitely look better on video.

Rule 2: Have a set routine.

My wife and I had three kids in under a year and the only way we stayed relatively sane was by setting a military routine to our household operations, particularly at night time. Eat. Play. Bath. Bottle. Bed. Rinse and repeat. The same goes for your workday. You’ll find yourself taking work from home very seriously when you institute a serious routine to your day.

Rule 3: Create a workspace.

Assuming you have available space, use it. Set aside a place for work that’s somewhere separate from the rest of your home. If space is limited, have a workspace that you use, clean up, then use it again the next day. Don’t float around. Make it clear to your housemates that this is the space where you do what you do so that you can pay the bills. Trust me, they’ll respect it.

Rule 4: Block out your time.

When anyone asks me how I’m able to get so much done during the day, time-blocking is always my reply. Pick 1-2 hour blocks, put everything aside, and just focus on doing what you set out to do during that block. For example, I set a one-hour block to write this little blog and I’m ignoring everything else until I complete it. Wait, do I smell smoke? Just kidding. This method works, regardless of whether you’re at home, a coffee shop or in the office.

Rule 5: Avoid TV. Embrace music.

I’m a huge fan of TV and if you’re ever interested in a good show recommendation, please reach out. But I NEVER watch TV during the day. It’s just a rule. However, I’m a big Spotify listener. When I need to think – like now – I put on classical music. When I’m doing busy work – like emails – I switch to pop/rock. I’m a huge Howard Stern fan but I don’t listen to podcasts or talk radio while I work either…it’s too distracting. Stick to music, you’ll get more done.

Rule 6: Do housework.

No, I’m not kidding. A clean, organized house complements a clean, organized worker. Depending on the nature of a call (and who I’m talking to) I’m frequently doing other stuff while talking. I fold the laundry. Put away dishes. Change the cat litter. Sweep. Make the bed. It’s amazing how a good pair of earbuds coupled with a smartphone can enable you to conduct business and keep your personal life in order all at the same time.

Rule 7: Know the rhythms of your neighborhood.

Every day at 11 AM the mailman would come to our door. Which means the dog barks. And at 3:45 PM a school bus drops off kids. Which means the dog barks. My neighbors have landscapers that come every Wednesday at 2 PM. Trash collectors bang the cans mid-morning on Tuesdays. Get it? Oh, you will get it if you’re on an important conference call and this stuff happens in the background. Work from home long enough and you’ll figure out the neighborhood rhythms…and adjust your own schedule accordingly.

Rule 8: Know the rhythms of your dog.

See above. And add to that the times that your dog expects a walk. Or to be fed. Or to play. These animals are smart and know how to take advantage of us. Don’t give in to their pleas…. too often.

Rule 9: Demand technology.

You wouldn’t send Mike Trout up to the plate with a Wiffle ball bat, would you? Or a soldier into battle with a water pistol, right? Your employer needs to have the same attitude when it comes to technology. No employee can expect to match their in-office productivity with inadequate technology. You need everything hosted in the cloud and secure. You need collaboration tools. You need integrated cloud-based accounting, inventory, order management, and customer relationship management software. You’ll need an infrastructure that you do whatever you’re doing from home as if you’re in the office.

Rule 10: Pick your best times to work.

Take advantage of not being in an office and adjust your schedule to when you’re most productive. I like to get up super-early – like 5 AM – and do my stuff then because I think more clearly in the morning. My wife does her best work in the evening. Different people have different preferences. When you’re in the office, you don’t have this opportunity. But if you’re at home, you do. There’s nothing wrong with taking time off in the middle of the day as long as you’re getting your stuff done. You’ll still get the hours in.

Rule 11: …but be available when you need to.

Having said the above, there is one caveat: you have to be available when asked. Business is still conducted during business hours and your team shouldn’t have to wonder where you are in the middle of the day. When someone calls, you pick up the phone. When there’s a conference, you’re attending. If there’s training, you’re present. You have a smartphone, or a tablet so there’s no excuse for not being in touch. Don’t let your employer complain about your unavailability just because you’re working from home. It’s a problem you don’t need to have.

Rule 12: Nap and workout.

OK, I’ll admit this publicly: sometimes I nap during the day. Nothing major, but a 20-minute lay down on a sofa or my head down on my desk. That’s a perk for working from home. Other people like to take a bike ride, go to the gym or have a run in the middle of the day. Those are other perks. There’s nothing wrong with this as long as you’re getting your work done and you’re available when needed. Actually, it will give you more energy and make you more productive when you’re back at your desk. Again, you’ll get the hours in but on the timetable that you determine works best for you.

Rule 13: Ignore news, Twitter, and Facebook.

And especially YouTube! You know what I’m talking about. It doesn’t take much – a Buzzfeed list about Harry Potter (I’d be sorted to Hufflepuff), a funny Carpool Karaoke, a short SNL skit – and all of the sudden you’re in the vortex. And when you look up, an hour has been eaten up. Don’t. Stay away. Avoid. Stay focused on your work and avoid those sites until you’re eating dinner with the family.

Rule 14: Take a walk.

Don’t spend your whole day in the house. There’s a whole world out there. Get in the car, or better yet take a walk, and breathe in the fresh air. Just getting out there every day will change your pattern and get you out of a funk.

Rule 15: Finally, take this all very seriously.

This is your job. You’re being given the chance to work from home. Don’t blow it, because if you take it seriously and get your work done, it can be an awesome, awesome thing.

Tag: working from home

Why Remote Work Will Be The New Normal