Category: Work Environment

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Work Environment

The Value of an In Person Meeting (And How to Have Them Today)

Value of an In Person Meeting (And How to Have Them Today) - Collection

By now, we’ve adapted to virtual meetings and remote work routines, but that does not mean an in person meeting lost its value. Read more details below including how to safely have them during the pandemic.

 

Despite quarantines and harsh restrictions, in person meetings haven’t become a relic of the past. Far from it, it seems like many businesses have come to further recognize and respect the importance of in person meetings as the pandemic rages on, especially for identifying and onboarding new talent, landing important clients, and communicating effectively with team members on critical projects.

 

There are elements to a conversation that are often lost when communicating through purely virtual means, and try as we might, there is still no good replacement for a face-to-face meeting.

 

That being said, in person meetings can and should be made limited and more efficient as long as we continue to live in a world with the coronavirus. By leveraging better hygiene concepts, important technologies, and simple meeting rules, we can massively curb the dangers of in person meetings and make them safe, even during a pandemic.

 

Why In Person Meetings Remain Important in a Pandemic World

 

Non-verbal cues, expressive faces, and the engagement of being in a physical location with others as opposed to simply being rendered as pixels on a small screen can have a significant impact on the quality and nature of a meeting, whether it’s a brainstorming session between team members or an important client.

 

While virtual meetings have helped thousands of businesses continue to function and even remain productive in the midst of a historic health crisis, they have also served to highlight their own distinct limitations, and how face-to-face communication can serve to be more effective at building relationships or simply communicating nuance.

 

Fewer Things Are Lost in Translation

 

The first and most immediate benefit to an in person meeting is the little things we tend to miss when confined strictly to a screen. Facial cues and body language, subtle changes in pitch, simple expressions, and the ability to immediately discern or at least ask for context to any and every statement. These things are diminished or even lost in the limited scope of a video conference, much less an email thread, where the only non-verbal forms of expression available to most of us are emojis.

 

All the things we take for granted in face-to-face communication help to provide a much clearer understanding of what the other person is saying and thinking, and help us avoid miscommunication or awkward misunderstandings, at times fuelled by a lack of provided context, as one party doesn’t want to ask the other to repeat themselves or explain what they meant.

 

No Lag, Fewer Technical Issues

 

Another important benefit to an in person meeting is the lack of a technological barrier between persons. Technology can be a barrier, after all. A barrier of entry for those unwilling or struggling to learn how to communicate with new software and technology, and a barrier created by technical issues which can slow or delay important conversations and frustrate both parties.

 

Audio and video issues, constant lag, connectivity problems, and dropped calls are just a few potential issues that often arise when working with telecommunication tools, and troubleshooting these issues can take precious time on either side of the conversation, and distract from the important points, derailing meetings during critical junctures, or causing important information to get lost amidst technical problems.

 

In Person Meetings Build Stronger Relationships

 

It is proven that we tend to build stronger relationships, inspire more trust, and leave longer lasting impressions through in person meetings versus virtual ones. People are still naturally inclined to feel closer and more engaged to someone sitting opposite them at a desk, rather than a person who exists merely on a screen.

 

Virtual technology is critical at enabling communication across large distances and can serve as the perfect tool to help long-distance teams collaborate and meet with international clients, but there is nothing that can substitute a first-time face-to-face meeting as a means to build trust and create a solid foundation for a strong business relationship.

 

But rather than simply discuss why in person meetings can help us forge stronger bonds with one another, it’s even more important to discuss how we can afford to host them safely.

 

Find the Right Venue

 

This is where a coworking space comes into play. Coworking spaces present themselves as the perfect neutral venue for team members, executives, clients, and managers to meet in a safe environment, collaborate and communicate in a safe and concise manner, and leave.

 

Coworking spaces are also ideal for the onboarding process, providing the perfect setting to help integrate and guide new hires into finding their place within the company and team hierarchy, before continuing through the coworking space or working remotely, depending on their and the team’s strengths and capacity.

 

 

Observe Proper Precautions and Social Distancing Measures

 

Aside from choosing a safe workspace designed for collaboration, companies and teams can further reduce the risk of infection when meeting in person by picking spaces with private rooms large enough to accommodate everyone attending with the appropriate distance between one another, while mandating masks and always observing safe social distances (including on the way in and out of the room).

 

Consider Natural Ventilation

 

The CDC recommends that offices keep their windows open and allow for as much natural air flow within the office as possible (provided the weather and climate permit it). Keeping a window open might seem like a relatively simple measure but could further limit the risk of any potential transmission during a meeting.

 

Amplify Everyone’s Voices

 

Studies confirm that raising one’s voice is more likely to transmit the virus – this is simply because the louder we yell, the further our spit droplets travel through the air.

 

Providing microphones for everyone and renting a room and table that can safely accommodate everyone at the meeting can help a group maintain a safe and reasonable social distance while reducing the droplets in the air.

 

A relatively simple sound setup with a few speakers in each corner of the room and a mic for each meeting member can eliminate the need for any sort of yelling or screaming to get heard across the room.

 

Keep Meetings Short and To-The-Point

 

The coronavirus could be yet another motivator to keep meetings short and concise. Excessively long meetings may defeat the purpose of getting together to organize and have historically been little more than a huge financial drain on productivity.

 

In person meetings may not be as simple to organize as before, but when leveraged, can provide an opportunity to improve relationships and foster a greater sense of trust and cooperation than through any virtual means, which is critically important for many businesses worried about cohesion and feelings of isolation within team members.

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Work Environment

7 Ways to Avoid Creating a Toxic Workplace Environment

A toxic workplace environment is a legitimate cause for concern, both for worker health and overall productivity. It’s essential to avoid these environments; read the ways below.

 

As we become more aware of how office culture can impact our personal lives, and the lives of those we work with, it becomes increasingly important to be retrospective about how we treat each other at work, and how simple changes in interaction and management can greatly boost morale and profitability.

 

While many managers and executives wish to maintain a positive and healthy office environment, they may be unwittingly contributing to a toxic work space. Below are seven important tips to preventing the growth of a toxic workplace environment.

 

1. Don’t Cater to Bullies

The workplace can be harsh. People don’t go to work to play, and ideally, they should feel motivated to get things done. Part of that can mean feeling immense pressure on some days, striving to achieve things that might not, at first, seem plausible. To bring out the best in people, managers and leaders must learn when to push, and when to give.

 

But there are other aspects of the workplace that are often harsh without needing to be, breeding a lack of trust in the management and undermining morale and productivity. These people often move up into higher positions within many corporate organizations, while leaving others in the proverbial dust.

