Remote work has become the new normal for many companies. Coronavirus has forced many offices to close, sending their employees home to work. While time has passed since businesses have had to close their office doors, many employees are still struggling to manage and make the most of their remote work experience.
If you’re looking for ways to improve the work experience of any of your remote employees, whether they are full-time remote, or only temporarily remote due to the pandemic, implementing a few new tools can help. Read on to learn about a few simple tools you can implement to help improve your remote workforce.
A Communication Platform
If your entire workforce, or even a portion of your workforce, is working from home, and will be doing so for the foreseeable future, digital communication will become your business’ most important tool. You’ll want to ensure that your workers have a reliable communication platform that allows for quick and efficient communication and collaboration.
Relying on email or a poor quality instant messaging platform to keep your workforce connected just won’t cut it.
Not only will communication be necessary for keeping your workforce connected, but it will help combat feelings of isolation as well. A number of full-time remote workers report feeling isolated as one of the biggest challenges of being a remote employee. Utilizing an instant communication platform enables your staff to communicate with one another on a more casual basis. This helps combat feelings of loneliness or separation from the company’s culture.
Additionally, when you don’t have easy access to your workers as you would in an office, messaging and video calls will be your next best option. Whether it’s for a quick check-in, giving instructions on a project, or for providing updates throughout the day, you’ll find that a chat platform is what keeps you and your employees connected outside of the office.
Time-Saving Applications
Often, workers will feel distracted during the day knowing they have personal matters to attend to, as well as work-related matters. It can be tempting to run a few errands during the work day when nobody is around to monitor your activity. While it is important that your employees are tending to their work, especially when they can’t work in the office, it is important to help your employees enjoy a work/life balance throughout the workday as well. Rather than condemning your employees for trying to get a few personal things done during the work day, encourage them to utilize apps to help get these tasks done right from their phone or mobile device, without losing out on work time.
For example, your employees may need to do some banking, and with banks only being open during the typical working hours of 9-5, it can be difficult to get there in time before or after work. Instead, educate your employees about an app for financial management that can be used right from their smartphone. This will alleviate the need to leave their workspace to go to the bank during the workday, as all of the essential banking functions your employees need are easily accessible from the palm of their hands.
The same applies to other tasks your employees may need to get done, like popping out to the store to grab a few groceries or pick up something for the family. With apps designed to order necessities and have them delivered right to your employees’ doors, your workers will be able to take care of their personal needs while still maintaining a workflow at home.
Remote Support Software
Lastly, a software that is focused on supporting employee needs from a distance is a great option for high-level remote employee management. For those employees and employers in management positions, it can feel overwhelming trying to figure out how you will manage your workforce when they aren’t in the office. It can be difficult to monitor employee progress and well-being when you don’t have direct access to them.
Try out a remote support software to help keep your staff on task and organized throughout their work day. Between technical difficulties and collaboration issues, remote support software can help managers access employee devices to solve tech issues, as well as allow for file sharing and true remote collaboration. This tool can help create a seamless transition from in-office work to remote work, as collaboration can go on uninterrupted, regardless of where employees are working from.
Remote work comes with its own unique challenges. When a pandemic strikes and remote work is the only option available for your business and staff, quickly resolving remote work struggles is essential. Try out one or more of these tool suggestions with your remote workforce and let us know your experience in the comments below.