Best Practices & Tips for Working From Home

As professionals shift to working remote more often, especially during pandemic precautions, employees make efforts to establish their new normal from home.

Why should more companies consider allowing employees to work from home even without the threat of outbreak? Can working from home be more productive? According to a Stanford University study, it can be substantially more productive.

(See the TEDx here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiUyyZPIHyY&feature=youtu.be

According to a two year study conducted by Stanford University Professor Nicholas Bloom, the benefit was mutual to employer and employee.

The study was conducted at a travel agency that employs 16,000 people. Bloom took a population of 500 employees from the company and divided them into two groups: 1- a control group and 2- a group that could work from home.

The results of the study include the following:

• Employee attrition decreased by 50 percent among the telecommuters
  
  
• Telecommuters took shorter breaks, had fewer sick days, and took less time off.
  
  
• Work-from-home employees work a true full-shift (or more) versus being late to the office or leaving early multiple times a week.
   
• Employees working from home found it less distracting and easier to concentrate at home.  
  
  
• The company also saved almost $2,000 per employee on rent by reducing the amount of HQ office space in the expensive real estate market of Shanghai

Tips & Tricks When Working from Home

Companies seeking to experiment with staff working from home can look no further than technology companies for tips and tricks since they have enabled telecommuting for decades. Fortunate for Share-ify subscribers, Share-ify’s Service Team had many tips to share when surveyed.

Here are important tips and trick to successfully working from home.

1. Create a defined work space.
   
   If you have an office and your own desk, that is fantastic. If not, pick a space that you can set as your defined work space so you do not have to keep picking up and moving your belongings, which can be very distracting and reduce productivity. Make sure the area has good lighting. In addition, try not to pick a work space that doubles as something else. If someone shares a workspace with you, set guidelines as to protocol when a phone rings and where papers or files should go to not get lost.
   
   
2. Create set hours or a schedule and share it with your house mates / family and with co-workers.
   
   Working from home could mean that you are 9 to 5pm, M-F or it could mean flex hours. Be sure to define your exact start and end time and the days that you plan to work. For family / house mates, do the same for them. This can help reduce the amount of distractions.
   
   
3. When people are at home with you, set the guidelines for noise and disruptions.
   
   If taking phone calls is the norm, be sure to tell family or house mates what the protocol is when getting close to your workspace. For example, if you are working in the kitchen, tell others not to take their phone there also. Or, ask them to keep noise levels down in the kitchen. If you have an office, perhaps telling family to take their calls and conversations upstairs or away from your door so the noise level remains low when you are on calls. Create a balance that makes sense for your home.
   
   
4. Minimize personal distractions.
   
   Even if you love Amazon and Facebook, try to minimize getting lost on these sites by closing out those tabs on your computer. If you tend to use your mobile phone a lot, try doing the same there. In place of these, consider playing music instead, which can give you some form of “white noise” but can make it easier to remain focused on work.
   
5. Take breaks that allow you to get away from your work space.
   
   Going for a short walk to get mail and getting fresh air can perhaps be more important when working at home. Schedule short breaks for yourself. Try not to skip lunch breaks. It may be important to establish a non-work space so you can check out and leave work behind for a moment. It is also important for your eyes to get a break from the computer screen.
   
   
6. Choose the appropriate attire for you.
   
   While wearing your pajamas is perfectly fine, for many people it may be hard to “transition” to a work mindset with sleep-ware on. Choose the right attire that feels good for you. For some people that may be sweatpants. For others that could be jeans and some may be just fine in pajamas.
   
   
7. When handling video conferencing, dress camera friendly.
   
   If you plan to take video conferencing calls, choose attire that looks good on camera. Since most cameras won’t see your pants, focus on your tops. Sweaters, button downs, and polo shirts look fine on camera. T-shirts and hoodies are much less forgiving on camera. Also consider sitting in an area that doesn’t have too many distractions behind you that will cause fellow conferencers to lose focus. Perhaps sitting in front of a blank wall.
   
   
8. Establish Your Goals For the Day.
   
   If working at home feels a bit awkward and you are having a difficult time getting started, perhaps establish daily goals of what you need to get done and focus on completing those as a matric for your productivity. If you are in sales, perhaps its establishing a number of outbound contacts or calls. If you work in customer service, perhaps it’s your number of responses to emails or inbound calls. If you are in an administrative function, perhaps outline the 5 to 6 tasks you can reasonably complete today. Daily goals can help you find your new normal.

Coronavirus Pandemic Tips for Home Survival

Need advice on work at home with relatives during this Pandemic Quarantine? Click here for tips.