While the employees continue to work remotely, many factors like lack of communication, disengagement, and distractions led to a dip in productivity. But, organizations had to stick to remote learning because they no longer need to provide the infrastructure for the employees. Employees also started to prefer remote working as they can work from anywhere in their comfort.
As you notice a dip in productivity, you might be tempted to monitor your employees closely by micromanaging them. But, this cannot be the best option as it can backfire. There are many better ways to improve the productivity of your employees, which will be discussed below.
1. Use the right collaboration platform:
In a physical office setting, your employees can easily collaborate and communicate with others. Emails and phone calls would be enough for everyone to be in the same place. But, in the remote setting, your employees need the appropriate tools which help them to collaborate with their co-workers seamlessly. Use project management and communication tools that help to track the progress of the project and keep everyone on the same page.
2. Conduct meetings regularly:
When working remotely, your employees might not have the opportunity to sort out the issues with their co-workers. This leads to a drop in productivity. In such a case, be accessible to your employees and conduct video meetings regularly so that they can sort the issue quickly and have a better idea of how to deal with such problems. In a remote setup, video calls and meetings are very important to keep your employees engaged.
Even when you offer remote training, make use of web conferencing tools like Adobe Connect which helps to maintain the learner’s attention.
3. Do not micromanage:
As you cannot meet your team in person and check their progress, it might be a tempting option to call them for half an hour and take an update on the project. But, it’s not a great option as your employees can become overdependent on the manager. Let them sort the issues by themselves, if they couldn’t, they will contact the manager or any co-worker. But, ensure you are available most of the time to your employees during working hours. Daily check-ins can be a great way to track the progress of your team members.
4. Be patient:
Working remotely can be quite new for many people and it takes time to get used to it. Making the best use of virtual meetings, and tools and maintaining the work-life balance needs time. Try to help your employees as much and give them the space they need to improve their productivity. Provide necessary training for all the tools you use during remote working so that your employees can quickly get familiar with it.
5. Flexibility is the key:
Most of your employees might be operating from their homes, so there’s a high chance that they encounter lots of distractions. The surroundings and the entire workplace ambiance might not be how it is in an office place. Thus, be flexible with them in terms of timings. Try not to be very strict with timings, instead allow them to work at the timings they prefer.
6. Reward the good work:
When you appreciate and reward your employees for the job done well, they feel motivated to do that more often which will help to improve their productivity. In remote work, the chances of efforts going unnoticed are very high. The responsibility is on the manager to ensure every employee is recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Sometimes, all they need is a congratulatory email to feel motivated. If your team on a whole reaches a certain goal, then you can even try conducting virtual team lunches, offering paid vacations and bonuses, etc.
Conclusion:
Remote working is here to stay, so it’s better to find ways how you can tackle the challenges in it before it’s too late. We hope this article helps you to find solutions to all your problems and improve your team’s productivity.
Learn more from business and read Top 10 Remote Work Tips to Improve Productivity and Morale.
