Unlike earlier times, when commuting to work seemed as boring as going to school in childhood, the scene has completely changed post-COVID-19. According to Tech-Talent Outlook 2022, 82% of employees prefer to work from home. Therefore, working remotely has become the new normal. According to FlexJobs’ Employee Engagement Report, 48% of employers offer remote work to their employees.
Work From Home Meaning
The term “Employee Work from home” literally means working remotely. Well, it’s a big misconception too that the term along with its meaning came into existence post-COVID-19. Actually, the original term for WFH i.e. ‘telecommuting’ was first coined by NASA engineer Jack Nilles in 1973. Additionally, IBM became the first organization to implement the same for its 2000 employees. These days, working from home has taken on a more modern form known as a ‘workstation’. A workstation is a concept that allows employees to work while spending time at their favorite vacation spot.
10 Tips to Stay Productive During Employee Work From Home
Not just 10 tips for Employees Work from home, there could have been more but then I thought that smaller steps taken initially would lead to a long journey in the future!
- Morning Routine – Everyone has a morning routine, but having a routine that assists in creating an Employee work-from-home Work-life Balance is a bit different. You can start your day with oil-pulling for healthy gums and teeth, yoga for the good health of mind, body, and soul, meditation to enhance mental clarity, a healthy breakfast to provide you with fuel for the first half of the day, and creating a complete day planner to alleviate the stress of prioritizing tasks throughout your day can add a lot of balance to Employees work-life balance.
- Spirituality in the Workplace – Well, I could have included this point in the last paragraph as well but by keeping it separate, I want to draw special attention to it. Bringing spirituality into the workplace means setting, revising, and recalling our work ethics daily. It is well known that spirituality reflects the meaning of worship. Since work is said to be a form of worship, spirituality means setting standards for worship towards your work.
- Say No, No to mail in bed! – Establishing certain morning rituals in bed, such as not checking e-mails or even checking your phone in bed, should become a habit.
- Create a Work Corner in Your Home – Working while lying on the bed or couch will ruin your workaholic vibe and space. Therefore, having a dedicated workspace in a favorite corner of your house is always a good idea. This way you will be able to focus on your work easily.
- Use Employee Work From Home Productivity Tool – Nowadays, the internet has it all for you! Instead of scratching your head about how to plan and organize your day, you can use Employee Work From Home Productivity Tools i.e. “DeskTrack“.
- Plan Your ‘Me Time’ – There is often a correlation between not giving time to your grooming and becoming frustrated in the head. This can lead to a great deal of distraction while working. No matter how you define it, grooming your body or doing your hobby are both worthwhile ways to rejuvenate yourself when you feel burnout.
- Fasting Day for Your Laptop! – You are all familiar with the concept of fasting between meals, but why just fast between meals when we are overdoing and exceeding our daily screen time as well? Therefore, weekly offs should be spent fasting on a laptop!
- Continue to Network and Foster Business Relationships – In general, it appears that working from home has slowed or reduced the creation of new business networks, as well as maintaining old ones. This can sometimes lead to isolation at work in an employee’s mind. By having a small chat on breaks, the team can facilitate regular communication and learning.
- Cardio is not a bad idea in a bad mood! – Regular exercise not only pumps blood in the heart and generates oxygen, but also reduces stress levels at work. Practically, work-from-office culture has never provided this boon. To reduce mental work pressure, employees are seen to be addicted to smoking or drinking.
- Practice Employees Work-life Balance – To maintain motivation consistently, it is recommended to perform meaningful rituals and activities in groups. Collaborating with similar mindset peer groups can help you achieve your daily work-life balance goals.
Challenges of Employee Work From Home
Well, if there are pros then definitely there are some challenges of employee work-from-home culture as well. However, if tackled smartly, then this working culture is all set to benefit you in your job!
- Employee Isolation – A common drawback of the work-from-home culture is employee isolation. The reason for this is that communication one-to-one is easier than initiating a conversation on the phone.
- Lack of Coordination among Team Members – As mentioned earlier, communicating one-to-one is easier than initiating a conversation on the phone, therefore it becomes the reason for poor coordination among team members.
- Lack of Employee Loyalty – With no direct supervision during work and numerous distractions around, the loyalty of employees is put to the test.
