How to Boost Team Productivity while Working from Home
4 min read
Employees across the globe are working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread. Remote working is observed happening on such a large scale for the first time. With this, employees are also faced with many different challenges and complexities. Meanwhile, companies are thinking of innovating things in new styles and ways of doing business.
However, managers are dealing with one of the most challenging tasks these days. To monitor and track the daily progress of their subordinates and ensure productivity is a primary concern that every remote-working company has. So, this blog aims to sum up six effective ways to boost team productivity while working from home season continues. Use performance management tools and productivity tracking apps to make employees focused on the work.
Formulate Equal Policies
It can be most frustrating for employees to find that different rules apply to different employees. In order to boost team productivity, it must be kept in mind that policies should be formulated that apply equally to all. For instance, it needs to be clear that a customer email should be answered either within 30 minutes or 24 hours. This brings a sense of responsibility in the employee’s minds and specifies that everyone in the team is equal. The lack of equality among team members can lead to serious performance issues and, eventually, the loss of employees. This obstructs business a lot and keeps the HR team worried about finding a new resource that best fits the role. Keeping equality, however, can save from a lot of similar issues.
Performance Management System
Use performance management tools and systems to make employees focused on the work. Employees sometimes disregard their work while working from home. Therefore, using a resource management tool play an important role. You can also get a custom performance management system from a custom software development Houston. CRM or ERP software enables managers to monitor and assess what employees are currently working on. This type of software can make remote working easier and improve employees’ efficiency, synchronize inter-departmental activities, and ultimately benefits the business. They can get a detailed description of what projects are close to their completion and what is in the pipeline.
Flexible Working Hours
It’s a matter of the fact that some people are more productive during some hours of the morning and others are more productive at late night hours. To boost employee productivity while working remotely, companies should allow the team to work whenever they feel the most productive. However, there should be a small window of “necessary work hours,” during which the entire team will have to log in to defeat communication issues. Provide employees with the freedom to work as they like during their job hours.
Use Appropriate Communication Tools
Remote working could go chaotic and disorganized if the company lacks an effective communication strategy. Use appropriate communication tools to avoid any distraction and de-accelerate work. Video communication tools help to conduct face-to-face video and brainstorming sessions with teams. For example, Skype and Zoom. Text-based communication tools help send real-time messages to team members, for example, Skype and Slack and WhatsApp.
On the other hand, the Collaboration tool enables geographically dispersed teams to work on the same project—for example, Google docs and sheets. Furthermore, data repositories help organizations store, access, and share, large volumes of data in the form of PDFs, pictures, video, and audio files, for instance, Google Drive. All of the mentioned above communication tools can help build a strong communication strategy.
Appreciate the Team Efforts
Remote working is both employee and employer-friendly concepts that work in favor of both. However, to make this concept functional for businesses, managers may need to deal with different types of employee behavior and solve their problems. It is thus essential to appreciate and give credit where required. If anyone in the team is going the extra mile to make things work, make sure their struggles and efforts are noted and rewarded at the next appraisal. Moreover, verbal applauses and appreciation are also needed to improve employees’ productivity in remote working. For this, you can simply create a title like “Remote working employee of the month” and amuse deserving members with a chocolate box or a pizza delivered at their doorstep.
Boosting team performance is a crucial part of remote working. If due attention is not maintained, it may directly lead to resource misutilization and employee dissatisfaction.
By taking care of these elements, you can lead your team successfully in a remote working scenario. Using pro-active strategies and small improvements can bring a massive change in your team’s performance while the remote working lasts. And last but not least, to make your team perform well and give their best, a manager themselves need to be as vigilant and active as possible. Being lazy and careless as a manager, while working from home, can have detrimental effects on your business.
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