4 Tips for Permanently Adopting Remote Working

Are you considering the idea of making the remote working switch more permanent? Read on to discover how your company can make the best of its transition.

Adopt a trusting management style to be more flexible

The element of trust is often the make or break factor in running a successful remote working environment.

In business, there’s a common assumption that workers won’t perform unless they’re being monitored or bound to a desk. But this simply isn’t true and subscribing to this idea is detrimental to your whole operation.

Although lockdown has presented us with a set of tough challenges, it’s also allowed businesses to experiment with a concept that’s proving fruitful for many organizations — trusting your staff.

Homelife is chaotic and although it can be tempting to micromanage your staff during this time, it simply won’t work. The reality is people are going to get pulled away from the keyboard for many unavoidable reasons: picking the kids up from school, family emergencies, taking the dog to the vets, the list goes on.

Tight deadlines put to one side: why does a fragmented day or late start matter? Facilitating the freedom of choice is vital; being open to flexible hours is the future of management. So long as your staff is serving up good work at an efficient pace, there’s no need to worry if it's completed at 9 AM or 9 PM.

Top tip: Using time tracking tools like Clockify or Hourstack can be effective. But relying on them religiously could be counterproductive. When looking at the stats allow some leeway in your findings.

Plan workload with effective task management software

When your team is completely remote, one of the most important factors is the presence of an effective task management system. Otherwise, projects will be lost, reminders will go unheard, and deadlines will be missed.

With a traditional office environment, a light tap on the shoulder will suffice in jogging your memory and ensuring tasks are completed in order of priority, even though software tools are rumbling on in the background.

When everyone’s at home, it's far more difficult to keep track of your workload. And with nobody around to tap you on the shoulder, good old tech has stepped in to fill the void. Task management software like Asana and Get Busy are proving to be incredibly useful, not just as short term solutions, but with long term future planning too.

These systems allow teams to digitally map out their workload in small, manageable bites, taking large projects and breaking them down into workable tasks. These goals have clear reminders and set deadlines, all working to formulate a much larger achievement on time.

Setting clear goals helps put everything into perspective and organizes an endlessly hectic schedule. But to incorporate a little extra flexibility you also need to look at using a cloud storage system like Google Drive. Files saved online means saying goodbye to restrictive physical hard drives — going remote also means going digital.

Saving your work in the cloud means everything is kept accessible and transparent. They also work in tandem with your task management software by linking document URLs to relevant tasks. This gives everyone instant access, thereby keeping the whole team in the loop.

Establish performance expectations with video conferencing

Lack of clear and concise feedback when working remotely can lead to loss of motivation.

Managing your employees’ goals away from the office requires strong communication. Where previously someone could infer an idea of their performance from a passing comment, when you're sitting at home, you won’t be privy to the same social indicators that keep you on the ball.

If you're setting up a remote working model permanently, you need to establish an honest platform to discuss current output and future expectations. Because if nobody’s around to say whether someone is doing a good or bad job, where is the motivation coming from?

Remote work is about managing the individual. Setting tailored targets and providing clear advice is a gift that they can develop from, either implementing a plan to up productivity or reduce it. The latter may sound odd but for your over performers, it's vital to find the perfect balance, as effective load management will prevent burnout.

While the content of a personal development plan is down to you, as a manager, you’ll require a digital platform to consistently work through progress and discuss adjustments with your employees.

This is where video conferencing software like Zoom and Microsoft Teams can come in handy as a way to hold an honest face-to-face conversation over the web. Additionally, both platforms can be linked to your calendar so you can reserve a regular slot and maintain a familiar routine in less familiar circumstances.

Maintain effective communication to touch base

Similar to how managers must keep in contact with employees to track progress and establish goals, communication channels need to be instant and accessible to the rest of the team.

Ultimately, touching base with one another is vital, and simply being apart is no excuse at all. While the office worker is indeed easy to contact, arguably the remote worker has access to even more ways to communicate: email, text, call, or even direct message.

Better yet, people are prone to forget passing conversations or suffer a lapse in concentration during a meeting. But with digital messages, everything is archived and available at the click of a button.

Equally, communication is key for socializing and syncing up with each other's working day. If you’re looking to go fully remote, you should consider joining many companies in organizing daily catch-up meetings. These serve as a routine setter and help teams settle into their schedule.

Seeing someone's face is important, especially at work. Daily meetings have proven to be a valuable pivot point for people to organize their day around. Planning and saying a swift hello to colleagues puts everyone in the working mood, thus filling in for the lack of office space and opportunity to natter.

When done right, the lockdown has shown how business can turn remote working into a roaring success. Follow these tips and you will be well on your way to creating a streamlined company without the need for a designated HQ.