In the last decade, remote work has become increasingly widespread. While the pandemic has greatly accelerated this change, working from home had already been growing in popularity all over the world.
However, once things have returned to a new normal, it is expected that remote work will remain a common practice for many companies. This deviation from a traditional workplace setting brings many benefits in terms of reducing commute time and increasing flexibility, but it comes with its own set of challenges.
With this shift in mind, HR professionals need to consider which strategies help promote effective remote working, maintaining team cohesiveness, and increasing productivity.
This article will give some practical examples of ways to promote effective remote work for your team and company as a whole.
Implementation of New Digital Tools
With the growth of remote work, an array of new digital tools and processes have arisen that can be used to bring value. There are tools readily available for essentially any area of the business, and in some cases, they can be exceptionally useful.
It’s not only HR professionals and managers using new tools in the era of remote work. With an increased influx of applicants due to widespread job cuts, tools such as online resume builders have greatly grown in popularity. These show job seekers how to build a resume according to verified best practices.
In terms of new HR tools that you can implement to increase your team’s productivity, some of the most effective ones are listed below:
- Proofhub: a project management software focused on helping remote working teams
- Slack: combining all team communication in one place
- Basecamp: aiding client communication and project management when remote working
- Krisp: noise-canceling app to increase productivity
- Blink: unified communication platform to improve the employee experience
- Dialpad: AI-powered contact center for calling and video conferencing
Some of the above tools can already make huge differences in the productivity of your remote team. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that there is a myriad of other digital HR tools worth exploring, here is a comprehensive list of some of the best remote work solutions on the market.
Using Employment Engagement Strategies
Keeping employees motivated and involved when working from home is crucial to promote team productivity. The increased spread of remote work has helped companies and HR professionals to identify many best practices to help employees remain engaged.
A few of the best employee engagement strategies are as follows:
- Establish processes for feedback and goal sharing
- Set online training and group workshops for the team
- Introduce games and activities for team growth
- Implement new ways for team members to communicate with each other
For more information on this topic check out our article detailing proven employee engagement tips for remote work.
Invest in Your Employees
Studies have shown that 75% of the causes that lead to employee turnover are preventable. One of the most common reasons for dissatisfaction is the lack of opportunities for career development.
Implementing clear long-term learning and development plans for your employees is an excellent way to keep them motivated and happy even when remotely working.
When working from home, it can be difficult to experience progress in the same way as dealing with your manager on an everyday basis. Keeping transparency on what employees can expect moving forward within the company ensures that expectations from both a company and employee standpoint are met.
Additionally, the remote work era provides an opportunity to take advantage of technology or computer-supported training. Learning plans can be tailored easily to each individual employee’s needs and situation by using digital learning tools.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
As mentioned above, there are a variety of new challenges that arise from remote working. One of the most damaging and well-documented of these is social isolation. Employees unable to leave the house may be faced with loneliness and an insufficient amount of human interaction.
To solve this challenge HR managers need to go beyond team-building activities and ensure that lines of communication are consistently open between employees and their team members.
Employees working from home may face unprecedented stress when adapting to a remote work environment. It’s important for companies to communicate more than just updates. The HR team needs to open direct conversations with all employees to understand who is struggling and what can be done to help.
Members of the company should also be encouraged to organize their own team and group activities. This can be established by ensuring that the correct forums are available for employees to suggest these kinds of ideas.
It’s important to note that while all these strategies will bring significant benefits to your team’s remote work productivity, implementing a combination of these is the best way to ensure a positive working environment for everyone.
