Right now, employers must recognize that working from home is more like surviving working from home for many people. working from home; Working from home is increasingly commonplace. 20 Tips for Working From Home. The bedrock of successful remote work is trust; as an employer, this must be your mindset first and foremost. It’s important for managers to remember that working from home during a time of crisis isn’t standard fare. Today’s ubiquitous technology makes it a convenient option for both employees and business owners, and studies consistently demonstrate business owner benefits that range from reduced overhead to improved productivity and … All rights reserved. Nextiva has provided businesses with robust communication solutions for more than 12 years. At the Ericsson Blog, we provide insight to make complex ideas on technology, innovation and business simple. Working from home can be isolating, even when there is not a crisis to contend with. In a study conducted in late March and early April, Mind Share Partners found that the mental health of almost 42 percent of respondents had declined since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Kathy Simpson . Below I’ve shared a few of the key practices we updated and added to help address some of the biggest challenges people are facing today. This makes validation from employers even more important. 13 Best Practices for Working From Home. 7 Best Practices for Work from Home Programs . However, it’s important to understand that schedules are crucial for effective communication when working from home. With schools starting back up in North America and many companies (Ericsson included) extending their work from home plans through to at least the end of the year, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at your company’s remote working practices through a “foreseeable future” lens. We have enabled thousands of companies to scale their remote working staff—so we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Carole Alalouf. (Also, it's 2020, and there's simply no excuse for a … Finally, normalize the act of declining meetings that are outside the working times you have set except for when they’re truly urgent. This change should be clearly communicated to managers and team members. Use messaging tools internally to keep in touch, and encourage the use of settings like “Available” and “Away” to give visibility into whether or not employees are available to communicate. When I wrote about my struggle with alcoholism, I made a point of sharing the fact that I had used Ericsson’s EAP as part of my recovery to help remove the stigma associated with utilizing mental health benefits. To keep everyone working, be creative about ways to accommodate employees who typically haven’t been able to work from home—like receptionists, greeters, call center employees, etc. Let’s dig into the tips and best practices for working from home. Home Ericsson Blog Working from home best practices – for a pandemic that just won’t end Working from home best practices – for a pandemic that just won’t end A pandemic-fueled 2020 may not be the year we wanted, but it’s the year we got, so it’s time to strap in and get comfortable. From coordinating times for calls that work across different time zones to keeping communication alive and well, managing a virtual team can be challenging. Get PDF. Allow employees to use PTO to offset the times they’re not available. Finally, set limits on how much your employees work while they’re at home. All the best practices listed here can and should be modified to fit your company in abnormal times, and then reassessed when things return to normal. Remote Team Benefits + Best Practices + Remote Team Template . Whether you’re an employer already familiar with managing a work-from-home workforce or your company is just diving into the waters of working remotely, the need to consider work from home best practices has never been more apparent. 3. I get it. Here are a … Living in 2020 feels like being stuck in a mashup of the movies Ground Hog Day and A Quiet Place: disorienting, scary and every day feels the same. Working from home can oftentimes prove to be hard as it easily blends the lines between work and personal life. If you're new to working remotely, these tips from a home … In short term, though, the existing remote work implementers are continuing, and more firms are joining each day. Working from home involves a degree of change management, so arm employees with best practices so they can quickly adapt to the new circumstances. Microsoft observed in their early pandemic study that while all employees experienced an increase in working hours, those who had a high amount of 1-1 meeting time with their managers had less than half the increase in working hours than their counterparts. The outbreak of the coronavirus has more people working from home than ever. Communication best practices for working from home in a crisis situation, Calculating the “right” amount of contact for your team and for individual team members, and ; How to avoid defensive behavior and become more cohesive and supportive as a team. When you work from home, appearing professional can be just as important as when you work in a traditional office. Way back in March, I wrote a blog with nine tips for managing a remote team that remains very relevant today. Or, maybe it means going ahead with some important in-person medical appointments you have been putting off. Like what you’re reading? Given the unusual recent circumstances, many employees around the world are finding themselves in a situation where they must work from home or remotely. April 2, 2020. Call (781) 272-4900 or complete this brief form, and we’ll be glad to help you navigate through the COVID-19 crisis—and into the future. And even work-from-home veterans are dealing with a new reality that is far from normal. Even if your company hasn’t previously considered this as an option for every role in the organization, you should be considering it across the board now. Finally, employers should understand that this is not a normal time, and many of their employees are also acting simultaneously as caregivers and teachers in addition to their roles as employees. Managers should allocate one or two days each week to recognize and acknowledge individual employee contributions and successes. Buy Copies . You’re tired of the coronavirus. It doesn’t matter if you’re a virtual assistant, doing social media, data entry, or other remote jobs. If not, set up periodic check-ins to identify if employees need help, if projects need to move, etc. They may have multiple household members working alongside them, space challenges, children at home, and more. Work from home jobs are becoming a more popular method of working. Increase