Helpful Guide to Remote Work Success

Businesses and organizations around the globe are taking remote work seriously. If your company just made the transition from the traditional office to remote work, we understand the imminent challenges that can come along the way.

It’s important to understand that many factors have influenced the rapid shift, and it’s not a must to get everything working perfectly at ago. As you work on building the right remote work best practices, it is okay to make mistakes and learn from them. But luckily for you, we’ve rounded up some vital remote work tips that will guide you and your team through the remote work journey.

Below are the 5 tips for remote work success. 

According to recent Globant research, 49% of employees working from home reported reduced productivity, mainly due to two factors: 

distraction from the home environment and communication challenges with colleagues. 

Just as you would prefer a comfortable working area in your office, you want to choose a professional working space in your home too. You can convert that extra room or a section of your library into a home office provided it meets your expectations. Also, make sure that distractions and burnout are at the bare minimum. 

If you feel like switching places once in a while, consider working from the outdoors, say a nearby park or even café. This way, you can avoid the boredom and burnout associated with spending the whole day indoors. 

As a rule of thumb, always avoid double-duty spaces. For example, working from your living room, bedroom, or dining space: all of which are hubs for distractions. And before you can equip your working space, you want to know how the home office tax deduction laws could impact your finances. 

Last but not least is to set physical boundaries and to let your friends and loved ones know that you are unavailable during the work times unless you are taking the occasional breaks.

Flipping the mental switch is common among high-performance professionals such as athletes, actors, speakers, etc. It’s interesting how this term is relevant across different settings and how you can use it to attain the highest remote work success levels. The idea is to get your mind to a state of concentration, confidence, and intensity. Below is how you can embrace the mental switch while working remotely:

Dress well: Instead of working in your pajamas all day, you want to dress professionally, just like you would when heading to a physical office. You don’t need to overdo it, but dressing for the occasion will put you in the right mental state.

Stick with your Schedule: When it comes to working remotely, how you schedule your time determines how productive you will be. Due to the inevitable distractions in a home environment, you should have a block time where you’re fully invested in your work.

Many companies that pioneered the shift to remote work have developed remote work policies and culture to keep their teams engaged and productive despite the geographical distribution. One advantage of remote work is the flexibility to work anywhere at any given time. However, proper work guidelines that involve setting clear expectations for all the team members is necessary to drive success. 

Below is how remote managers can set expectations and instill the same in their remote teams. 

Specify the information flow: There should be a consistent way of communication between remote employees and the management. For example, conference calls for critical meetings and occasional emails for project updates.

Discuss protocols: Remote managers should specify how the projects should be handled and how employees will ask for clarification, communicate their concerns, ask for days off, etc. This way, everyone will know what they are expected of and how they can resolve issues if any.Plan Ahead: Having a plan is key to keeping up with the fast-paced work environment. Every remote worker should know how their roles will change and how they can adapt to it — for example, preparing remote teams to embrace the ever-changing technology. 

Remote work tools are increasingly becoming popular, and technology plays a critical role in ensuring these teams stay connected. Of all the remote work technologies, asynchronous communication tools are proving more popular, and there are several reasons why this is the case. 

Employees get to communicate at their own convenient time make asynchronous communication more effective in keeping distributed teams together. It also reduces burnout common with synchronous live conferencing tools such as zoom. 

With the many remote tools available in the market, you want to put the right tools into proper use. For example, use Dropbox for sending multiple attachments instead of email. This will avoid clutter or setting up your sensitive information for a data breach. For collaboration and communication, live, and recorded videos could serve the purpose.

Video messaging is perhaps the most common and preferred form of communication when working remotely. 

TechSmith Research shows that 67% or 2 in every 3 people understand information better when communicated visually. 

Live videos are great in bringing together everyone in real-time and could work best if something urgent or sensitive is communicated. However, this type of communication comes with several challenges, especially when the remote teams are distributed across time zones.  

On the other hand, recorded videos or asynchronous video messaging makes it easy and convenient for teams to collaborate on projects without the pressure of having several meetings, which in most cases may be unnecessary. 

Weet is a perfect example of an asynchronous video messaging and collaboration platform that allows remote managers and employees to take control of their time while creating a personal conversation with a human touch. With Weet, all you need to do is share a link to your video, and your teammates will be notified instantly.

Here are some other video messaging tips:

• Keep your videos short, educational, and interesting. Make sure you’re concisely passing the message.
• Find good lighting, position your camera correctly, and mute the microphone if it’s not your turn to speak.
• When recording videos or attending a live video conference, you can use virtual backgrounds for a unique video experience.
• When on a live video conferencing, always make sure you are presentable and comfortable while communicating with your colleagues. For example, a home office zoom setup will give you the peace of mind you need to concentrate and get the most out of your virtual meeting. 

The truth is that email will remain an important part of how companies communicate professionally, but with visual evolution, finding a way to introduce short videos or screenshots fosters better understanding. This also reduces the need for follow-up. 

 “As the workforce becomes increasingly digitally savvy, visuals and video are necessary for employee engagement. Businesses that fail to adapt may find themselves lagging in productivity and even losing top talent.” Wendy Hamilton, TechSmith CEO.

Achieving remote work success narrows down to keeping the teams engaged and ensuring productivity at every phase of the remote work process. Your working space determines the level of concentration, and keeping your mind focused on the work dictates the level of productivity. 

It’s also important to set expectations and let everyone know what they are supposed to do. And perhaps the most important tip is to choose the right remote work tools and communication channels that will guarantee effective communication.