Ever since the Coronavirus has trapped millions of Americans to stay at home, companies have researched and studied different methods to make their employees’ work experience at home as productive, if not then more productive, as the work experience in the office. Finding practical solutions hasn’t been an easy process, and there are still many Americans that long to return to the office due to an unproductive work environment at home. The reality is companies won’t return to full capacity within their offices for the foreseeable future, so the problem that has plagued many companies and employees must be solved. Fortunately, different platforms and tips promote productivity at home.
Since face-to-face interactions are impossible while working at home, it’s still essential to arrange video calls with your team of employees or co-workers. Video calls have proved to be more productive and beneficial than emails for numerous reasons. Firstly, people aren’t able to figure out an employee’s personality or the methods used to work efficiently through email; therefore, video calls allow employees to understand the type of person they are working with. Also, video calls allow bosses and peers to answer questions more effectively and in-depth because writing long emails to explain an idea is a waste of time. By answering questions more thoroughly, there is no confusion on either end, which increases productivity due to everyone understanding their specific job.
Another tip that allows remote working to be more productive is by frequently scheduling meetings with your boss or co-workers. People tend not to ask the same amount of questions at home as they usually would at the office because they believe their question won’t be relevant to the meeting topic or that it’s impolite to ask multiple inquiries during a video call. This causes confusion within a member of a team and results in a work environment being less productive. Having periodic meetings with an individual gives a person confidence to ask clarifying questions, become engaged, and have greater motivation to work hard. Ultimately, productivity increases and employees become eager to work.
Since being at home, people have followed schedules that differ from the ones before the pandemic. Not only have people been working longer hours, but people feel less motivated to work effectively due to being in front of a computer the entire length of the day. Employees must implement a schedule that allows them to have a set number of hours dedicated to work, and then enough time for personal activities (binge-watching your favorite show, participate in Zoom happy hours with friends, etc.). By doing this, employees desire to do productive and practical work, and it ultimately boosts morale because employees aren’t bothered with work all day. It’s hard for employees to put down their phones or turn off their computers because clients are constantly contacting companies. Still, employees must turn off their work notifications and equipment when the workday is complete. Remember, time for detoxing the mind and boosts productivity.
Lastly, an effective strategy to increase productivity at home is by downloading an app that doesn’t allow people to check social media and turns off notifications. An app called Forest- Stay Focus, which is $1.99 on the app store, and this app motivates its users not to check social media and adds an incentive for people that can do this challenge: they will plant a tree depending on how long you don’t check your Facebook or Snapchat. Ultimately, by encouraging users to retain from using their phones, customers will feel more productive while completing a task.
Besides helpful tips that promote productivity, various platforms encourage employees to be more organized and accomplish business tasks more successfully. Google Drive, Google Keep, Dropbox Paper, and Evernote are highly recommended platforms for taking notes, and the information on a device is transferable to another one through their perspective clouds. Another beneficial platform to have is Grammarly, software that edits written documents for spelling or grammar errors, and makes suggestions to improve one’s writing. Grammarly has a free version that offers spelling corrections and few grammar suggestions, while the paid version offers all spelling and grammar suggestions. Lastly, an important platform to have is Docusign, which allows users to sign documents electronically. Docusign is excellent for businesses because they can have contracts signed by clients worldwide in seconds. All of these platforms can help increase productivity while working remotely.
While the pandemic won’t last forever, the importance of having productive methods implemented are crucial because people will be working remotely for the next coming months. Not only can companies create a productive work environment at home, but new technology can allow people to be more efficient at home than at work, which benefits companies during a time where there’s no room for error.