Best Practices for Working at Home
In early March, we blogged about ways that businesses should use digital to connect and inform employees who are working remotely. Since then, working remotely has become the new norm everywhere, including at Investis Digital. For now, working remotely also means working at home. And working at home raises some special considerations, whether you are a parent with little ones playing at your feet or an apartment dweller with roommates who like to blast music loudly. As a global company, we have always been mindful of special considerations for collaborating with each other when we work at home. Here are some best practices based on our experiences:
What All Employees Need to Do
- Get up and get dressed: Pretend you are going into the office and get ready for the day like you are. Successful remote workers get dressed before they begin working. Be prepared for video conference calls (ideally, not in your pajamas).
- Group your meetings: If possible, schedule everything to take place back-to-back, within the same time block. That way, you don’t have to stop and start what you are doing to go from one meeting to another. This is even more important when the kids are off school and at home.
- Create a dedicated workspace: Set up a space that is specifically for your work and nothing else. It’s a lot easier to get your work done when you don’t have distractions.
- Ensure you have the proper tools: Remote workers need specific tools. A second monitor is important, but the most important is probably a good headset (or Airpods).
- Be visible and available: Keep Teams on and email open. Inform your manager what you’re working on at the beginning of the day, and then close the day with a summary of what you completed.
What Team Leaders Need to Do
- Schedule daily or weekly scrums: The days of walking over to your team's area to clarify something are over (for now). Meet frequently as a team to discuss upcoming projects, tasks and activities. Typically these meetings last only 15 minutes and take place at the beginning of the day.
- Make video conferences the norm: In person, it’s easy to see if someone is checked out during a meeting. Having cameras on for all remote calls helps keep you and everyone else on the call alert and engaged.
- Measure: Review time entry reports on a more regular basis to ensure team members are being productive in a work-from-home environment. Ensure that the workload is distributed equally across team members.
- Praise members of your team: This is a general best practice, of course, but it’s even more important when working remote. Go out of your way to recognize members of your team when they do a good job or go above and beyond.
A Rapidly Evolving Environment
One final word of advice: we’re all in a marathon. Pace yourselves. Reach out to each other for support. We’ll get through this together.
