Top 8 Remote Work Best Practices in 2022

Most of us have been working from home for some time. It's an arrangement in which employees do not typically work in the office. Instead, they work remotely from home or some other location. It’s a type of telework or telecommuting that allows employees to work from remote locations outside of their standard office space. Remote workers don’t have to sit in an office all day long. They just need to be able to access the company network remotely so that they can continue working wherever they are. 

There's a lot of hype around remote work today. Remote work is no longer just for software developers or other digital roles. More and more companies are trusting their employees to work from home, the office, or wherever they’re most productive. But, moving your team from an office to home isn’t as simple as changing the location of everyone’s desk. There are multiple challenges that come with it. 

Why should you prioritize remote work? 

According to Pew Research Center, 64% of employees think remote work makes it easier to balance work & personal life. The majority don’t want to go back to the office. According to a recent Gallup poll, employees who work remotely are more than twice as likely to be highly engaged at work. Remote workers are also 20% more productive on average than those who work from an office all day. 

Remote work benefits both employees and employers by making it easy for workers to balance their home life with their professional responsibilities. Many companies are adopting it as a way to save money on office space, reduce commute times, and attract talent by offering flexibility. Remote work has been proven to increase employee engagement, reduce stress, and even improve productivity. Workers who are able to take their job home with them and do it from there whenever it’s convenient for them tend to get more done and feel much happier about their work life. 

Thriving in a Remote Work Environment 

Whether you got into remote work during the pandemic, or you were involved with remote work before, you might not be happy with your remote work experience. It’s a different working method after all. We are kinda slow to adapt. Don’t worry about it, happens with all of us; it’s a human thing.

If you think remote work is hard, you are not alone. Whether we like it or not, we’ll have to get used to it. Maybe there are at-home interruptions or different time zones hindering the flow of the work. It’s hard to manage your own work, let alone the employees. Remote work is fairly new. So, don’t feel down on yourself. Nobody has it all figured out. All that matters is whether we are trying to get better or not. There’s no one size fits all solution. We’ll have to adapt to this ever-changing environment.

Even with your employees' understanding and the right support, transitioning to remote work isn’t easy or quick. To make remote work as productive as possible, and avoid any potential downsides of remote work, you need to implement the right strategies and tools in your business. Here are 8 Remote work best practices to help your business succeed in 2022: 

1. Maintain Communication

Select your communication method, based on what works best for your organization, and what the employees feel most comfortable with. You can use High Quality Virtual Phone Systems or tools e.g. Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, or Skype. But, ensure that they are the right fit for you. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have clear communication with each other. Unlike in a physical office, you can’t just go to a person and collaborate or clear a doubt. In remote work, all you have access to is digital communication tools. Make the best use of them.

Unlike in a physical office, employees cant inquire about something by walking to the desk of their colleagues or the office of their boss. So, there’ll be a huge communication gap which will hinder the work. So, maintain a simple and easily accessible method of communication. Just like selecting the right target office chair enhances comfort and productivity, implementing effective communication tools ensures smooth collaboration and workflow efficiency in a remote setting.
 

2. Invest in Tools

There's a complete landscape of digital workplace technology. Apart from the communication tools, you should also be using a good project management tool, like- Asana, Trello, Zoho, Wrike etc. You can take your pick depending on your usage case. If it’s not a good fit for your company, you shouldn’t be using it even if most are suggesting it. And show your employees how to best use those. Even if you are using Google Drive for file sharing, employees should be able to easily collaborate with others, provided that they know how to best use it. But you can’t do a lot in Google Drive, that’s why you need other tools to send messages, work together and plan ahead.

People need good tools to work at their peak. You need to make sure that your remote employees have the tools and resources they need. Whether it is software, hardware, software, communication channels, login access, or security clearance, make sure they have it. Speaking of security, physical security software's are also important to prevent loss of data and subsequently protect organizations from malwares and vulnerabilities. You also need to have an easy onboarding process and train your team members on how to use those tools for the most productive use. As Steve Jobs said- “You cannot mandate productivity, you must provide the tools to let people become their best.”

Also invest in physical equipment for home office, whether buying adjustable height desks or new Laptop or webcam or a comfy chair. Ensure that everyone is comfortable while working, with the right tools.

