Tip of the Week: Two Kinds of Best Practices for Remote Work

If you’re trying to productively work from home, what you use and how you use it are equally important considerations. To assist you, we felt it would be helpful to share a few best practices for each variable, so that you might be able to boost your remote productivity.

Technology Tips

Make sure you have the technology you’ll need. To work from home as effectively as you could in the office, you’ll need to have the tools that allow you to do so—and the same goes for everyone on your team. While it may not be critical that everyone’s remote setup is identical to their in-office one, their capabilities should be somewhat consistent. Your team shouldn’t have to rely exclusively on a cell phone, for instance.

Provide software and data access with cloud solutions. Having the right tools is good, but it doesn’t help if your team doesn’t have access to the work they are supposed to be doing with these tools. Using the cloud to host data and solutions can make these resources accessible to your remote workforce.

Make sure your team uses a VPN. If your team needs to instead connect to your in-house infrastructure while working remotely, instruct them to always use a virtual private network. While it isn’t a solution for all your security needs, it will help sensitive data from being intercepted or compromised as it traverses the Internet between your office and your team members.

Productivity Tips

Stick to your typical work schedule. While working longer hours is much easier when working remotely, thanks to the 100 percent decrease in travel time, do your best to discourage your team from doing so. Otherwise, they could subject themselves to faster burnout, especially if it becomes a regular habit.

Designate “office” space. It should come as no surprise that the home has much more tempting distractions than the office would, with minimal supervision to ensure that the team is being diligent. Your team’s best bet is to minimize the distractions that are around them by establishing a set place to work while working remotely. This helps boost productivity and focus alike.

Keep in touch with your team. When working in the office, clearly communicating with those that work with you is a much simpler prospect than when working remotely. To compensate for this discrepancy, you should strongly encourage your team to overcommunicate with their coworkers. Make sure you lead by example as you do so as well, to make it clear what level of communication is expected.

What has your experience with remote work been like? Share your thoughts in the comments, as well as any tips we may have missed, and be sure to subscribe to our blog!