Living in a post-COVID-19 world has changed the entire curriculum of all industries. A boost in designing virtual workplaces for employees was witnessed and along with it, came a need to devise effective strategies to manage these virtual workplaces.
Hiring a remote team and managing it has its fair share of challenges but if managed wisely, remote work can have resulted in positive employee productivity.
Bringing about a real change takes time but if sincere efforts are put in, positive results can be achieved quicker than expected.
Below are 5 amazing techniques to ensure effective virtual workplace productivity and performance to help you grow your business!
Introduce a strong company culture
A strong workplace culture leads to positive employee productivity. Before you hire your new remote staff and set your standard of expectations, it should be noted that a strong work culture comes as a prerequisite, so your employees are motivated to perform to the best of their abilities. This can be ensured through a multitude of methods.
Some companies maintain workplace productivity by monitoring and keeping a track of employees’ performance on an hourly or weekly basis. This prevents employees from becoming neglectful of their duties. However, it has been argued that most employees find this type of micromanaging regimented which leads to frustrated employees who do not appreciate such stringent monitoring methods.
Another method involves hiring value-centric candidates and setting weekly or monthly goals for them to aim at. This means that the productivity of employees is measured through their productivity results rather than keeping a check on how busy an employee may seem during his working hours.
Apart from that, your company must outline a clear framework of work policies. Though remote working is more flexible and unconventional than traditional workspace environments, a proper set of company guidelines still needs to be put in place so your employees can understand what is expected of them.
Ensure giving out clear company guidelines and expectations
A spectrum of things is required to create a productive remote workplace. One of them is effective communication guidelines. If a company fails to produce a clear set of company guidelines and policies, its employees are likely to find themselves in a confused state and would struggle to reach their maximum working potential.
Although guidelines for each company are determined by its niche and industry, here are some of the basic points you might want to consider:
- What and where to employ given communication tools and strategies
- Use of understandable vocabulary to ensure that voice of guidance is conveyed well
- A guideline that focuses on virtual meeting etiquette
- Short training for all employees to prepare urgent documents
- A virtual tour of your work environment will help a new employee understand his/her duty in a friendlier way
Offering different remote setups
Although work-from-home is the new normal and as comfortable as it may sound, some people do not feel productive working from home. This could be due to several reasons. For example, your employee may not have enough space at home or he/she may feel too distracted to work in their comfort place.
Many employees still miss the pre-COVID hustle and bustle of their office. And to cater to this need, you can provide access to co-working spaces to your employees. It is much easier and cheaper than finding an office and renting it for your staff. Numerous co-working spaces can be accessed globally.
Those of your employees who feel most productive in the comfort of their homes, need to make sure that they have access to all the right tools without interference. If affordable, your company can also provide employees with work from home stipend allowing them to buy the necessary equipment for effective performance.
Stay in touch with your employee’s professional and personal well-being
Maximum employee engagement is the backbone of any company. To achieve the best professional results, you need to stay in touch with your employees’ professional and personal development.
A very recent and perhaps, effective way to do that is by providing learning and development budgets to your staff so they can monitor their growth. Employees can make use of these allocated budgets by buying new tools for more productive performance and enrolling themselves in courses related to their department to make the most out of their abilities.
A weekly workshop can also be conducted where experts can help your employees to understand their role and how to use the budget smartly. This will not only improve their productivity but would also take your company to the next, modern level of success unfolding new potential.
Effective employee recognition procedures, such as corporate gifting, can help you stay connected with your employees. By showing appreciation for their hard work and dedication through thoughtful gifts, you can keep them motivated and engaged. This, in turn, fosters a positive work culture and boosts morale. Furthermore, consistent communication and recognition can improve employee satisfaction and contribute to higher productivity and reduced turnover rates.
Effective hiring of remote employees
Providing some basic management training can help you save a lot of time as well as money. Managing staff virtually is not an easy job especially when you have to be on the lookout for online fraudulent schemes and demotivated candidates. Therefore, training your recruitment committee/staff with basic knowledge of recruitment is very important.
One way to do that is to organize virtual meetings with each employee so you will be aware of any difficulties they might be facing or give them a virtual pat on their success.
Moreover, your managers should also track the progress of the staff, so you’d be briefed about all ongoing projects without keeping a strict eye on every move. Managers should also provide the staff with manuals to set up their pay stub generator, so chances of financial conflicts are minimized.
Last but not the least, all employees who are performing and bringing success to the company should be rewarded to keep them motivated and make them feel valued.
We hope these methods will help you build a productive and positive employee force, so your business becomes bigger and better!
Want to learn even more about improving your personal productivity by 100x, then watch this video!