A lot of managers and entrepreneurs are drawn to the idea of a remote workplace. In their mind, this means they can hire anyone in the world and that they don’t have to make rent on expensive offices. While both are true, it’s important that you keep in mind the numerous advantages of the traditional workplace. A conventional office is optimized for productivity. Whether your remote workplace will give similar (or better) results depends on how well you organize it.
With this in mind, here are the top six tips that can help you create a better remote workplace for your staff.
When working remotely, one of the biggest bottlenecks is the fact that you’re never really in direct contact with your customers. This means that you lack the insight and personal contact necessary for building rapport that will give great long-term results.
Fortunately, in the digital world, you have so many interesting tools, like CRM apps, that will help you gather all the user data (history of interaction, preferences, etc.) and keep them all in one place. Here,you have a list of some of the most efficient CRM platforms that you could incorporate into your business.
This way, you’ll minimize the negative impact of physical separation from your client base.
On top of this, you’re building a scalable database that gives outstanding results regardless of how big your staff is or how many clients you have. Once you set up this system, you’ll be ready for great operational efficiency on every front.
Sometimes, you just have to try and make up for the shortcomings of remote work, but in some scenarios, you need to work on your strengths.
The next thing you could consider is diversifying your payment forms. Sure, the majority of modern workplaces pay via PayPal or direct wire transfer, but why not add cryptocurrencies into the mix?
Just think about it: the majority of your employees are already using cryptocurrencies to buy things online or transfer funds easily and effortlessly. Moreover, they’re using them as a form of diversifying their investment portfolio or to play a game.
Other than this, with a remote workforce, you don’t want to miss out on talent from unbanked or underbanked areas. There are so many talented people from underdeveloped regions or regions in which other payment forms are really not an issue. Well, by adding a payment-by-crypto option into your accounting, you’re immediately unlocking them as potential employees, as well.
One of the biggest challenges of working remotely is the fact that you don’t develop ties with your coworkers as easily. Sure, some people you just click with, but seeing as there’s no shared office space, you have a hard time associating this particular job with that person.
Why is this bad or problematic?
After all, when you work well with someone, productivity is high. While this is true, you need to keep in mind that teamwork and inter-office relationships are about more than just productivity. People who love their coworkers are less likely to leave. People who get along well with their coworkers have the extra piece of intrinsic motivation. After all, they feel a higher priority of pulling their own weight in the office. Letting their friends down is a better motivator than any quota or incentive.
Fortunately, you can solve this with virtual team building. You can host game nights, conference calls or even multiplayer gaming sessions.
Everything in the office is adjusted for productivity, but people working from home usually don’t have such amenities. This means that achieving the same level of productivity (aside from the fact that it’s much more convenient) is quite a challenge.
It’s even worse when it comes to control. You see, since they can’t physically monitor what their employees are doing, a lot of managers resort to employee monitoring platforms. Software like Hubstaff is anxiety-inducing, and it signals to your employees that you don’t trust them. No one feels comfortable having someone else constantly look over their shoulder, which is why this might reflect negatively on their productivity.
The absolutely worst part is that they’re so easy to trick or go around. Auto-clickers, using another device, or… in some instances, even just using a different monitor can put this platform completely off the trail. So, you’ve annoyed your employees and shown that you don’t trust them… and for what?
A lot of employers believe that because their remote workers can only see their own to-do list, they won’t realize that some of their coworkers have a lot more/less work. The thing is that people talk, and there is never just one person who has access to this information.
A lot of people come to these startups by being recommended by a friend, often someone in the executive position. This person might have a better insight into what and how much everyone is doing. They might even have an insight into what everyone’s getting paid.
The bottom line is that you have to ensure that even if this information leaks, you don’t get into any trouble. Just run your enterprise fair and be transparent whenever you can. If not, make sure that you have as few skeletons in the closet as possible. Once you try it, you’ll find that this is actually quite easy to pull off.
When people work from home, they often work odd hours. This means that it’s so easy to lose touch over the appropriate time to reach out to them.
Sure, they might not have regular work hours (but deadlines instead), and you might have seen that they submitted a task at 3 a.m. last night; however, you still have to be careful not to infringe on their free time.
There are a few things you can do to ensure this (especially when they have no traditional work hours). First, you only need to use proper channels of communication. Slack and Skype, or, even better – email, are great, seeing as how people often don’t use them privately. Sending a message on Instagram or Facebook DM is a bit different.
Also, make sure to stress that they don’t have to respond right away. This is a small gesture, but it can mean a lot.
Second, you can always take a moment and check the timezone difference (if it’s too far apart). This literally takes just a few seconds of your own time, and there’s no excuse for skipping it.
A remote workplace gives you so much flexibility and potential for scalability. The problem is that, for the majority of managers, this begins and ends with picking the right project management platform. Don’t allow this potential to go underused. Make sure that you identify all the bottlenecks and then work, point-by-point, to resolve every single one of them. Only this way will you make it all work and come together. Now, you have at least six ideas to try out.
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