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How to Increase Remote Work Productivity

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Remote Work Challenges and Strategies

For years, businesses have relied on traditional office strategies to maximize employee productivity but the rapid shift to remote work has challenged the old conventional approaches. Remote work demonstrates that distributed teams can be just as productive, if not more so, than teams that work in the same building. To get around the problems that come with being physically separated, though, you need deliberate ways to communicate, powerful tools for working together, and a strong focus on team culture.

Challenges of Remote Work

As telecommuting becomes more popular and changes the way people work, it’s important to know what gets in the way of being productive from home.

Communication Barriers

Not being able to talk to each other in person makes it hard to clearly share information and ideas.

… the increase of remote work, a scattered workforce, the introduction of new communication technologies, and varying employee expectations are just a few of the challenges that have evolved in recent years that impede effective communication.

How it Shows Up in Working from Home

    • Troubles with figuring out the tone of text messages and emails
    • Misunderstandings caused by a lack of visual cue
    • Problems with coming up with thoughts and brainstorming
    • Loss of facial and body movement
    • Not having enough casual social interactions
    • It can be hard to connect with someone online
    • Communication in different time zones could cause project delays
    • Having trouble keeping the talk going
    • Longer timelines for solving problems
    • Problems outside of business hours can easily turn into emergencies.

Isolation and Loneliness

Feelings of being separate and socially disconnected from coworkers.

How it Shows Up in Remote Work

    • Fewer chances to connect with others
    • Feelings of being left out of team relationships
    • Not enough exposure to formal knowledge
    • Not enough chances to be mentored on the spot
    • Less knowledge of changes in the organization
    • Having less access to leadership and fewer chances to network
    • Not enough informal comments (“out of sight, out of mind” syndrome could happen)
    • More stress about how well you’re doing at work
    • Overworking to make up for problems with visibility
    • Pulling away from online social interactions
    • Putting things off because they don’t have any direct control
    • Finding it hard to leave work mode
    • Changes in sleep routine.

Time Zone Differences

Different areas have different local times, which makes it harder to plan and work together.

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How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • Few opportunities to work together
    • Organizing meetings can be hard
    • Impact on work-life balance when accommodating global teams
    • Reduced overlap in working hours
    • Delayed responses create bottlenecks
    • Solving urgent issues or emergencies can be overwhelming
    • Context getting lost in long delays between responses
    • Increased written communication versus real-time discussion
    • Difficulty maintaining conversational flow
    • Extended project timelines due to handoff delays
    • Being tired from meetings early in the morning or late at night
    • Stress from having to figure out time differences all the time
    • Complicated sprint planning across time zones
    • Delayed code reviews and approvals
    • Difficulty coordinating deployments and releases
    • Challenges with troubleshooting in real time.

Distractions at Home

Distractions or interruptions that happen at home and make it hard to concentrate and work.

How it Shows Up in Working from Home

    • People in the family or friends making noise
    • Household tasks that clearly need attention
    • Deliveries and ringing the doorbell
    • Activities of neighbors and noise outside
    • Pets that need care
    • Notifications on devices
    • Easy access to social media
    • Temptation to shop online
    • Video game machines close by
    • Gaming consoles within reach
    • Non-work browser tabs
    • Children’s schedules and needs
    • Irregular meal times
    • Household maintenance visits
    • Blurred boundaries between work/home mindset
    • Feeling of always being “at home”

Performance Monitoring

This is the process of judging how well an employee is doing, which can be hard to do from afar.

How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • The old “time in office” measurements don’t matter anymore
    • The risk of both under- and over-reporting work hours is there
    • Managers can’t see how people work and how well they do their jobs
    • Risk of building mistrust through too much surveillance
    • Different home settings have different effects on how productive people are
    • Performance is affected by different internet speeds and technical skills
    • Problems with setting fair standards in a variety of faraway locations
    • Few chances for casual conversations about performance
    • Collaboration and group quality are hard to judge, and it’s hard to spot signs of stress or burnout.

