What techniques can I use to skyrocket Work from Home Productivity?
Back in the late '90s, when Corona was just a beer you put a lime in, it seemed preposterous for anyone to be working from home. Yet, there I was at 9 am on a Monday, kneeling under my desk at home trying to fix my dial-up computer modem that had just crashed.
It was the dawn of the dot com era, and my friends all thought it was ridiculous to work from home. "There's no way you can be as productive working from home? Don't you get lonely? Doesn't your wife take advantage of you being home all day with honey-dos? You'll be invisible to management working from home, and you'll never get promoted".
My friends did have their point. I was always burnt out, distracted, lonely, and isolated, which eventually affected my productivity and the company's bottom line. It seemed like remote work was a good idea, but some kinks still needed to be worked out. After months of convincing my bosses to let me work from home,
I was determined not to go back into the office and endure the 20-mile commute that often took two hours. I set out to prove that remote work can lead to greater productivity, effectiveness, and profitability for both companies and their employees.
So I studied hard and got my Ph.D. in Organizational Development and Leadership, continuing to find ways to make remote work more effective. I even wrote my dissertation on remote work. Over the years, I've developed the CAUSE system that has helped companies and employees achieve peak productivity while working from home.
In this COVID reality, it is no longer a matter of whether a company should implement working from home but rather applying for peak effectiveness and profitability. Companies are finding the lower costs associated with working from home beneficial.
Studies show that 43% of Americans now working from home due to COVID19 would like to continue remote work after the pandemic clears up. Therefore companies need to invest in remote work development for their team because it is often cheaper to train and develop systems within than to fire and hire. You do want to implement to skyrocket Work from Home Productivity
Despite today's lightning speed internet and new technology, working from home still carries the same challenges I faced back in the '90s. Difficulty unplugging after work, loneliness, distractions, difficulty communicating, collaborating with colleagues, and, of course, spouses who still ask team members to run errands during work time. These challenges eventually reduce productivity and affect the company's bottom line.
To help businesses face those challenges, I developed The Doctor Work from Home system, which will take a remote workforce that is CHALLENGED by tech, burnout, and distractions to AWARENESS of triggers that cause low productivity. The workforce will be UNDERTAKING preemptive actions to return to top productivity by developing SYSTEMIZED solutions to improve productivity, transforming the challenges into an EFFECTIVE workplace.
5 Tips to Skyrocket Work from Home Productivity
So how would an organization maintain a successful virtual workplace that will skyrocket Work from Home Productivity? Here are five tips from my CAUSE methodology that can help companies develop more productive work from home employees and teams:
- Have team members use an iterative time management system such as the Pomodoro Technique to set work up in sprints. Developed by Francisco Cirello in the late 1980s, The Pomodoro Technique is a time management technique using a tomato time to break down work into 25 minute intervals, with 5 minute breaks. The Pomodoro Technique is kind of like a miniaturized, individualized Agile Scrum where team members can determine what they need to get done in a 25-minute Sprint, break, rinse, and repeat.
- Set work hours and maintain them; when the workday is over, stop working. One of the pitfalls in working from home that I found in my research is team members not knowing when to stop work. At first, this sounds good for an organization. Upon examination, this decreases efficiency because work-life balance suffers, and the team gradually becomes more efficient. Also, there is the situation, like my wife asking me honey-dos in the middle of the workday. In my research, I was not the only one who had spouses or family members who did this. Keep in mind that these folks would never dream of asking their spouse to run an errand if they worked out of the office. During work time, one does work. Some systems can be set up to monitor a team member's production so that they can skyrocket work from home productivity.
- Have ergonomically correct home offices, give your staff an allowance to set these up. The last thing an employer wants is skyrocketing workers' comp claims. Some companies will go out to your team member's home office and install an ergonomically correct workstation at a low price.
- Make video conferencing readily available so people can collaborate and brainstorm: a virtual water cooler. Have virtual mixers to allow the staff to get to know each other, kind of like a virtual cocktail hour. Loneliness can be a pitfall to working at home. When I worked in high-tech, many ideas were born at the foosball table. Several video conferencing tools are available in the marketplace to enable a virtual watercooler or foosball table, where team members can collaborate.
- Work with a qualified HR professional or attornies to ensure your virtual workspace complies with all the multitudes of workplace regulations. A Work from Home environment doesn't mean you can ignore workplace regulations. Find someone who knows HR regs to guide you. You can also enroll in a service such as Legal Shield to provide guidance when needed.
Work from home has numerous benefits. No two-hour commutes, parents can be home for their children, and cleaner air to breathe without all those cars spewing carbon monoxide into the air. With all those advantages, and following the tips above, a business is bound to be more productive.
Remember, it is no longer a matter of whether or not you will implement a remote workplace but how you will do so and how it can be effective to attain the vision of your organization or project. Now please excuse me, my wife needs me to run an errand. :)
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