Remote work has always been a possibility for organizations to get their work done. However, most of them were reluctant to make it a part of their framework.
Surely, work from home has its downsides. But, the reluctance is mainly because both organizations and individuals are unaware of the right way to make remote working successful.
While companies expect employees to work and behave exactly the same way they would be in the office, individuals expect that they will get the same working atmosphere in their homes as that around an office cubicle.
“The preconceived notions act as the biggest roadblock while making a transition to remote work.”
Underestimating the potential of working remotely restricts organizations to reach their full potential. In the wake of the biggest pandemic that the world has ever faced, there’s no better time than now to learn how you can work remotely. Also, by transitioning to working from home, organizations can also prepare themselves to tackle situations in the future that restrict employees to visit the office to work.
Looking to transition your team to remote work. Use ProofHub.
It is important for both employees and employers to understand that remote working seems difficult at first, but once things get on track, productive work is what they will be getting the most.
“According to a study conducted by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics, the U.S. alone has seen a 91% growth in remote work over the last 10 years. – Source”
Why is it important to smoothen the process of transition to remote work?
For teams and managers with some remote working experience, shifting to full-time work from home will be a little less challenging. However, for those with no prior experience, remote working can be a roller-coaster ride.
But to every problem, there is always a solution and this stands true in this case too. To make things easier for teams, the key is to make the transition process as frictionless as possible.
From mental preparation to utilizing proven technology for remote working, there are several tips that can make the process of transition to remote work completely hassle-free.
The prime benefit of easing the transition phase is that it let teams and managers get accustomed to the new remote environment quickly. Consequently, optimal productivity can be achieved within a short duration.
“Successfully working from home is a skill just like programming, designing or writing. It takes time and commitment to develop that skill, and the traditional office culture doesn’t give us any reason to do that.”– Alex Turnbull
Without any further delay, let’s move forward and explore the most effective remote work transition tips that’ll work for you.
7 Proven tips to make the transition successful for anyone
Whether you are a manager wondering how to transition your team to remote work, or an employee willing to do work from home, then the following tips are surely going to help you:
1. Define remote work policies
Remote work policies are equally important for both employees and employers. These policies clearly state the expectations of an organization from its employees and the rules that individuals working from home need to follow. However, it is important to develop policies that are relevant, realistic, and adaptable.
Moreover, the policies should cover all the important aspects of remote working. Also, with a remote work policy in place, it becomes easier for team members to understand how they need to conduct themselves. For example, a remote work policy should clearly mention whether employees can install nonwork software on the computer systems provided to them by the organization or not.
2. Believe in yourself and your team
When working remotely, it becomes challenging for managers to ensure that each team member is performing his/her duty in the right way. As a manager, you can communicate with your team members from time to time to get updates, but overdoing it will possibly harm the professional relationship between you and your team members.
The best thing to do in this scenario is to trust your team. Moreover, you also need to believe in yourself that you can make remote working successful. Team members also need to go that extra mile to make things work at their end. Both team members and managers need to put their confidence in one another and stand together while shifting to remote working.
3. Take time to settle down
Another important thing that’ll help you easily adjust to remote work is to be patient and not hurry. It’s crucial for both team members and managers to take time to settle to their new workspace. The first few days of remote work may need you to experiment with things that work best for you. Whether it’s getting adapted to the new workspace or finding ways to balance work and family life, everything requires time.
Expecting optimal productivity from employees in the initial days can be a big letdown for managers and employers alike. So, it’s better to go with the flow for the first couple of weeks after switching to remote work.
4. Stay connected with your team
One of the biggest challenges of working with remote teammates is to communicate effectively. In fact, communication is among the most important aspects to consider while working remotely. Thus, it is important to use robust communication channels to ensure superior coordination among teams.
Moreover, getting in touch with one another makes sure that you always get the all necessary information to execute work. Staying connected with the team also tends to develop a sense of belongingness and responsibility among the team members.
5. Plan work and set work goals for the day
Working without supervision is difficult and oftentimes, you or your team may find it difficult to decide what task needs to be completed first. To make sure that everyone is clear of what they need to do, managers need to plan work beforehand and set objectives for the day.
As an employee, you are expected to make your personal to-do list and track your everyday progress. By developing the habit to create daily, weekly, monthly to-do lists, you will become more focused not only when working from home but while working from anywhere across the globe.
6. Stay motivated
Motivation is a complete game-changer irrespective of whether you are working from an office cubicle or your personal space at home. While the transition to remote work may feel odd during the initial days, staying motivated is the key to adapt to the new work environment.
Managers also need to motivate and guide remote teams at their end to boost overall teamwork. One way to keep every individual of the remote team motivated is to exercise remote team-building activities. Moreover, team-building activities will also make collaborating with the team more effective for managers.
7. Embrace innovative technologies
We all know that it is the advanced technology of the modern world that has made remote working possible today. Currently, there are several technologies that teams and managers can use to organize and deliver work efficiently. You will find a diverse range of tools for planning projects, managing time, proofing files and documents, collaborating, and much more.
So, it doesn’t matter whether you are working remotely as a manager, developer, marketer or any other role, you have to use the best tools for remote teams to your advantage. It is a good idea to start using such tools during your transition to remote work so that it becomes easier for you to adapt to the new workspace and achieve optimal productivity at the earliest.
Get all the tools you need to make yourself productive while working remotely! Sign up for ProofHub now!
How ProofHub can help you with remote working?
Every remote employee needs various tools to collaborate with other team members and organize work. Similarly, a manager also requires certain online tools to manage projects and teams remotely.
What is the challenge?
However, the key challenge that most remote workers face is that they need to handle multiple tools simultaneously. Juggling with multiple individual tools not only leads to wastage of time but also results in low productivity.
What is the solution?
ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and collaboration software suitable for managers as well as teams who are working remotely.
We have put together our years of experience to develop this platform so that you never have to look back when it comes to planning, organizing, collaborating and delivering projects efficiently.
Our project management software combines several tools and makes all of them available under one roof.
If you or your team is making a transition to remote work, then we are pretty sure that ProofHub will help you to settle things in the best possible ways. ProofHub allows you to:
- Manage multiple projects at the same time
- Define roles for each team member
- Create tasks and subtasks
- Select assignees for projects/tasks
- Plan and visualize projects in timeline view
- Communicate using one-on-one and group chats
- Track time with an in-built timer
- Upload, organize and store files & documents
- Take notes and create to-do lists
- Make important announcements
- Track progress with customized reports
Wondering how ProofHub can help you and your team to work remotely? Try ProofHub for free now!
Important: ProofHub will be available to all schools across the globe completely free of cost for 2020. We believe that education is the key to the spread of knowledge, which should never stop, even during the hardest of times.
Conclusion
Transitioning to remote work can be worrisome for both organizations and employees. Moreover, the transition process is equally challenging for individuals, teams, managers, and employers. However, the tips mentioned above will help to make the transition process easier for everyone. Once set up, there are several benefits of remote teams, like higher productivity, cost-cutting, etc. that managers and employers can use to their advantage.