 

Abuses of trust are a clear example, where employees who are superficially loyal to the management may go out of their way to emotionally sabotage those around them, vying for individual and selfish benefits while catering to the boss’s needs. It’s important to recognize the brownnosers and the troublemakers and to make it clear that undermining others is not a viable path to promotion in your organization.

 

2. Provide an Outlet for Feedback

This can be hard without proper feedback and truthful, reliable information. That is why commanding a certain level of transparency and urging others to speak up about misuses of power is important.

 

While many might worry about the image of essentially promoting ‘snitching’ and an office environment wherein employees can be free to complain about each other, the ultimate goal is not to cull people but to build a cohesive team of people who trust one another.

 

Doing so is impossible without giving everybody the ability to speak up about one another, to avoid individual abuses of power or toxic behavior.

 

3. Give Credit Where Credit is Due

When something is done well, it’s important to give credit to the right person, and doing it properly. Another problem with a toxic workplace environment is that people may try to claim credit when it isn’t deserved. Or, they may make false claims about how certain ideas came to be, and how certain decisions were made.

 

Managers should keep in mind:

 

    • Which employees have been historically trustworthy and reputable
    • Which employees are more likely to stay quiet and keep to themselves
    • Properly give credit whenever credit is due

 

Even those striving for approval will likely get the shot they need to prove themselves, without feeling the need to undermine others.

 

 

4. Point Out Mistakes, But Reward a Job Well Done

Managers are often tasked with fixing problems and preventing messes, but if you perceive your role as a manager as being one to crackdown solely on the bad and lay in wait for mistakes, you’ll often find that your employees and workers begin to feel as though they are walking on eggshells.

 

They begin to fear taking any risks because there is no incentive to doing extraordinarily well. On the other hand, there’s also a good chance of catching flak whenever a mistake is made.

 

Subvert this by addressing mistakes but rewarding useful input. The best way to promote creativity and innovation is to incentivize risk-taking and out-of-the-box thinking, even if it doesn’t always pan out.

 

5. Remember That Employees are People

People are individual in nature and don’t always fit a particular mold. It’s easy to come to quick conclusions about a person’s character, but sometimes, it takes the right environment to properly allow an individual to flourish.

 

Some people thrive in a traditionally toxic workplace environment, easily capable of manipulating their way to the top. Others do very badly in such areas but have the potential to be amazing workers and top earners, should they have the right environment to unlock their potential.

 

Managers should strive to create teams that give each person ample opportunity to thrive, which can be very difficult; but by talking to your employees and recognizing their unique traits, strengths, and weaknesses, you can have a better idea of how you might structure your office and your organization to allow everyone to feel comfortable with their tasks and positions.

 

6. Avoid the Pitfalls of High Stress

Work is stressful, and there’s a lot of benefits to stress. We’re ultimately meant to do best under a certain amount of pressure – but too much, and we crack. It’s hard to tell what too much means, however, as that is entirely subjective. While incentivizing hard work is good, there are certain pitfalls to consider and carefully avoid.

 

If you necessitate extreme stress, for example, by suggesting that overtime is necessary to avoid potential termination or demotion, then you’ll find yourself stuck with a toxic workplace environment. You’re then struggling with absenteeism, a high turnover rate, and workers who perform much worse than before.

 

If you rely entirely on your hardest workers, you might find that they’re picking up the slack for everybody else.

 

Make sure you are employing enough people to deal with big projects and extremely pressuring deadlines. Reward those that go above and beyond, so long as it’s evident that they are not sacrificing their health; and remind them to take breaks, when it’s clear that they’re beginning to burn out.

 

7. Bigger Space Can Help

Space is important. Offices shouldn’t feel cramped – but there should still be some form of design in place. Completely open offices can be chaotic and unruly, leaving many to struggle with noise and a lack of concentration.

 

Finding a healthy middle ground is important but avoid cubicles and other office plans that further isolate workers and leave them feeling unmotivated or inconsequential.

 

For many companies, coworking spaces offer an excellent middle ground as a great place to work while offering plenty of amenities most smaller companies might not be able to afford in an office of their own.

 

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Work Environment

Encourage These Top Building Activities for Virtual Teams

While working remotely during a pandemic, building activities for virtual teams is encouraged in order to keep the team connection alive and well. Read below for details.

 

Team building activities promote team cohesion, improve productivity, reduce stress, and help new as well as long-time employees feel connected to one another and the company.

 

All of these are critically important qualities that have been tremendously impacted by the pandemic. We know that building activities for virtual teams can be an effective tool in addressing these issues, and helping companies and teams combat the long-term effects of remote work, such as social isolation and a feeling of distance from other team members.

 

1. An Online Lunch/Dinner Date

 

Something simple but relatively refreshing and effective for helping teams feel connected on a personal level is a team lunch or dinner date. On the surface, it’s nothing more than sitting in front of your computer during mealtime and having a friendly chat with other coworkers while you ea. But eating together is an ancient and ingrained bonding activity, and integral to any team.

 

Even if it’s over the Internet, a virtual lunch break complete with audio and video can help your team feel truly connected, even across the globe. Even if that means some people will be having their lunch while others are eating dinner, or just joining in for a quick snack and coffee break.

 

2. A Cooking and Plating Competition

 

Competitions can be an amazing team building activity for specific teams and cultures, where a little competitive spirit can build stronger bonds. Cooking and plating competitions help each individual team member show off their improvisational skills, creativity, problem-solving, workflow, and design philosophy – all in a simple dish. Pick a recipe, set a time and timer, and use a simple online poll to decide whose attempt was the best-looking, most creative, and/or most original.

 

3. Daily or Weekly Icebreaker Questions

 

While it’s a relatively straightforward one, icebreaker questions can be a useful virtual team building tool outside of the onboarding process. Consider introducing them as a weekly or even daily occurrence.

 

For example, build a pool of icebreaker questions (25 to 50) and pick one at random at the start of every scheduled meeting (i.e., non-critical or time-sensitive). Examples include – what was your favorite toy as a child? What animal do you most identify with and why?

 

4. A Gifting Competition

 

Another interesting way to build team cohesion and let everyone get to know each other is to host a gift exchange – but with a twist. “White Elephant” and “Dirty Santa” gift exchange games involve prank items or impractical gifts. They can be much more entertaining than trying to guess what your gift target might actually want or appreciate, or going for the same old boring and safe options as always (mugs, clothes, and gift cards).

 

5. Reinvent Ways to Introduce Yourself

 

Team building activities are usually an important part of the onboarding process for new hires – but with the pandemic, that tradition has taken a hit for many companies. Some have turned to new ways to introduce fun and entertainment into the onboarding team building process. This is by turning simple introductions into more elaborate projects.