accountability with morning and end-of-day check-ins via video conferencing. I suggest keeping working hours as close to normal as possible to make it easy for everyone to stay in touch. That means we need to stop thinking about the current world order as a “for now” thing and consider it more of a “for the foreseeable future” affair. Ironically, employees may need more schedule flexibility now than they did when we were all first dropped Fortnite-style into these remote working/homeschooling arrangements. Support employee’s mental health. One way to help mitigate that is to get ruthless about prioritizing your commitments. Tired of this whole quarantine-living social-distancing hand-washing Uber-eating mask-wearing home-schooling video-meeting existence. … Be flexible. Leveraging insights from several industry publications and studies, as well as over 60,000 employee responses to a company-wide survey on their current work environment, we published an updated set of working from home best practices for Ericsson North America’s 9,000+ employees. It’s still important for leaders to help employees set boundaries on home and work time. Photo courtesy Architecture Plus Information . As you’re getting your work-at-home systems set up, here are some tips for protecting your devices and personal information. Home office, nomad, music, silent, dress up or PJs, we all work differently. (781) 272-4900 (p) As a company that works daily with a variety of organizations with remote work policies, we are uniquely qualified to help address this issue. by Jesus Vigo in CXO on April 6, 2020, 12:14 PM PST More employees than ever are working from home. Why is this happening? Encourage them to block time on their calendars for personal commitments and focused work. Status updates and progress checks are the best time to review and address this issue. If these types of jobs were performed from a desk in the office, they likely can be performed from home with a little creativity. Take vacation time, and when you do, do not work or take meetings, even if you don’t go anywhere. While working from home can help slow the spread of the virus, it brings new challenges: juggling work while kids are home from school; learning new software and conferencing programs; and managing paper files at home. Schedule and take vacation. Although this article is written to be all-encompassing, I’d be remiss not to say something here about the realities of working from home in emergency situations. For many of us, “waiting for normal” has meant not taking vacation. March 9, 2020 9 min read. Book only the time you need, do not automatically take 60 minutes when 30 will do, or 30 minutes if it can be done in 15. hbspt.cta.load(237726, '967f15db-6201-47b3-8cd5-cf60a6324b09', {}); “What the heck is a PEO?” If you’re asking that question, you’ve come to the right place. Setting priorities and communicating, for example, are still essential to effective work. Again, I get it. Learn tips to face the challenge if you aren't used to working … Read also: Security 2020: 4 trends to watch. ] 1. The bedrock of successful remote work is trust; as an employer, this must be your mindset first and foremost. Finally, strenuously avoid setting or attending after hours or weekend meetings. Speak up. Meeting more frequently with team members is maybe the most commonly repeated advice for managing remote teams during the pandemic. Limit the number of emails sent, as employees are likely overwhelmed by inboxes overflowing with content of varying importance. Your company’s IT department can also install additional layers of security for any tools you provide and monitor their usage. Also, share any other wellness resources the company has available. March 16th, 2020. Check out the 2020 Business Communication Report Actionable insights … Order Reprints 2 Comments Dan Spiegel recalls how 2019 Design Vanguard honoree Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW) … But virtual classrooms, one of the biggest disruptors for remote-working parents, only lasted a few weeks for most, so many got by on will power and adrenaline. Communicate and educate on an ongoing basis . Share. For many of us, that probably means making some changes to how we’ve been going about our day-to-day. Post. Just as you would discuss any lack of progress being made, you should discuss if time spent “at work” is overwhelming your people, and help them establish healthy boundaries. Keep calendars up to date and easily accessible for everyone on the team. A common theme of this pandemic has been that working hours are up and boundaries between work and personal time haven’t just blurred, they’ve been Thanos-snapped out of existence. (781) 273-6644 (f). An important way for leaders to support their employee’s mental health is by discussing their own mental health challenges and how they are coping. To ensure tasks are accomplished and goals are met, implement the following communication practices: Communicate to employees your expectations about their working hours, and then listen to their responses about what they can or can’t do in terms of their schedules. Set boundaries. When working from home, find a comfortable working area where you can assume a healthy posture, minimize the distraction from others, and where your presence has the least impact on how others have to behave. Many people have little to no experience working remotely for an extended period. I recently had the opportunity to work with several of my Ericsson colleagues to do just that. Working remotely offers a lot of benefits and freedoms, and there are many jobs that can easily be done from home. And if you have questions about HR issues related to working from home, ask us! If you can’t trust your employees to work from home, attempting this style of work will not be successful. Especially in times of crisis, some degree of flexibility is required from both sides. Take it a day at a time, a step at a time. Block time out in your calendar for focused work away from emails and meetings and (this is the important bit) honor those time commitments to yourself. For some employees, it will be difficult to stop working if they cannot physically remove themselves from their workspaces. Be ready to delay or cancel initiatives that are not your current priority. Work From Home Best Practices outlines some of the most simple considerations to take in working from home that are overlooked at times. As more companies adopt work-from-anywhere policies, best practices are emerging. 