Work-Life Balance

For remote workers, maintaining a work-life balance gets difficult when you work from home

How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • Work and personal spaces are mixed up.
    • Mentally “leaving work” is hard: there is no real separation between work and personal spaces.
    • Likely to work longer because there is no need to spend time on commute
    • Feeling pushed to show productivity
    • Having trouble turning off a computer
    • Obligation to be “always online” and answering messages outside of work hours.
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Technology Reliance

Total dependence on digital tools and platforms to make work, contact, and teamwork easier

How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • Meetings are being hampered by unstable internet connection
    • Audio/video quality issues that make it hard to understand the message
    • Problems with platform support on different devices
    • Having trouble getting to shared tools
    • Loss of messages if there are several communication platforms in use
    • Notification fatigue causes people to miss updates
    • There is a learning curve that comes with new tools.

Team Cohesion

Team cohesion is the feeling of togetherness and working together among team members, which can be hard to keep up when they are spread out geographically.

How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • Fewer casual talks and interactions that happen on the spot
    • Body language and nonverbal cues that were missed
    • Responses that were late because of time differences
    • More likely to misunderstand each other
    • Information silos develop more easily
    • Reduced informal learning opportunities
    • Difficulty in maintaining consistent documentation
    • Limited organic knowledge transfer between team members
    • Fewer opportunities for personal connections
    • Difficulty building psychological safety
    • Limited social bonding experiences
    • Challenges in developing mutual understanding
    • Harder to align on priorities and deadlines
    • Duplicate work due to poor coordination
    • Weakened shared team culture and values.

Lack of Professional Development Opportunities

Not enough training, mentoring, and chances to grow that help people move up in their careers.

How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • People who work from home might not keep up with new tools and trends in their field.
    • Not enough time to learn about new methods and best practices
    • Fewer chances to learn from the experience of others Fewer chances to show that they can be leaders
    • Less exposure for chances to get promoted
    • Problems getting the skills needed for bigger jobs
    • Not taking advantage of the natural learning opportunities
    • Not getting enough exposure to information from other departments
    • Not having as many chances to build mentoring relationships
    • Not as many chances to make real business connections
    • Fewer chances for working together to learn.
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Inadequate Feedback

Lack of regular and constructive feedback can demotivate employees and arrest professional development.

How It Shows Up in Working From Home

    • Employees don’t have a good idea of how well they’re doing their jobs.
    • Can’t see how people are reacting right away or pick up on subtle cues about their work
    • May keep making mistakes without realizing it
    • Not enough information about growth places and chances
    • Problems figuring out which skills to put first
    • Disconnect between what people think are their goals and what they actually do
    • Risk of working on the wrong things
    • Problems stay unfixed for longer when feedback isn’t given quickly.
    • Troubles that start out small can turn into bigger issues
    • Fewer chances for early action.

How To Improve Remote Work: 7 Proven Strategies

1. Implement Check-Ins

Why Check-Ins Are Beneficial

    • Touchpoints every day or every week keep the team connected
    • Check-ins help get problems solved quickly
    • They put light pressure on you to keep making progress
    • They help avoid holding too many meetings.
    • They make things clear and keep everybody informed.

How to Implement Them

    • Customize the time and frequency.
    • Approach things methodically to guarantee effective conversations and steer clear of veering off course.
    • Active listening can help you to completely grasp employee ideas, worries, and issues.
    • Always offer help, particularly under trying circumstances.

Tools and Practices for the Best Check-Ins

1. Daily Quick Syncs (10-15 mins)

Choose Question Format

    • What did you complete yesterday?
    • What are you working on today?
    • What’s blocking you?

Best Practices

    • Hold at the same time (preferably in the morning)
    • Use video for engagement
    • Keep strictly time-boxed
    • Document blockers in shared space
    • Rotate meeting leaders weekly.

2. Weekly Deep Dives (30-45 mins)

Choose Among Formats

    • Review of progress toward goals
    • Aligning priorities for the next week
    • Needs and limits for resources
    • Team member worries or thoughts

Best Practices

    • Share the plan and metrics ahead of time.
    • Pay attention to strategic problems
    • Write down choices and things to do
    • Set aside time to work together.

3. Tools and Documentation

Required Infrastructure

    • Video conferencing platform
    • Team chat tool
    • Check-in template
    • Action item tracker
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