 

For example, you can try creating a tongue-in-cheek PowerPoint presentation on yourself, in lieu of a company project or prospectus, or even write a User Manual on how to be a coworker in this company. The goal is to loosen things up, parody your company culture a little bit, and help the new hire feel comfortable and connect with the team on a more personal level (which can be very difficult over the Internet).

 

6. Take Up an Online Class Together

 

Learning something can be fun. But it’s much more fun when you’re learning with other people. The pandemic is a perfect opportunity for many to continue to brush up on their professional skills and seek out a whole slew of online classes and courses to improve and expand their toolkit.

 

Individual teams and departments can consider taking classes together or getting through a course together as a team building activity and professional exercise rolled into one.

 

7. Test Your Team’s Strength

 

The internet is full of personality tests and quizzes. These can be a fun way to just goof around and see what Disney character one best mirrors, or what superpowers they might have.

 

But more in-depth “strength assessment” tests can serve as an interesting and in-depth way to reflect on yourself and both your professional and personal skills and share these with the rest of the team. While intensely personal, these tests and quizzes can reveal to one another what every team member brings to the table, and how you all best work together.

 

8. Arrange Weekend Virtual Games

 

From board games to chess tournaments to cooperative video games, there’s a nigh-infinite treasure trove of games to play virtually and as a group.

 

Some excellent examples depending on your connectivity and tools-at-hand include the classics like Clue, small stakes poker, and Monopoly, or popular party and co-op video games like Mario Party, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, or Ultimate Chicken Horse.

 

9. A Virtual Watercooler

 

While not an activity per se, setting up a dedicated chatroom or channel to serve as an after-hours hangout or place for coworkers to socialize during breaks can massively improve team cohesion and help your team members get to know one another.

 

There are pros and cons to setting up a virtual watercooler. If left uncontrolled or unattended, it can contribute to a team’s distractions and get endlessly clogged with unrelated or lengthy conversations and arguments. Keep your channels or chatrooms lightly moderated to avoid workplace toxicity.

 

 

The Bottom Line

 

Virtual team building activities can help teams socialize, greatly improve the onboarding process, reduce the effects of remote work stress and isolation, and improve your team’s overall cohesion and productivity. Even through entirely unproductive games and activities.

 

While we have had a long year to learn to cope with the changes introduced by the virus, this pandemic isn’t quite over. Many of the changes it has forced onto the workplace might be here to stay. Learning to improve on the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses of working remotely will continue to be an important goal for this new year, and many years to come.

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Work Environment

9 Tips to Getting Work Done While Remote

Getting work done is difficult while remote, especially with more surrounding distractions. Follow these helpful tips below in order to adjust to your out of the office environment.

 

One of the bigger challenges of the past year has been getting work done while remote. Although many might have cherished the chance to work from home back in 2019, the harsh reality is that without major preparations, remote work is a double-edged sword for most.

 

It’s difficult to successfully separate family life from work life, stick to your regular hours, and get motivated to work while socially isolated. When you do finally make the switch, you get the opposite problem of struggling to unwind and being more likely to suffer from burnout.

 

The option of working from home is ideal for those who need to juggle their work-life responsibilities with certain family responsibilities, like a new child or a sick partner. In the short-term, and with proper preparation, it can be incredibly productive while saving both the company and the worker a lot of time and resources.

 

But without the necessary precautions, remote work can be substantially more difficult than getting things done in an organized office environment.

 

Here are some important tips:

 

Start with a Productive Morning Routine

 

A thorough schedule can take the guesswork out of remote work and help you regain the sort of structure you need to remain productive – and it starts from the moment you get out of bed.

 

Start by setting up a consistent morning routine that leaves you awake, refreshed, and ready for work. The perfect morning routine begins the night before. Try to prioritize a consistent sleep schedule that allows you to wake up at a set time, preferably even without an alarm.

 

Our body clock responds well to consistent sleep, and once you incorporate great sleep hygiene into your life, you can start to wake up feeling ready for the day ahead. Consider a light ten-minute exercise routine to prepare your joints and back for the day. Try something small and simple, like a handful of desk job-oriented mobility exercises or beginner yoga poses. Even minimal exercise can help you get alert and ready for the first tasks of the day.

 

Regardless of how you set up your morning routine, consistency is key. Get a feeling for what you can and can’t feasibly work into your morning. Give a little leeway here and there, and stick to it.

 

Create and Stick to a Work Schedule

 

Past the morning routine is your actual work schedule – and here, too, consistency is key. Consider your crucial tasks for the day ahead and slot them into feasible chunks to encourage productive work. Rather than approaching the workday as a single unit, approach each task individually, and calculate roughly how many tasks you absolutely need to fill into the day, and how many you’d want to accomplish additionally.

 

A consistent morning routine and work schedule can also help you separate your home and family life from your work life and give you a strict boundary for when work begins and ends.

 

Consequently, avoid unnecessary overtime. Some things can’t be put off until the morning, but if you catch yourself constantly drawing your workday out, you’ll begin to blur the line between work and home life, and negatively impact your productivity in the long-term.

 

Identify and Insert Energizing Breaks

 

An energizing lunch break can go a long way towards improving your productivity by giving you a strict period of time to look forward to early in the day and use as a means to get in a quick meal, take your mind off work, and jump back into your next task refreshed for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

 

Ideas of energizing activities to try during break time include walking the dog, calling a friend, tending to a home garden, or doing a quick chore (if these help you practice mindfulness).

 

Try to Separate Work from Home (Physically)

 

If possible, consider setting up a home office closed off from the rest of the home. Turn a guest room or storage room into your new office and make “showing up at work” in the morning a part of your routine. Separating your work from home is an important part of building and maintaining the boundary between your work life and home life.

 

Another alternative to separate your work life from your home life is through a coworking space. Many businesses that have nominally reopened are still working at half capacity at best, in order to reduce the contact between employees.

 

Coworking spaces have become an alternative for employees and entrepreneurs who must work outside of the office but can’t feasibly set up a decent working environment at home.

 

Whether it’s an unstable internet connection, the many distractions of family life, or just the mindset of trying to get productive in the same space usually reserved for relaxation and unwinding, coworking spaces provide the perfect alternative.

 

 

Take Those Sick Days

 

We might feel inclined to do more work while sick when we’re working remotely, because our jobs are a little more accessible, and no one likes wasting sick days. But learn to differentiate between a small headache and something you should seriously take the day to recover from.

 

Treating your mind and body with care is an important part of staying productive – unnecessarily drawing out sickness can negatively impact the quality of your work.

