More people are working remotely than ever before, and this trend is only predicted to increase. It used to be a fantasy of traveling the world and working from exotic coffee shops, but many workers are finding that remote work isn’t necessarily all that it’s chalked up to be. Overall though, there are many benefits of remote work, and going back to an office after experiencing the comforts of working from home sounds like a huge chore. Luckily, if you’re wondering how to improve the work from home experience, this article will help.
Businesses and employees both are agreeing the benefits of remote work outweigh frustrations, and with a little adaptation, remote workers feel that productivity is 25% up. Employees are happy with the flexibility, the work-life balance, the freedom to live wherever they want, and overall fewer distractions allowing better focus. Businesses have agreed that their employees are more productive too, and their turnover rates have gone down.
Thanks to the use of productivity apps, instant messenger communication, and video conferencing, the business has been able to adapt and evolve all while still staying on track. Everyone is happier to experience fewer office politics and more accountability for tasks. Your teammates can’t slack off on their assignments because they are tracked on software like Basecamp or Time Doctor.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the leap into remote work was fast, and overnight millions of people around the world were downloading Zoom. Here we are a year later, and it’s clear that remote work is clearly here to stay, so how can we improve the overall experience?
Here are tips to improve the work from home experience.
At the beginning of working from home, you may have thought working from your bed or couch was such a luxury, until you experience that first neck cramp. Staring down at a laptop or tablet all day is an inevitable part of remote jobs. Next, you moved to the kitchen table maybe, but those chairs are not comfortable after an 8-hour workday. If you haven’t yet, it is time to set up a dedicated workspace. Investing in things like a desk with an eye-height monitor, an ergonomic keyboard and mouse, and a comfortable computer chair will drastically improve your work from home experience. Your comfort level will be up, and when you sit down at your dedicated workspace you will feel more focused and productive. This is one of the top tips for working remotely that is often overlooked. To improve the work from home experience, you need to have a space that you always work in.
Most people report that flexibility is one of the best benefits of remote work. With flexibility though can come the option to slack off, put things off, or be distracted by the new show on Netflix that you can’t turn off. If you plan your schedule, set daily tasks, and have a to-do list, you will go into your day with a healthier and more productive mentality. This is one of the easy work from home tips that you can implement. You will hold yourself accountable and know what you need to accomplish and set yourself a goal of when.
With the boom of remote jobs has also been the boom of new software to assist with productivity, task assignments, cloud-based sharing, instant messaging apps, and video conferencing. If you are managing employees, you will want to be sure to choose the right tools to make your workflow most effective. There are a ton of options out there at various price points to accommodate large businesses to small organizations. Now instead of getting on a call every day with your assistant, you can virtually assign tasks with deadlines and priority levels, which will get the work flowing better without distractions. Finding the right tools is one of the work from home tips that will easily help the rest of your organization and those that you communicate with.
By 2028, it is projected that 73% of all departments will have remote workers. Work no longer has to be a dedicated 9-5 time frame with an agonizing rush hour traffic commute home. That’s why it’s so important to improve the work from home experience in any way that you can. Now you have the freedom to take a break and enjoy a midday walk with your dog or enjoy a day outside checking emails by the pool.
The movement towards remote work was already trending though, as Gallup’s study about the State of the American Workplace shows that 43% of employees were already working at least partially remote prior to the pandemic.
There are many ways to improve the work from home experience, and hopefully, this article will make your remote job even easier. Implement these tips to start seeing results!
Laurel Farrer is an internationally-renowned thought leader of remote work. She has been unlocking the power of distributed workforces for over 15 years.
Geilan Malet-Bates is the Chair of the P27 Green FinTech Forum and a regular contributor to green finance debates and consultations.
Geilan Malet-Bates is the Chair of the P27 Green FinTech Forum and a regular contributor to green finance debates and consultations.
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