What is one best practice for teleworking?
To help you follow best practices for teleworking, we asked HR managers and business leaders this question for their best insights. From organizing in-person meetings once in a while to taking enough breaks between tasks, there are several best practices that you may adopt for successful teleworking.
Here are seven best practices for teleworking:
- Organize In-Person Meetings Once in a While
- Create Communication Flow
- Connect With Team Members Through Various Channels
- Manage Time as in a Traditional Office
- Record Video Tutorials
- Share Your Schedule With Coworkers
- Take Enough Breaks Between Tasks
Organize In-Person Meetings Once in a While
The best practice for teleworking is to organize in-person meetings every once in a while, as face-to-face meetings aren’t effective from a communication standpoint. But it allows the remote workers to create a sense of faith among themselves. Therefore, you should motivate in-person meetings with your colleagues to create a personal connection with them. Mainly, it’s the liability of a team leader to schedule face-to-face meetings among teleworkers. However, you can also take charge and organize such meetings with one or more remote team members. Lastly, limiting such meetings to once a year is the best option for bigger teams.
Caroline Lee, CocoSign
Create Communication Flow
Working from home can feel isolating, but communication breaks those barriers. Whether you use slack or another form of chat, make sure that you are creating a communication flow. Fostering communication even if it is just socially, will lead to collaborative ideas. Creating a communication flow keeps employees engaged while working from home and allows them to feel more comfortable to talk during meetings freely. You can even create different chat channels, about unrelated and work related topics just to keep your employees enjoying their telework experience.
Jacob Dayan, Community Tax
Connect With Team Members Through Various Channels
If you’re teleworking, it’s still important to find ways to connect with your team members at work. Without connections, it’s harder to collaborate and everything is just less enjoyable. Join employee interest groups, invite team members for virtual coffee, and when you do make it into the office find time to connect with peers in person. Those relationships will make work more enjoyable, even when you’re teleworking.
Logan Mallory, Motivosity
Manage Time as in a Traditional Office
Time management. Teleworking can be convenient because a team member can set their own pace and have more flexible hours. However, that flexibility also means a less structured schedule and environment than the rigid hours of an office provide. It is essential to manage your time as well as you would in an office environment, with all the perks of working remotely. Keep a clear schedule of time sensitive meetings and tasks, so you can better take advantage of the flexibility of the day. Time management is essential even when teleworking.
Michael Ayjian, 7 Wonders
Record Video Tutorials
Our company uses video tutorials to teach essential processes or how to use company software. When working in an office, it is easy to ask a quick question to the colleague next to you. In an online environment, primarily when your team works across different time zones, it might take time to get an answer. As a result, the work process gets disrupted. With video tutorials, it is easy to do training at any time of the day. Even if you forget something, you can always re-watch a specific part. We’ve also created chapters, so navigating through a longer tutorial is more user-friendly.
Georgi Todorov, ThriveMyWay
Share Your Schedule With Coworkers
One tip for teleworking is sharing your schedule so that your coworkers can see when you are available. Feel free to add in blocks of focus time to your schedule too so that you aren’t bombarbed with slack messages when you are trying to grind through a project. Allowing your team to see when you are busy and when you aren’t should mitigate the back and forth of when you are available to meet or message. If you are using a messaging platform like slack, integrate it with your online calendar so that when someone goes to chat you, they can tell if you are in a meeting.
David Ring, MCT – Trading
Take Enough Breaks Between Tasks
It’s easy to get caught up in the grind of the workday and forget to take a break. This can lead to headaches, eye strain, depression, and more. Taking breaks not only helps you stay healthy and focused on your work; it also helps you avoid burnout. Be sure to take care of yourself to prevent getting sick or burnout from all the time spent working from home without enough breaks between tasks or projects.
Ivy Bosibori, USBadCreditLoans
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