 

Use the Opportunity to Expand Your Skillset

 

Cutting out an unnecessary commute can save you a lot of time – time you can put to good use elsewhere, such as in your own education. The world is rapidly changing, and any self-sufficient professional should do the best they can to learn about how their profession is impacted by market changes and new technologies.

 

Don’t wait on mandatory training periods to learn more – be proactive about your training and arm yourself with the ability to seek better opportunities wherever they present themselves.

 

Communicate with Your Colleagues and Managers Often

 

Social isolation and loneliness are more than just simple causes of stress for many workers – they’re also leading to the alienation between employees and their employers. If your manager isn’t proactive about establishing steady contact between colleagues and different team members, establish that contact yourself.

 

Overcommunicate and keep others up to speed with what you’re doing, track your tasks over the intracompany network or group chat, and make friends within the virtual office.

 

Identify and Eliminate Your Most Common Distractions

 

Many of us have our own unique weaknesses when it comes to work distractions. A crying toddler or a newborn puppy? Other distractions are more predictable and controllable, like the need to doomscroll or check your email.

 

Identify avoidable and common distractions and try out different measures to banish them, from working them into a reward system for your daily tasks, to utilizing productivity apps to eliminate these pesky bad habits.

 

End with an Evening Routine

 

The day should end the way it started – with a simple, easy-to-vary routine. Evening routines can help us shut off the “work brain” and create a boundary to eliminate and avoid work conversations and discussions until the next day and give us time to slip into a different headspace and unwind with the family before bed.

 

Structure and consistency are important for any productive working environment, and you can create both yourself, whether at home or anywhere else.

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Work Environment

5 Work-Life Balance Strategies to Prevent Burnout

Work-life balance – is there such a thing? Though it’s hard to imagine with all the stress, it is possible and should take place in order to prevent burnout. 

 

There’s no easy way around it – stress is a major killer, and a seriously underappreciated factor in why more Americans are struggling with heart-related illnesses, strokes, and more. Rather than simply attribute the recent rise in burnouts to a new generation unable or unwilling to work, it’s important to recognize that times have indeed gotten tougher.

 

      • Despite rising costs, wages are stagnant.
      • The job market is as competitive as ever, with more people turning towards second jobs and extra gigs to make a little more on the side.

 

Work-Life Balance Strategies to Work Towards

 

Churning out all you can, as often as you can, is not a sustainable plan. For many, the idea of maintaining a better work-life balance seemingly isn’t in the cards. But while some of the problems with work-related stress can be blamed on poor management or a tough economy, it’s important to recognize that, ultimately, the best way to work on preventing burnout is to take the matter into your own hands and examine how you spend your time.

 

Work-life strategies rely on training yourself to be more efficient with the hours you have and the work you’re given, while still making time for R&R and your own wellbeing. Below are five crucial strategies that can drastically improve your work-life balance, and even help you get more work done in a shorter period.

 

1. Prioritize Your Daily Tasks

 

One of the best ways to achieve healthier work-life balance strategies is being more efficient with your time. While it might sound like time management is a skill that largely focuses on productivity, there’s a direct carryover to having more time for yourself.

 

Part of the reason people struggle to manage their work-life balance effectively is because they do not have a concrete idea of where and how they’re spending their time. Ideally, we should strive to strike a balance between how much time we spend on personal activities, and how much time we spend on work-related tasks.

 

Whenever you’re about to set out for the day, keep in mind what you’ve got planned for the next 24 hours, and try to follow that plan. We can’t always dictate what direction life seems to take, so we have less capacity to plan for each and every day. Yet with a little time and effort, you can easily keep an overview of just how much time you’re spending on each of your daily tasks, and then you can determine what changes need to be made.

 

Consider what you should do less of and what you should do more of. Consider what changes you might make in order to better do the things you want to do. If you struggle to get a workout in, consider a different gym, or train somewhere much closer. Audit your time.

 

2. Set Regular Goals

 

Goals are critical for growth. When we stop having goals, we begin to stagnate, and that feeling becomes palpable very quickly. Not only does it feel bad to stagnate and feel like you aren’t going anywhere, but without a goal in mind, you will have a much harder time motivating yourself to get anything done.

 

Through simple, yet achievable and exciting goals, you can create a framework to help you get through all of your daily tasks with your goals in mind. Change the way you approach the day by framing it within the context of your current goal, whatever it may be.

 

 

3. Set Up and Use a Planner

 

You might already have a to-do list, and chances are that you’ve got a calendar with a few highlighted dates – but a planner is yet another step beyond both, providing you with the means to more accurately detail what you need to get done each and every day, and giving you a simple way to keep track of your tasks by itemizing and check listing them day after day.

 

Not only does this improve efficiency, but it’s crucial in your self-audit, especially if you want to identify where you could be improving on your work-life balance. It’s not as tedious as it sounds – a simple planner is quite easy to use, and it just takes a few minutes to sit down and consider what you’ll need to get done throughout the following next few days.

 

4. Create Strict Boundaries and Rules of Engagement

 

To create balance, there needs to be a significant difference between work and ‘life’. That means creating clear lines of separation between your work and the rest of your personal needs and assigning strict times when you are not to be contacted for anything work-related.

 

      • Consider taking a break from any work-related emails, posts, and notes throughout the weekend.
      • Make a rule of not being reachable past a certain hour mark in the day (unless it’s an emergency).

 

Set strict boundaries that allow you to rely on having a reliable downtime every day, and create moments throughout the day where you allow yourself to focus entirely on your needs without a care for what you’ve got going on at the office (be it through an hour of yoga, your daily cooking rituals, or anything else that you might use to go into yourself and take a little break away from the world).

 

5. Learn What It Means to Work Smarter

 

While this is arguably the most open-ended and vague tip, the gist of it is that when most of us go to work, we leave a lot of time on the table. Try to follow the Pareto principle, and figure out which fifth of your day contributes to the bulk of your work – then maximize what you’re doing in that 20%.

 

Focusing on what you’re doing to maximize your efficiency in the most efficient part of your day can help you translate that progress into other parts of your work. If you write for a living, you might notice that on certain days, it becomes easy to sit down and write a basic blog post of about 1,000 words in about half an hour, while at other times, it might take you upwards of four hours to write a post with the same quality. This isn’t the difference between an off-the-cuff blog post and a well-researched article, but two similar tasks performed with vastly different rates of efficiency.

 

      • Where’s the hang-up?
      • What did you do differently?
      • What stimulates you the most when you set up to work?

 

Learning to trim the fat and work smarter begins with analyzing yourself. Gather data on your own performance and try to observe what factors seem to influence you the most – then experiment. Do you do better work in bursts? Do you do better work during certain times of the day? If you drink coffee, how many minutes does it take for the effects of the caffeine to help you with your tasks?