3. Look after your Team

Ask about the problems your team members are facing. Employees might be afraid to approach and ask you directly. But when you ask for feedback, they will be more open to expressing themselves freely. Be understanding when they share their issues, be it work-related or personal.

Don’t overload them with too much work. Without seeing the employees, It might be hard to guess how your employee is doing, you can’t see anymore if s/he is stressed or leaving the workplace late. Here, communication comes into play. Ask them. They will be rather happy that you are caring about their well-being. Showing that you care will make them appreciate you and the work more.

4. Experiment (practice New Methods)

Don’t stick to what you’ve always been doing. Try out some new ways. I’m sure you can do better. Not everything is achieved through perfect planning. We learn better with trial and error.

What works for others won't work for yourself. Therefore, Trial and error is the only way to get what works best for you. You might be more productive by taking a break or taking a walk. Tell your team members to find what works best for themselves too. 

5. Prioritize Team Building 

Without proper team building, you can’t achieve a productive workplace. In a remote workplace, you can’t get the same social environment that you’ll be able to get in the office. That’s why some of the team members might feel lonely in remote work. So, every company needs to have some digital activities, like- team games, quizzes, and icebreaker questions (esp. for new hires), to grow the bonding among employees. You might even make a website using a good website builder, to let employees express themselves creatively.

Just because team meetings are important, don’t set up too many meetings. They might feel tired of meetings or feel like they don’t get enough time to get the work done.

According to Asaf Paz of the Google Customer Solutions team, working remotely helped his team establish a deeper connection, as they could see the houses and families of their fellow coworkers. So, remote work doesn’t have to be the connection destroying evil as we make it out to be, but actually, this might be a great opportunity to form closer bonding in your team. Inspire your employees to share their family photos. It’ll be fun for all of the team members. 

6. Set Standards and Enforce the Culture

Start with existing policies. Try to maintain your company culture and values. At least, set some norms for your company. Set some ground rules. For your own and also for your colleagues. Know your upper limit, what to never allow and stick to those.

Ensure that everyone is keeping the camera turned on during meetings, even in less important meetings. Without video, you can’t know who is actually listening and who is petting the cat. Also keep in mind that: Humans collaborate better when they can see each other. That’s why you need to always ensure face-to-face meetings. 

7. Accountability and Postmortem

Sadly, all of the employees won’t be productive during work from home. You need to hold them accountable. Take a postmortem at the end of each project. Alternatively, you can post mortem at the end of each month, and ask everyone to debrief what they have been doing. You can use one of the best Toggl alternatives and check the efficiency, how much time the tasks took, and did they finish before the deadline.

If you maintain sprints with the agile management system, even better. You shou ld take the retrospective meeting after each sprint ends.

However, If you want to ensure perfect productivity, use time tracking software with screenshots. That way you can put your mind at ease, if your employees aren’t working on tasks, you’ll quickly know that with an employee monitoring tool. But don’t go overboard, give employees some breathing room. 

8. Breaks & Snacks

Don’t skip breaks because you have an immense workload right now. One of the most underrated hacks to stay productive is taking breaks when necessary and taking snacks when not feeling productive. Whether you are in a productive slump or just not feeling to work right now, taking a break and munching on snacks can help out a lot. They do not just reduce stress, but they can also boost your creativity. You’ll be able to see everything from a different perspective. Not to mention the energy boost and increased concentration that you’ll get from breaks. Taking necessary breaks and proper snacks (brain boosters) will help your memory and learning ability too.

Take a break. Tell everyone to take a break, whenever necessary. Working for long stretches will decrease overall productivity. Whether you use the Pomodoro technique, 52/17 or any other work rhythms doesn’t really matter, as long as it suits you. Try exercising or going out for a walk or incorporating full body stretching into your routine to relieve tension and improve focus. And don’t forget to drink enough water after exercising.
 

Conclusion

It is hard to remain productive in the new work environment. But the best thing we as humans have is our adaptability. Working from home has a lot of advantages over traditional office work. So, it is fair to say that remote work is here to stay. We’ll eventually be adjusted to it.