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 100 Save. For example, equipped with the right tools, receptionists can still answer phones and redirect callers to the appropriate people within your office. Burlington, MA 01803 Working From Home — Best Practices These are unprecedented times. But even if you can’t go to the places you had planned, time off with friends and loved ones to relax and recharge is an essential component of self-care. For example, Ericsson just made Headspace, a popular mindfulness app, available for free to its employees in North America and their spouses. We all had to embrace our inner contortionist to accommodate a tectonic-level merge of our work and home lives when this all started. In this article, I’ve identified seven work from home best practices that you as an employer can implement within your company to ensure working from home is productive and successful. The premier PEO in New England that helps you thrive, one employee at a time. Click To Tweet. Meet more frequently. Choose a comfortable and convenient work space at your home/remote work location. If possible, employees should be permitted to work outside of normal hours. In a recent study, Microsoft found that weekly meeting time for their employees was up 10 percent as opportunities for informal, proximity-based communication disappeared. Trust your employees to do their work. Especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic, employers should be doing everything they can to keep their employees working if there is enough work to do—and that means putting on your “creative thinking caps” about appropriate work from home arrangements. Give yourself permission to try different start times, work from different places, and wear different types of clothing. Unfortunately, the version of normal we’re all pining for isn’t coming any time soon (if it ever does). A pandemic-fueled 2020 may not be the year we wanted, but it’s the year we got, so it’s time to strap in and get comfortable. The bedrock of successful remote work is trust; as an employer, this must be your mindset first and foremost. It’s normal and okay if you find yourself struggling. I’ve been working remotely for about 15 years, so I thought it would be great to share some of my experiences, cyber security best practices and tips, and lessons learned on how to stay focused. Tell your manager or colleagues if you need accommodations with your schedule or workload. January 3, 2020 Posted by Jane Hurst. Keep scheduled team meetings and one-to-one appointments on the calendar if you do them in person. Or perhaps it means temporarily converting your media room into a second office because, apparently, your I-can-hear-you-through-my-closed-office-doors-and-honestly-were-you-always-so-loud work voice tends to carry from the loft. Take breaks to stretch your legs, and give your eyes a rest. Photo courtesy Diane Choih, Ann Beha Architects. (Note: The federal government has expanded medical leave since April 2, 2020, allowing employees to use up to 80 hours of sick time to care for quarantined individuals or children without daycare.). An architect's home work station. Small business owners beware: If you don’t know the difference between traditional 401(k) and safe harbor 401(k) plans, you could be losing out on thousands in your personal investments. Recognition doesn’t have to cost a thing, but it can provide a much-needed morale boost that encourages employees to work harder and gives them incentive to stay at your company. With the pandemic rolling on (and on), what new challenges have you encountered? An architect's home work station. With April feeling like it was approximately 3.7 stress-filled years ago, that ratio is unlikely to have decreased. We know there are a lot of differing opinions out there about what makes a successful remote team, so we’re here to make it simple. To maintain household harmony, Dan’s media room doubles as his office for the foreseeable future. How should corporate leaders, managers and individual workers shift to remote work … When my family had to cancel a trip to Disney World that we’d been planning for three years to see the new Star Wars Land, the idea of replacing it with a week of staycation didn’t have a lot of appeal. In addition to providing status updates and sharing progress toward goals, a portion of meetings should be dedicated to recognizing the good work of your team. Work from home policy guidelines and best practices. Maybe a short call or email would be as effective. I don’t blame you, I’m highly over it, too. The only thing that’s not okay is keeping it to yourself. This one is more reinforcement than rewrite. Here are some tips on what to include, as well as some technology considerations that will help keep your … Manage your time wisely . Share. If you don’t have regular one-on-one meetings or company meetings, now is the time to implement them. One bonus to providing tools (rather than having employees use their own) is that employers have more control over what’s being done on machines that belong to the company. You should also help your employees avoid unnecessary evening and weekend work, but be aware of each person’s situation. But with five more months of pandemic-living experience and another 4+X months to go, we made some updates to three of those practices and added one new one related to mental health. But now we’re starting to see data showing just how valuable that is. Modern Slavery Statement | Privacy | Legal | © Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson 1994-2021, Working from home best practices – for a pandemic that just won’t end, Redefine customer experience in real time. It allows us to contribute to a company without having to commute or work in the same place as everyone else. Updated: June 3, 2020 . Instead of micromanaging their schedules, monitor your people’s overall hours worked and help them manage their workloads accordingly. Find me on LinkedIn or Twitter and share your experiences – I’d love to hear from you. , children at home of successful remote work is trust ; as an employer, this must your. 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A remote team benefits + best Practices for working from home Koya Partners March 17,.!, or from any location where they can have access to the work from home best practices 2020. As bad as it easily blends the lines between work and home lives when this all started department! Some of the most simple considerations to take in working from home has its challenges and complications of! Employees work while they ’ re at home ideas on technology, innovation business! Take vacation time, and when you do, do not work or take meetings now. The number of emails sent, as employees are likely overwhelmed by overflowing. Home during a time of our work and home lives when this all started to complex. Into these remote working/homeschooling arrangements to no experience working remotely, these from. That ratio is unlikely to have decreased monitor your people ’ s earlier blogs best! 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