 

 

Conclusion

 

It might take some time to realize the fruits of this last point, but it’s inarguably the most important. Learning to analyze your own behavior and improve how you work can not only be incredibly fulfilling, but it allows you to hone in on the moments when you feel the most anxious. It also helps you figure out what it is that keeps you from being your best self in those vital moments.

 

Finally, an extra tip: always seek help from others. Whether it’s your family, your friends, your coworkers, your employers, your partner, or your therapist, don’t rely entirely on yourself for solutions, and remember that you have others around you who can listen and help you with any problems you might have. Nurture those relationships and recognize when you truly need a hand.

 

Read More:

6 Tips for Balancing Work and Family at Home
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Work Environment

5 Ways Networking Opportunities Improve With Coworking

Networking is an essential part of building a business, whether as a company or as an individual, and creating networking opportunities can be difficult. Yet, it’s made easier through coworking.

 

While fortune smiles on many a leader and entrepreneur, most opportunities have to be made, forged through incessant communication and a thick hide against potential rejection.

 

But aside from the shrewd nature of networking for survival, it’s important to create networking opportunities for success. The top dogs only stay on the top so long as they strive to update and innovate, and that’s only possible by talking to (and working with) all sorts of professionals.

 

One cannot deny the importance of networking, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not exactly a free or always profitable action – it takes time, money, and even more time, and it’s especially hard for freelancers and lone workers.

 

Coworking provides an opportunity to do more than be trendy – it improves a business’ abilities to cooperate and network with other professionals, fosters a more positive work environment, and takes advantage of one of the most powerful human social mechanisms: the power of community.

 

Does Coworking Promote Networking Opportunites?

 

Whereas networking is the process of meticulously gathering contacts and establishing bridges, coworking is the process of working between, on, and around these bridges.

 

If traditional offices are individual towns, coworking tries to bring villages together into urban sprawls, fostering both a sense of togetherness and the potential for new growth and innovation.

 

At first, it might sound like coworking spaces are ill-equipped to deal with businesses and individuals working together – a certain perceived lack of privacy and the distracting elements of working in an open space sound antithetical to productivity and competition.

 

But time and time again, the popularity, effectiveness, and growth of the shared workspace all around the world has proven that it not only increases productivity, but helps businesses thrive despite working in such close quarters.

 

From massive corporations like Google to small businesses looking for a cost-effective alternative to leasing office space, coworking has helped countless companies of all sizes establish that a cooperative atmosphere that fosters networking opportunities and communication leads to better results.

 

1. Open Spaces Create an Open Atmosphere

 

The success of the coworking space cannot be overstated. Among top offices in the US, growth surpassed 60 percent in 2017 to 2018.

 

In part, this is due to the nature of the coworking space as an open office. Businesses and freelancers alike are free to rent their respective spaces and take advantage of a myriad of different amenities.

 

2. A Casual Work Experience Fosters Cooperation

 

One of the main changes in a coworking space is the removal of strict and stifling hierarchies. While the manager is the manager, and the boss is the boss, there’s much greater accessibility between members and an increased level of communication.

 

It becomes easier to ask questions, collaborate, and organize projects. Separate teams come together much more smoothly, and a malleable workspace makes for a much less rigid definition of ownership. Instead of owning a single space, there is an emphasis on sharing all spaces.

 

While this might not seem conducive to business, the reality is quite the opposite. This approach to working has led to greater levels of productivity in many cases, and it is one of the reasons why coworking continues to grow and flourish as it does.

 

3. Coworking Space Generates a Sense of Community

 

If nothing else, a coworking space always evolves to become something greater than simply the sum of its parts. When professionals converge and find ways to cooperate on projects they enjoy working on, in an environment that doesn’t attempt to stifle them, true magic can happen.

 

It doesn’t always happen, of course. Partnerships can break, ideas come and go, dates may be set but not always followed up on. But despite how ephemeral these bridges might seem, it remains an ideal place to come across the right professionals at the right time, or get the right idea with the right person.

 

Shared office spaces do this, all while maintaining that while we may work on different projects, there’s a sense of community in a coworking space that isn’t found in a traditional office, much less in working from home. Coworking quashes loneliness, creates networking opportunities, and helps workers feel like they’re part of something greater. That feeling of community is an essential human need.

 

 

4. Networking Opportunities Keep the Office Sociable

 

Communicating is key to coworking culture. But it isn’t always easy to communicate between coworkers, let alone between businesses.

 

There is a lot of complexity to proper communication at a coworking space because you have to remember that the people working together there are:

 

    1. Usually working on very separate projects
    2. Working with very different specializations
    3. Utilizing varying levels of experience and competence

 

This makes the most of the oft-eclectic members of a coworking space means knowing what to do and what not to do.

 

For one, the most important thing is to focus on your work. One of the few challenges coworking spaces pose is a certain lack of routine. It’s not entirely your space, and there’s bound to be something different going on each day.

 

You share the space with many other people and must deal with potential opportunities to network with other professionals, potential distractions or interruptions, and other unplanned changes.

 

Coworking spaces often feature weekly or monthly events, which may or may not interest you. Finding the time to crystalize all you’ve learned and harvest the progress you’ve made communicating with others by turning it into tangible progress on any given project is important. It is, after all, still an office. 

 

5. More Time Spent Around Other Skillsets

 

Understanding how someone does their job in an entirely different department will not only give you a greater understanding of what they’re doing, but it can help you get a better insight on your own responsibilities.

 

Maintain a sociable attitude. Prioritize your work when you need to and give yourself time each day to truly be undisturbed and concentrate entirely on the tasks at hand but take your time to catch up with your coworkers, with freelancers, and with professionals in entirely different fields.

 

Conclusion

 

The networking opportunities coworking spaces present also help workers further broaden their horizons and potentially discover new facets to the industry they’re working in, maybe giving them the incentive to pick up a new skill or diversify elsewhere.

 

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Work Environment

6 Employee Recognition Ideas for This Holiday Season

The end of the year is here, and it’s important to acknowledge all the hard work given from your employees. But how so during a pandemic? Read below for some employee recognition ideas.

 

This year has taught us a lot about communicating virtually and leveraging available technologies to make the most of a tough situation. Companies have sought alternatives to business models that relied on human interaction.

 

Whether they’re in the fitness industry offering online classes, in the tourism branch turning to virtual experiences, or developing and relying on new hygiene protocols and delivery mechanisms to survive in the hard-hit food and beverage world.

 

Yet at the heart and soul of every step of innovation and success throughout this difficult year is the workforce that makes it all possible – the employees that have gone above and beyond, often adapting overnight to help keep things afloat. That’s why it’s more important than ever to recognize the people who help us make our dreams come true.

