Remote employees have existed for many years, but since COVID-19 reared its ugly head, many more employees have been forced to work remotely with little preparation. According to global workplace analytics, 75 million U.S. employees hold jobs that are compatible with remote work. This, coupled with the reduced fear about work-from-home among managers and executives, remote work is here to stay. Post-COVID, it is estimated that 25-30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021 according to the same report. This means you need a longer-term strategy on how to have better remote work experience.
Since we are all in this together, here are are some tips to help you:
Find The Right Remote Workspace - Now that you have realized that working from home may be more permanent, it’s time to invest in the right work tools. Start with finding a quiet space to work with little interruption. If you are like me, your partner and children are home too, so it can get busy and noisy. Find a place where you can create a nice spot for yourself and with as little interruption as possible.
Be Comfortable - After you have found the right workspace, it might be time to ask your employer for a chair and table. Having backache and carpal tunnel can make for an unpleasant work experience. If your employer doesn’t supply this, it may be time to invest in them yourself. After all, we spend more than 8 hours a day working. That’s almost half the day!
Support - Make a list of the type of support you need such as infrastructure and technology, human resources, emotional, and make them easily accessible. You can empower yourself with remote work support tools such as HubbleIQ a free chrome extension to check internet performance before every meeting to avoid embarrassing interruptions.
Organization - You can go the old fashioned way and write down tasks but that can be time-consuming. Thankfully there much easier ways. You can find use free tools like Gmail, Google Docs, plus most enterprise email accounts such as Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 have organization tools. Feel free to also check out Trello, Pinterest, Basecamp, and Box.
Collaborate - Some parts of most jobs require interaction with other employees as if they are in the same room. Thankfully, there are plenty of collaboration tools, some starting with freemium packages. Worth checking out are Zoom, Slack, Google Docs, Trello, Asana, Zoho, and Webex.
Switch Off - Now that you are not commuting, not having watercooler moments in the office, and essentially no start and end time to the workday. It’s easy to get carried away with working more, which can lead to burning out. This isn’t good for you, your family, or your work. Set some boundaries around work times and family time as needed. You can block some times on your calendar or set your status to away so you get some time to recharge.
Make Time To Socialize - Create an online and in-person social life. One of the challenges of working from home is loneliness. You can use collaboration tools to create virtual watercooler moments. Create virtual happy hours with friends and other employees to stay connected. Make time for family and friends outside of work for a balanced life.
Get in touch with HubbleIQ to learn more about how we can empower your remote end-users to identify and self-mitigate technology issues.
Have a good remote work experience!
HubbleIQ’s free Chrome extension tests your WiFi and tells you if it’s fast and reliable. HubbleIQ anticipates WiFi issues and detects outages to help you fix them.
