Monday Morning Memo: How To Work Remotely And Still Be Effective

What Every Staffing and Recruiting Firm Should Know

Working remotely is something many companies have started doing in this time of crisis because of the pandemic sweeping the globe. So in today's Monday Morning Memo, Wilson and Samantha tackle the problems and benefits of working remotely.

Making Remote Work Effective and Efficient Made Simple

Remote work can be difficult for many people to adjust. However, it is a necessary thing to do in today's climate because many businesses will opt to go for remote work rather than fully closing their doors. So Wilson and Samantha both share their perspective and provide advice for remote working.

Have a Dedicated Workspace

According to Samantha, a great way to make remote work more effective is to make sure that you have a dedicated workspace. Separate it from the rest of the places in your home and only go there when you're about to work. A dedicated workspace lets you have the mindset of work while you're in that specific space. It doesn't have to be a full-blown office either. It can be a chair in the dining room that nobody uses or even the left side of your couch opposite the side where you watch your TV shows. Just make sure that you dedicate that space to work.

Have a Dedicated Time To Decompress on Your Schedule

Another thing that you should be doing is to make sure that you dedicate some time to decompress after work. Dedicating some time to decompress is one of the most important things to do, especially if you're not used to working remotely. Unwinding lets you mentally reset for the day and gets you ready for tomorrow's work. Make sure to have a schedule and a routine ready, so you can keep your work going despite working remotely.

Use The Right Tools For The Job

Wilson emphasized the need for the right tools when doing remote work. This is because, without some of these tools, it would be far more difficult to work remotely effectively. This includes landline tools like RingCentral and Zoom or staff monitoring software like Hubstaff that let you keep an eye on what your employees are doing. According to Wilson, it is also much easier to manage people remotely rather than in an office setting because you can see if work is being done rather than if someone is busy.

Connect on a Human Level

One of the things Wilson and Samantha touched on is how important it is to keep the personal and social connection with staff intact despite working remotely. It isn't easy to find out things that may be bothering your workers in a remote setting unless you set aside some time for them to share their inner thoughts and what could be bothering them. This is the hardest thing to do from a logistics standpoint

Quotes:

-The arguments are always "if my people work at home they won't work" and I can tell you from a control freak that is not the truth

-it's easier for me to manage people with all of us in remote because you can see if work is getting done versus seeing somebody busy

-We had a higher turnover rate, and we started extending out those meetings, and we saw our turnover almost go non-existent because everybody started getting those connections

- I mean you're talking to a guy that owned a two-story office building where everybody came in you know for a decade or longer. I look at that now as a horrible utilization of assets

-Just work and then life don't try to merge them, don't try work from in front of the TV. Try to keep it as separate as possible so that you don't turn in to work all the time or you aren't working at all