 

Why Employee Recognition is Critical This Year

 

It’s been a hard year, but more than that, it’s been a year punctuated by intense social isolation and the looming threat of burnout. Stress and anxiety have been at an all-time high for many. And countless workers have had to not only lose their jobs due to strained budgets and exhausted coffers, but due to the demands of balancing workplace pressures and a quarantined family life.

 

Employees need to be recognized and appreciated this year through personalized messages and gifts; through bonuses and privileges tailored to their needs and situations; through a gesture that shows you understand what they’ve been going through, value the sacrifices they have made, and wish to reciprocate in a way that shows you want them to stay on, and continue to feel like a part of something greater, even at a long distance.

 

Below are six employee recognition ideas during this difficult holiday season. Ideas that are both meaningful and helps foster greater bonds and connections.

 

1. A Virtual Holiday Party

 

Now that we’re approaching the final few weeks of the year, it’s to be expected that most companies who have been relying on virtual communication technology up to this point have learned a lot when it comes to throwing a good virtual meeting. There are a few do’s and don’ts, and an important learning curve when working with new hardware and software.

 

Here are few important tips:

 

      • Make sure everyone is on the same page. The last thing you want in the way of a good time is confusion, misunderstanding, and frustration. Make sure to do one or two test calls beforehand, check and double check that everyone knows when the party starts, and pick a program everyone is familiar with at this point (or leave ample time for them to get familiar).
      • Make the booze optional or eliminate it altogether. Alcohol can be an easy way to loosen up, but some people don’t want to drink it, and others shouldn’t. Making it the norm to get buzzed at every major company occasion might not be the best idea for promoting an inclusive and healthy team culture.
      • Tie the party together with a hands-on event or activity. Consider ordering and delivering some form of craft to everyone, from paper folding to cookie-making, or even a culinary class disguised as a virtual teambuilding activity.
      • Consider a theme for costuming. Things are always a bit more fun with a little dress code, especially when it encourages a creative outfit.

 

A virtual party might not beat the real thing, but it can be much less of a burden on the company bank, which means you get to invest more heavily in other forms of appreciation. This includes coordinating deliveries to help make virtual events and activities more interactive, or preparing fancy personalized gifts that cater to each employee’s wishes, hobbies, and interests.

 

2. An Unforgettable Experience

 

One way to make sure your employees know that you appreciate them is by funding a trip or experience they’re likely to appreciate. Rather than investing in teambuilding activities that require interaction, you can help improve employee morale by individualizing these experiences. Instead, offer that they take their loved ones with them to enjoy them together – whether it’d be a weekend at a nearby resort, a fancy spa, a once-in-a-lifetime local culinary experience, and so on.

 

3. Unique Gifts That Suit Your Employees

 

This year, why not compensate for the expenses of arranging fancy business catering, venue costs, hiring talent, and paying for travel by investing in individualized gifts?

 

If you know what your employees individually value and appreciate, then you might already have an idea of how to best fill their holiday stocking – alternatively, you can ask around. A personalized gift like a pair of designer shoes, a self-cleaning water bottle, a musical instrument, or a top-quality climbing kit would far outlast a single experience.

 

 

4. An Opportunity to Learn

 

Once an employee reaches a salary they’re happy with, money often no longer motivates them as much as other, far more substantial motivators – such as the opportunity to earn recognition, and the opportunity to learn. A learning experience, especially one that relates to an employee’s career goals and personal goals, can be even more valuable than any other kind of gift.

 

Consider what kind of an experience your employee might be looking for as a way to advance to the next level – be it a specialized training program, a coaching or mentoring experience, or something else. Helping employees fulfill their personal goals isn’t just about doing something for them. That experience in turn helps them bring new things to the table at work.

 

5. A Virtual Leaderboard and Achievement Tracker

 

In companies that thrive on fostering a competitive spirit among their employees, a lot of that interaction and competitive edge goes missing once a team becomes completely virtual.

 

It’s important to keep up the pace by introducing new ways to challenge your employees and capitalize on their competitive drive through virtual leaderboards, hidden and scored achievements, and tiered prizes to be given out each month or quarter. Not only is it a great way to recognize each employee’s individual achievements, but it can help a culture built on a competitive team spirit stick together and create memorable experiences even over vast distances.

 

6. Some Much-Needed Time Away (from the Computer)

 

Because it’s been such a tough year, the best gift for some people is as simple as offering a little extra leeway, and some more time off. A break from the computer and a chance to fully recuperate may be much welcomed, and will show that you want to ensure that your employees put their own health and wellbeing first. And that you recognize their value as long-term members of the company.

Final Thought on Employee Recognition

 

Helping employees feel recognized and valued is ultimately what company gift-giving is all about. Especially now, when the topics of isolation and extreme stress are more relevant than ever.

 

 

Categories
Work Environment

Working From Home Affecting Team Collaboration, What’s the Solution?

Have you seen a difference in team collaboration due to working from home? If productivity is lacking because of this, then learn more about the solution below.

 

The benefits of remote work are beginning to drop off, and some of its long-term issues – especially in the face of poor and rushed implementation – are beginning to shine through. It’s no secret that the current crisis has pushed countless businesses into panic mode to adapt and overcome.

 

However, that initial rush of productivity has since passed, and many businesses and employees are reckoning with the long-term impact of social isolation, poor virtual team cohesion, indirect collaboration, and the impact of sheer physical distance.

 

Many businesses rely on the cohesion between individual talents, coming together to collaborate, brainstorm, and apply both spontaneous ideas and careful plans.

 

Working from home has shown to greatly affect this collaborative spirit, putting a hamper on both individual and team productivity in certain cases, and greatly impacting the overall economy.

 

For businesses worried about the safety and health implications of a full return to the office, giving up entirely on remote work is simply not possible. So, what’s the solution?

 

How Working From Home is Impacting Teams

 

The most immediate and measurable impact that working from home has had on many businesses is a general drop in long-term productivity, not necessarily due to fewer hours or lack of oversight, but more directly due to:

 

 

While teams can function remotely, many teams cannot thrive remotely, and that distinction is critical. Furthermore, the impact of these issues is felt more strongly over time as they can lead to eroding organizational health. In addition, a drop in employee engagement.

 

Individuals within a company simply feel less like they’re part of something greater, and struggle to identify and communicate with their coworkers, and the organization in general.

 

Another issue to highlight is the long-term impact of a so-called “lost year” on the global economy. Not only in terms of measurable metrics, but also in terms of lost ideas and a slump in innovation as talented individuals lose their jobs, cannot capitalize on ideas, suffer from reduced productivity due to at-home distractions, or simply never develop them to begin with due to a loss of in-person collaboration. This impact may be felt throughout the rest of the decade.

