For the most part, people tend to be more productive when working from home. A Stanford, Chicago Booth, and Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology survey conducted from March 2020 to March 2021 found that six out of 10 remote workers say they are more productive working from home than they expected to be.
Another recent study found that the work-from-home boom will lift productivity in the American economy by 5 percent. This national boost, the research shows, comes from the rapid adoption of technology and less time wasted on commuting.
But high-level work-from-home productivity doesn’t just happen. Your company has to support it. Let’s look at what organizations are doing to help their newly remote teams as they transition to a remote work lifestyle.
Allow Employees to Set Their Schedule
One of the advantages of being a work-from-wherever organization is schedule flexibility. Because employees aren’t coming into the office to work a traditional nine-to-five workday, they can choose to work when they are the most productive. They also have the freedom to take breaks when they need to go for a walk, exercise, or refresh their mind in any other way so they can come back ready to focus.
It’s still a good idea to set clear expectations regarding virtual office hours and times you expect employees to be available for meetings and collaborative work. But for non-customer-facing employees, let them choose how to manage their workday.
Offer Guidance on Creating a Productive Home Office
Another key productivity factor is the work environment. A clean, comfortable, and distraction-free workspace will help your employees concentrate.
With office employees, you can design a work environment that motivates productivity. But your work-from-home teams will have to do this themselves.
To help them, offer tips and guidance on creating a quiet home office that revolves around their unique needs. From ergonomic home office furniture suggestions to tips for creating a space that supports productivity with natural light, good air ventilation, and easy access to work supplies and tools – support your newly remote teams with all the information they need to create an ideal space.
Inspire Teamwork
As employees aren’t working in a shared location, there are fewer opportunities for small talk and personal interactions. While this can be great for reducing work distractions, the lack of social activity makes it more difficult to form strong work bonds – which are essential for productive collaboration.
For remote teams, you can still create a culture of teamwork. Using video conferencing software, chat, and other tools, you can host virtual downtime events, icebreaker games, and social groups. With the right technology, you’ll achieve the same experiential quality online as you would in person.
Switch to a Cloud Phone System
If you’re still using an on-premises phone system, it’s time to switch.
A cloud-based phone system relies on the internet to transmit calls. With no need to be tied to the office phone system, employees can access high-level call quality and innovative phone features from any location with an internet connection.
It’s also easy for your newly remote employees to start using your cloud phone system right away. Once they download an app to their mobile phone, laptop, or desktop, they can make and receive business calls from anywhere.
Cloud phone platforms also tend to have useful features you won’t find with legacy phones. This extra functionality can help your work-from-home employees save time. For example, virtual voicemail enables users to access transcribed voicemails by email or text, and spam caller protection prevents spam calls from wasting your employees’ time.
The bottom line is, having more flexibility with your business phone system is more practical for a work-from-wherever organization.
Provide the Right Communication and Collaboration Platform
Remote teams need the right communications and collaboration platform to stay productive when working from home. A leading-edge solution enables users to call co-workers and clients, share files, host video meetings, and more – without sacrificing call quality, security, or performance.
The ideal platform is an integrated, cloud-based communications solution. With an integrated cloud platform, your employees will have the flexibility to collaborate and interact with customers from any location, and they won’t have to juggle several business apps when using different communications tools.
Test Your Systems to Ensure Performance
Investing in the right technology is important. But to help your teams stay productive, it’s critical to have tools that work well.
When choosing a cloud phone system and communications platform, look for providers that can guarantee near-perfect uptime levels. You also should test your software regularly to ensure it’s working as it should, and have a set of processes in place for your employees to follow if they run into tech problems. The better your IT support flow, the less time lost to troubleshooting and IT headaches.
Empower Your Remote Teams with Wherever, Whenever Communications
There’s a lot you can do to ensure high levels of productivity for your newly remote teams. But at the core of their workflows is good technology. Make sure they are armed with tools that give them the flexibility and features they need to thrive whether they are at home, at the office, or somewhere else.
With Intermedia Unite, your employees can experience a seamless workday, no matter where they are located. Learn more about what you can look forward to when you use Intermedia’s unified communications solution.
Kirsten Barta
Kirsten Barta is Sr Marketing Communications Manager at Intermedia
November 15, 2021
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