Coronavirus has left its mark on every facet of our lives and work is no exception. To give you some perspective about how much this pandemic has impacted our work patterns, here are some statistics.
- Only 16% of large scale enterprises had full-time remote employees before the pandemic
- After the pandemic, 59% of employees in the United States are working from home
- 91% of the companies in Asia-Pacific have implemented remote work policies after this pandemic
- Companies expect almost 40% of their employees to work remotely in the future
- 71% of employees are struggling to adjust to the new remote work environment
- 65% of employees have admitted that they are struggling to maintain wellbeing and morale
What do all these statistics teach us? It clearly points towards three things
- Adoption of remote work by businesses
- This work from home trend is not region-specific
- Challenges employees are facing during remote work
Since businesses are rushed to adopt this remote work trend, they are not fully prepared for it. This has created problems both for them and their employees. Experts predict that this remote work trend is not going anywhere anytime soon, which means that you need to embrace it and learn to use it to your advantage. How? By learning from remote workers and digital nomads who have been there and done that.
In this article, you will learn about seven valuable remote work lessons you can learn from digital nomads
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Invest In The Right Equipment
As mentioned before, most businesses are forced to embrace the work from home trend to protect their employees from getting infected by this virus. This was also important for following social distancing guidelines imposed by governments around the world. Due to this abrupt adoption, most businesses are ill-equipped to handle remote work.
Lack of remote work policies made it tough for businesses to keep their remote employees in check. Add to that the shortage of the right equipment and you can easily see why a majority of remote workers are struggling to adjust to the remote work trend. With communication and collaboration taking place remotely, you need the right tools to communicate and collaborate effectively and stay productive while working from home.
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Centralized Resource Accessibility
When a majority of your employees are working remotely, you want them to be productive and make as few mistakes as possible. That is why you need a single source of truth. A centralized resource repository aligns with an intranet that allows remote employees to access the resources they need is critical for success. There is nothing worse for a manager than to see multiple versions of an important document as it can quickly become a nightmare.
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Adopt Agile Approach
As I eluded to earlier in this article, we might see the impact of this pandemic even after it is over. In fact, it will have far-reaching consequences for your business operations, revenues, your industry and even the global economy. This means that you will have to make permanent adjustments to help your business survive and thrive in the future. You need to adopt an agile approach and be flexible to ensure business continuity. Take inspiration from app development company Dallas, which follows the agile model for software and application development. This allows them to make changes in the middle of the project and complete projects before the deadlines.
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Tweak Your Management Style
Managers need to understand that the management style they use in a traditional office environment will no longer be relevant in remote work setup. Remote managers will have to adjust their management style to fulfill the remote working needs of remote workers.
Create processes and responsibilities in such a way that employees can follow them easily. Trust is an important component in effective remote work management. If you don’t trust your team members to deliver the best results despite working from home, you will be hard-pressed to get great results. The more you facilitate your remote employees, the easier it is for them to perform to their full potential.
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Strike a Perfect Balance
Most employees would love to work from their homes because it offers them the flexibility and liberty to spend more time with their friends and family and also save them from the hassle of commuting to work daily. Sadly, what they don’t realize is that they could be working more hours when they are working from home. Yes, you read that right. Remote workers struggle to turn off their computers when their work shift is over. That is why it is important to hit the perfect work-life balance even when you are working remotely. Give your remote workers some time to relax and rejuvenate and they will perform even better.
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Communicate, Communicate Communicate
You might have heard people telling remote managers and employees to over-communicate and they are right. When employees work remotely, they feel lonely, isolated and disconnected, which can have a negative impact on their performance. That is why it is pivotal to stay connected with your remote workers.
Ask them about the issues they might be facing in completing tasks and try to resolve them as soon as possible. You have to present at all times and never lose that connection otherwise, your remote workers might feel the pinch.
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Be Ready For Surprises
As the saying goes, “Expect the best but prepare for the worst”, this applies perfectly to remote work. When you and your employees are out of your comfort zone, which is the four walls of your office, expect anything. There could be challenges that will push you to your limits and unforeseen situations popping up from nowhere. You should be prepared to face all this and much more when working remotely. The easiest way to deal with them is to be flexible and adaptable and have a backup plan to fall back on just in case something goes wrong.
What lessons did you learn by working from home? Share it with us in the comments section below.