 

Addressing Team Collaboration in Remote Work

 

It’s important to stress that there is no real replacement for in-person collaboration and office face time. Remote working tools may help businesses stay afloat and keep their workers employed, but remain a poor substitute. On the other hand, a full return to the office isn’t feasible just yet, due to the very real dangers posed by the continued risk of infection in densely populated workspaces.

 

A balanced approach might be one of the only alternatives, wherein offices are sparsely reoccupied, while companies leverage both critical information technology as well as empty and existing shared workspaces. This is to help their workers take turns in a step-by-step return to more in-office collaboration, while continuing to benefit from the option of remote work.

 

Some companies may never see their workers totally return to the old system, and that may be a good thing, as it can give certain employees the ability to work from wherever they feel most comfortable, cutting down on time wasted in commutes without losing out on the benefits of regular team collaboration and social interaction.

 

Embracing Coworking During This Crisis

 

Coworking will play an important role in implementing a workspace policy wherein companies can facilitate in-office interaction and collaboration without putting their workers at risk.

 

Companies might rotate some employees through available and nearby spaces while keeping others remote, enabling in-office collaboration through a variety of spaces without excessively packing a single workspace with a dangerous number of workers.

 

This will be especially important for onboarding new employees and helping those who thrive the most via collaborative and interactive work, rather than individual and isolated work. Work styles are a measurable and important part of organizing and managing a team, whether remotely or at the office, and certain employees do better in a group than others.

 

There’s a clear trend towards wishing for a return to the office, although there’s little consensus on how exactly to approach this return safely. Different hygiene concepts may minimize danger, but not eliminate it outright. Some industries are far more at risk than others, and different regions and industries require different rules and considerations.

 

What is uniquely applicable to everyone at this time, however, is a need for adaptability and flexibility in the face of an evolving situation. Even now that the development and release of a viable vaccine draws near, there’s no practical way to tell when things will be back to “normal”, or what that might look like.

 

 

Final Thought

 

Concepts such as social distancing, more rigorous cleaning protocols, and a greater reliance on digital collaboration and communications tools may be here to stay. We may need to embrace terms such as “de-densification” and move away from the cramped open office model, towards a more modular, safer, divided, and shared floor plan.

 

While it’s clear that a 100 percent remote model isn’t viable for most businesses, let alone every business, companies may very well embrace completely new work-from-anywhere policies. This is in order to keep their main offices sparsely populated, and help protect employees.

 

Businesses, particularly startups, will see critical office space costs continue to rise as the economy reopens and recovers from the virus, and may have very well realized that some employees suffer the most from working remotely – while others seem to thrive on it, and do quite well spending most of the work week at home.

 

Finding ways to cater to individual employee needs while maintaining and improving team cohesion and collaborative efficacy may be one of the biggest and most important challenges to deal with throughout the coming year. Shared workspaces, alongside a suite of collaboration tools and new concepts, will remain a big part of the conversation.

 

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How to Stay Productive in a New Working World
Categories
Work Environment

How to Stay Productive in a New Working World

Living in a new working world has been so difficult to adjust to that it interferes with our focus on work. We’ve got a few solutions for you. Read further on how to stay productive.

 

The return to work is not without its hurdles. Despite promises of a brighter future with functioning vaccines in the works, it’s clear that our growing and ultra-dense society must learn to adjust to the ever-present danger of highly infectious diseases. The workplace and its commute are the most important battlegrounds in the fight against COVID-19. We can’t survive without a working economy, yet need to embrace new policies to adhere strictly to evolving public health rules, and adapt to nature.

 

However, we aren’t machines. We are people, and people get sick, and people get worried about getting sick. It’s difficult to remain positive during these times, let alone productive, even with an economy that continues to slowly climb out of a deep recession.

 

While some of that worry might not go away anytime soon, we can work on reassuring ourselves and shifting towards more optimism by investing in workplace strategies that keep us and our coworkers safe, minimizing unnecessary transit and contact, and homing in on our passions.

 

Get a Grasp on the Rules

 

Uncertainty continues to be at the root of many of our fears, so reducing uncertainty through clear and effective messaging, simple rules, and widespread access to information possible should be a top priority for any business seeking productivity gains.

 

For most workers, this means getting a clear checklist of changes and guidelines from HR currently in place during the pandemic to eliminate potential infections at work, and reviewing what both OSHA and the CDC have to say about workplace necessities for combatting COVID.

 

The only way to fight uncertainty is to be a little more certain. And by listening to authorities and experts, and putting into play data-driven disease control, you can begin to feel a little more in-control, and get a clearer picture around how you can help fight the virus and avoid getting sick. This usually means:

 

  • Wearing a mask and other levels of personal protective gear when appropriate.
  • Frequent and increased sanitization.
  • Lower elevator capacity.
  • Stair etiquette.
  • Private offices and strict social and professional distancing.
  • Access to fresh air and natural ventilation (whenever appropriate, given the incoming winter).
  • Other forms of tracking and controlling indoor ventilation and air quality.

 

By knowing what can and can’t be done to slow the virus’ spread, knowing the effort your coworkers and employers go through to keep everyone safe, and putting these guidelines to work yourself, you can help ease some of these COVID-related fears and feel more confident in your own capacity to work.

 

 

Consider Alternatives to the Office

 

Not everyone has access to a private vehicle or a sensible bike or footpath to the office. In cities and states where you’d rather avoid public transportation due to a recent surge in cases, or simply don’t feel safe commuting, as well as in cases where the office is (relatively) full as is, it’s important to consider useful alternatives.

 

Many companies are continuing to give certain employees the option to work from home, but many others are embracing work-from-anywhere policies, which includes leveraging coworking spaces to provide an alternative working environment for employees to flock to when the main office is out of reach, or already manned by enough people.

 

Coworking spaces have grown to adapt to the virus by providing isolated and safe private offices, roving cleaning crews, and mandated professional distancing rules, giving companies an option for employees to return to a productive working environment without breaking social distancing rules and endangering workers through an open or limited workspace, or asking them to continue working from home at a limited capacity.

 

A New Digital Embrace

 

As we continue to explore safe options in the return to physical workspaces, online tools will remain vital, not only for enabling collaboration and communication between remote workers and the main office, but for enabling cooperation between different satellite or coworking offices as well.

 

There will be a continued interest in de-densifying the office to minimize or eliminate lengthy commutes and stop the spread of the virus, so ensuring that individual teams can stay in contact with one another at all times and seamlessly cooperate is important.

