Before the pandemic, approximately 24% of U.S. employees worked from home between 3 to 5 days per week. Post-pandemic, that number has increased more than 2x to 53% of the workforce working from home 3+ days each week.
And this trend to remote working isn’t expected to go anywhere even after the pandemic is over.
Companies and employees have realized that they both get significant cost savings due to telecommuting. Additionally, companies have found that having the ability to operate from anywhere is vital to business continuity.
But while there are a lot of positives that come from a move to a work-from-home environment, it’s not without its challenges. Companies have had to choose (sometimes by trial and error) the best cloud infrastructureoptions that give them security along with the ability to keep their team connected and engaged.
Another issue that many business owners and managers have struggled with is how to keep on top of employee productivity when team members are working away from the office.
Productivity is a big reason that pre-pandemic there weren’t more remote teams. The common question would be, “How can we ensure they’ll get as much done when working from home?”
Just as cloud technology enables the connections needed for remote working to work, it also provides several ways for companies to track remote team productivity.
Methods for Staying On Top of Work-from-Home Productivity
Time-Tracking Applications/Extensions
It’s easy to know if someone is working if you can walk past their desk several times a day. But when they’re working from home, supervisors can feel in the dark wondering what their team is doing.
For employees that are hourly, using a time-tracking application can be an easy way to ensure time is being spent on priority tasks. These types of apps have an easy-to-use click on/click off function and employees can designate a specific project.
So, you could have a nice readout of an employee’s week and exactly how many hours were spent on each project or area of responsibility.
Some of the popular time tracking tools to check out include:
Microsoft Productivity Score
If your company uses Microsoft 365, then you have a great tool at your disposal to get a grasp on overall team productivity.
Microsoft Productivity Score is designed to give companies insights into how teams are adapting to a remote working environment and how well they’re utilizing their cloud communication tools.
The tool looks at both “people experiences” and “technology experiences” and provides a score on each of eight key areas, along with recommendations for improving productivity.
Factors scored in the tool include:
- Communication
- Content Collaboration
- Mobility
- Meetings
- Teamwork
- Endpoint Analytics
- Network Connectivity
- Microsoft 365 Apps Health
Short Morning “Touch Base” Meetings
Productivity can drop if employees aren’t sure what’s expected of them. Managers can also get frustrated with a lack of confirmation on task completion. One tactic that can alleviate miscommunication and keep everyone on the same page is a short morning “touch base” meeting.
These types of meetings are used commonly in large manufacturing facilities as a way to keep all the moving parts of a factory team in coordination.
The key is to keep the meeting short and to the point. Just 10-15 minutes and no longer. The goal of the meeting should be to:
- Establish priorities for the day
- Confirm what everyone is working on
- Get feedback on task completion
- Clarify any task/priority related questions
Online Task Management Board
Trying to keep up with tasks via email is messy and quickly confusing. An easier way to ensure accountability from a remote team is to use an online task management board, commonly known as the Kanban board.
The type of board allows you to move task cards through a progression of columns. Such as, “drafting document,” “awaiting approval,” “completed.”
Within each task, you can have targeted communications and share files related to that specific task. This helps reduce the chance that a direction is lost in a large email inbox. Alerts and automated reminders also come in handy to ensure a task doesn’t fall between the cracks.
Some popular task management boards are:
Create a Remote Team Policy Manual
When the pandemic stay-at-home orders hit, many companies scrambled to enable their teams to work from home but didn’t give them clear instructions on everything.
For example, how does someone let everyone know they’re at their desk in the morning or when they “clock out” at night? What’s the protocol for calling a customer? Do they still take breaks and lunch at the same time?
There are a lot of changes employees go through when working from home and employers can’t just assume they’ll figure things out. You can enable a productive team and ensure managers and employees are on the same page by creating a detailed remote team policy manual, so no one has to wonder what’s expected of them.
Power a Productive & Secure Remote Team With Help from AhelioTech
AhelioTech can help your Columbus area business implement time-saving tools to keep your remote team connected, secure, and productive.
Contact us today for a free quote. Call 614-333-0000 or reach out online.