- Disrupted Employees Work-life Balance – Well, it is understood that when we are not bound by a routine or time-table, very few of us are able to create a proper work-life balance. Thus, this culture creates a huge disruption in terms of Employees Work-life Balance in employees’ lives.
- Poor Time Management – The practice of punctuality is seen as being governed by rules and timetables. Therefore, a huge chunk of employees fails to create proper time management between their work and personal lives.
Work From Home Excuses Made by Employees
In organizations where employee working from home is not a culture altogether but given on some conditional basis, here are some of the excuses made by employees to taste the same:
- Doctor’s Appointment – Because they know, in general, their manager will not confirm the appointment with the doctor at all.
- Family Exigency – A well-played emotional card related to the family!
- Vehicle Problem – Sometimes a reason for a flat tire or non-availability of a vehicle works well as an excuse for employees who are very consistent in attending office!
- Kids’ Health Issue – Whose heart would not melt after knowing the poor health of kids?
- Injury – Well, it is rightly said that all is well when health is well, therefore why would your boss put you at a health-related risk by not granting you work from home?
How to Avoid Distractions While Employee Working From Home?
Well, after knowing the challenges of employee work-from-home culture, I can definitely expect this question to come across “ how to avoid distractions while working from home?”
1. Put on “Do not disturb” mode on your phone
2. Take scheduled breaks
3. Use work-dedicated music to cut down surrounding noise
4. Make a habit of cleaning up and organizing your workspace
5. Practice mindfulness
6. Take enough sleep to avoid quick burnout
7.Multitasking should be avoided except in case of some urgency
Employee Work From Home Benefits
- The Flexibility of thought Process and Idea Generation – Liberty gives birth to creative ideas and thought processes and thus leads to enhanced output at the workplace.
- Savings on Commute Expense – As per a survey by a leading co-working space provider, Awfis, 79% of employees were able to save a huge chunk of cost in 2020.
- Enhanced Productivity – According to a study by Owl Labs in 2021, 55% of employers were able to increase productivity at work while working from home.
- “Work From Anywhere” is a Boon! – Work from anywhere has come to be viewed as a boon concept in many aspects, whether it’s about practicing a ‘workstation’ or being able to attend to a needy loved one.
- More Time with Family and Loved Ones – In times when COVID-19 has taught us the value of friends and family, employees practicing work from home find it an opportunity to spend more time with their kin and family.
How to Monitor Employee Work From Home?
- Implementation of customizable employee time tracking software – The increase in employers allowing work from home is because of the existence of varieties of customizable employee time tracking software. Therefore, this reduces the supervisor’s burden of always checking the employer’s availability at work.
If you are an employer reading this, you can probably have a glance over one of the most promising employment time tracking software in the market these days. Personally, what I prefer for my organization is an employee monitoring software named “ DeskTrack”. Below are some of its features along with benefits:
| S. No. | DeskTrack Features | DeskTrack Benefits |
| 1. | Analyze the quality working hours of the team | This directly gives a calculation of productivity provided by the team. |
| 2. | Analyze the team’s distractions by capturing all the unofficial URLs visited | This feature helps in blocking such websites in the future. |
| 3. | Project Time Tracking | Time taken to complete a specific project per se can also be calculated. |
| 4. | Billable hours tracking | The Team’s work compensation can be done on an hourly basis in order to increase their efficiency in work. |
| 5. | Department & teamwise analysis of performance | The Performance of the entire organization can be analyzed and improvised. |
- Employees’ Hourly Work Report – Employee monitoring software is not merely for the sake of keeping track of employees’ availability at work. Also, this application prepares hourly work reports for the employer to keep a check on the employee’s hourly tasks.
- Create a Daily Task List – Everyday tasks list for the next day should be prepared at the end of the day in advance to save time at the beginning of the working hour.
- Set Targets – Employers at the management level can set targets for the employees working from home and thus can keep a check if the tasks are being delivered on time.
- Analyze & Reward – Another way of ensuring the efficiency of work being delivered from home is to analyze and reward the same either on a weekly or monthly basis.
Putting it All in a Nutshell!
Whether it is your home or office, if you are committed, honest, and dedicated to your work, you would always remain the same in all circumstances. No tips are required here to deliver the best of your capacity every day!