 

Even within the same office space, professional distancing means you still can’t just pop over to a coworker’s station or office and begin a head-to-head discussion. We will continue to send documents over the cloud rather than passing flash drives, we will continue to communicate largely over instant messaging.

 

The benefits of being in an office, even if spaced apart, are immediately obvious – it’s a much more productive environment, and you can continue to collaborate and give each other a shout over a distance. But virtual tools will remain important indefinitely, especially as they continue to improve in usefulness and scope.

 

Outside of virtual solutions, it may be a good idea to invest in tools and activities to help you feel more at ease in a COVID world.

 

For example: buzzing bracelets that go off when you’re too close to a coworker, ergonomic hands-free options for opening and closing doors and using keypads, hosting daily or weekly meetings out under the open sky and in fresh air, doing creative or physical exercises together with coworkers around the country to improve mood and productivity, and more.

 

Find Your Support System

 

Our productivity doesn’t measure our worth, but it can be a measure of our overall wellbeing and satisfaction. The more stressed we are, the worse we tend to perform, especially when the pressure is overwhelming and not the kind that produces effective results or facilitates growth.

 

We can do a lot to care for ourselves in our own time, but a significant factor in our wellbeing is our access to healthy social interactions, and support among family and friends. Take the time to be with your loved ones, organize virtual or safe outdoor activities with friends, read a book or two, join professional networks to discuss your worries and celebrate your successes, and prioritize your mental wellbeing.

 

If this crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we need one another, and that stress and social isolation can do a real number on both our health and productivity.

 

Categories
Work Environment

7 Tips to Being a Successful Remote Manager

Are you still figuring out the ins and outs of being a successful remote manager? To assist, below is a helpful guide with detailed tips to consider and practice.

 

Over the course of the COVID crisis, record numbers of Americans are working from home. While those numbers have gone down as some return to the office, many teams continue to operate largely via remote work. Some companies have even shifted entirely towards a work-from-home model.

 

Meanwhile, many others indicate that they would like to preserve the option to work from home even after the pandemic has ended. And many companies seem receptive to changes in how they structure their workplace and work-from-anywhere policies.

 

Managing these remote teams has been a unique challenge for many project and team leaders. If you’re still worried about helping your workers reach their greatest potential while working remotely, here are seven tips you can leverage to improve productivity and continue to make the most of this difficult situation.

 

1. Learn to Motivate Remotely (Through Tracking Achievements and Visual Progress)

 

Motivation is at an all-time low, and burnouts are at an all-time high. Keeping teams on-the-ball and helping individual workers manage their own health and productivity can be exceptionally challenging. And at times, managing a team remotely can feel like being blind and deaf to the needs and struggles of your individual team members.

 

The first step to effectively motivating your workers is by opening channels of communication and keeping tabs on how everyone is doing individually. Encourage team members to start the day with a group chat or get into a daily or weekly call to get a feel for how everyone is feeling. Keep in mind the importance of having one-on-one face time, especially when discussing more sensitive or personal issues with a worker as they pertain to their work.

 

Aside from offering a greater number of options for communication, a great way to motivate workers is by being transparent about how a team is doing. Rather than trying to motivate through punishing deadlines or lackluster rewards, consider implementing visual scoreboards, project progress trackers, and visual milestones to help keep everyone’s spirits up. And remind them of how much they’ve accomplished in a short time by coordinating their efforts and collaborating remotely.

 

2. Keep All Members in the Loop (and Schedule Daily Check-Ins)

 

Part of making sure everyone has equal and transparent access to how a project is going is making sure everyone’s in the loop. That means making sure every project member or team member is on the same platform, using the same communications tools, and logging their work hours and achievements, respectively.

 

You don’t have to micromanage or hound your workers to see progress. Competitive and achievement-oriented individuals will respond well to visual indicators of how well they’re doing individually or as a group. And everyone else will feel encouraged to give it their all as they see how their fellow team members are performing. Daily check-ins with the team also give you a chance to discuss metrics and praise exceptional progress or give out group objectives for the day.

 

3. Get Personal (and Enable Casual Conversation)

 

There’s always a time and place for one-on-one conversations, especially in today’s climate where it’s likely that a worker needs reassurance that they can privately talk to their manager or leader and request deadline adjustments, time off, or other considerations in order to preserve mental health and improve performance in the long-term.

 

One-on-one remote conversations between workers and managers are also important for bringing up and discussing issues that aren’t pertinent or appropriate in a group setting and can greatly help motivate and single out workers who need additional help, or are particularly isolated by their personal situation.

 

 

4. Avoid Social Isolation (Through Virtual Interaction)

 

One of the consequences of continued social distancing and quarantining during the pandemic is social isolation – many of us haven’t been able to visit friends or family as often as we usually do, are confined to much smaller spaces than we’re used to, and may generally experience a much greater sense of isolation than ever before.

 

This can also make remote workers feel isolated from their teams and companies, and impact performance. Virtual and remote interaction and quick, easy, convenient communication is important to reducing this feeling of social isolation, but it need not always be in the context of work.

 

Helping workers feel connected to the outside world by encouraging them to continue interacting with coworkers the way they might usually do in an office setting – by having virtual watercooler environments, including dedicated chatrooms or virtual teambuilding exercises, from daily stretches and exercise breaks to video games – can help.

 

5. Encourage a Dedicated Workspace (and Leverage Coworking Spaces)

 

While remote work has caused many to work longer hours than expected, part of that might be to make up for the perceived lack of productivity caused by the distractions of busy day-to-day household.

 

Homes are rarely an ideal space for concentrated work, and it’s difficult for many to carve out a dedicated workspace in an already cramped living environment. Even now as schools and workspaces continue to open, finding a quiet place to work away from the office remains difficult.

 

Coworking spaces can play a significant role here in helping main offices de-densify and focus on maintaining social distancing rules, while providing a productive work environment for many remote workers who cannot concentrate at home, or cannot afford to create their own dedicated workspace.

 

6. Don’t Micromanage (and Measure Through Accomplishments)

 

Remote managers who tend to fear the push towards a remote workspace are worried that a lack of control and oversight will lead to plummeting levels of productivity, so they’re drawn towards productivity applications and measures designed to micromanage and effectively spy on workers.

 

However, these solutions are barely solutions, as they usually only serve to erode trust in a company’s management, create friction and resentment between employers and employees, and bring productivity down. Instead of micromanaging, seek to motivate productivity through transparent metrics, healthy competition, and recognition.

 

7. Above All, Trust Your Team as a Remote Manager

 

Trust is an important aspect in any relationship, and it’s especially important in a work relationship. If you can convey your trust in your team members to them, they will reward you by aiming to meet and exceed your expectations – especially if you can give them the sense that they aren’t just working for you, but with you.

 

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