The pandemic has replaced business operations in offices and in-person meetings with remote work and online meetings. Although the concept of remote working was not completely new before the pandemic, companies hired people from remote areas to carry out tasks that they could not do as local professionals were more knowledgeable.
Digital Agencies are implementing remote working through several tools to save on overhead costs such as rent to maximize profit margins and take advantage of global talent. During the pandemic period, there was a surge in innovation regarding remote working. We saw the emergence of many tools and applications designed to help people work from home to contain the spread of the virus.
How to Boost Productivity at the Workplace?
Remote working is good as it saves on commute time and you do not have to make small talk with your colleagues. However, working from home can wreak havoc on your productivity. You might find yourself more inclined to take breaks, easily distracted by things in the house which makes you quickly lose concentration making you or your employees get less done in a day.
One of the reasons you might find yourself less productive is that there is minimal face-to-face supervision and you might feel disconnected as everyone is far away. People might also take a lot of time before replying to your messages. This might leave you with a question: how do I improve my productivity? There are several ways and strategies to improve productivity in the workplace.
Implement Proper Sound Policies and Guidelines on Remote Working
It is important to remember that even though you embrace working from home, there is still a need to have order in the workplace. An excellent way to do this is by introducing rules and guidelines for your team. Draw up a proper set of guidelines on what you expect from your team members and some rules for meetings. For instance, some companies have embraced a video on policy during meetings. You also need to provide guidelines on checking about direct reports and team members and a reporting system when there is an issue.
Get The Right Remote Working Tools
The key to achieving efficiency in remote working for your software design & development agency is to invest in the right software and applications. One of the essential things you need to have is proper data and document processing, file storage, email, chat, video calls, and conferencing software to make your employees feel like they are still at work.
For data and document processing, file storage, and emails, you can use Google Workplace and Office 365. For chats video calling and conferencing, Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams might assist you with meetings and chatting. For time Management use DeskTrack. You can opt to use Basecamp, Trello, and Click Up for project management. While picking the working tools, you can ask your members to provide input on the platforms they might prefer. However, you can select two to compare and work with both. It is also essential to invest your time in training people to use the tools efficiently to avoid wasting time.
Constantly Communicate With Your Team
With remote working, you say goodbye to walking into a room and brainstorming about an idea out of the blue. Your employees might be in different time zones, and you cannot have in-person meetings. Failing to communicate with your team constantly might lead to low productivity levels. Therefore, you need to invest in tools that will keep you in communication with your team.
For instance, you can use apps such as Slack and Skype to constantly communicate with your team and engage with them as much as possible. In addition, you can also engage your team members in topics outside work such as music, sports, or their interests to boost morale and improve the company culture. By constantly engaging with your team, you can boost morale and increase their productivity.
Invest in Employee Onboarding
When you are hiring new members, take the time to get to know them and exchange information that is important for them. For example, you can create a document that outlines where various documents are stored and which tools are used for video conferencing and chats. This will make it easy for them to adapt and feel welcome to your organization, and they can settle quickly and embrace their new role.
Have a Few Hours Time Overlap in Your Time Zone
Choosing to make your agency remote means you can hire staff from different parts of the country and even the world. This means you will not be in the same time zone every time. Therefore, it is essential to structure your communications and carve out time when you can all meet or either at the start, middle, or end of the day. When you can have a meeting about issues you might consider pertinent. This is because if you avoid communicating, then you might eventually kill productivity.
Conclusion
Boosting creativity in the company plays a crucial role in ensuring that people can meet the company goals at all times. In addition, investing in the right tools and training for remote working will help you build morale and improve productivity. What strategies have you been using to boost productivity?
Thanks for posting a nice and informative blog with us.
Thanks Anchal for the comment. Will entertain you with good content stuff