Beat WFH woes: staying productive and connected with your team

The pandemic has taken a toll on productivity — after close to two years, workplaces are adjusting to the new normal. Along with these drastic shifts in the workplace comes the need to adjust working styles to fit workers’ evolving needs.

Here are four ways to boost productivity and improve team morale while working remotely, for a more conducive work environment!

1. Use task management tools

In the age of working remotely, project management tools are all the rage, serving a wide variety of functions that help to enhance productivity, streamline work processes, communication channels, and much more!

Need help with prioritising your tasks? Asana, for instance, can help make setting deadlines and assigning tasks a breeze. Key features include calendars and boards, as well as the ability to create subtasks within projects and assign tasks to specific team members, allowing users to keep track of their individual tasks as well as the team’s progress. This gives users the flexibility to structure, plan and accomplish tasks in a manner best suited to them, while making work processes more transparent.

Automating processes is yet another way to increase productivity.

Services such as Later and Meltwater are available to help with your social media needs. With Later, users are able to schedule Instagram posts as well as view insights received from past data, while Meltwater enables users to streamline processes when replying to queries such as comments on social media posts.

Using such tools helps to heighten efficiency across teams that take over one another, ensuring a smoother day-to-day workflow.

2. Help employees get the resources they need

Don’t forget to help your team to get the information they need! Getting oriented to a remote workspace may be harder than it looks, as watercooler conversations have been replaced with email trails and Slack channels. This may be especially challenging for workers who are new to telecommuting jobs.

Factoring in adequate time for employees to get oriented should not be overlooked. This may mean going the extra mile to set up a centralised location for them to get the resources they’re looking for, or creating a guide for new employees to refer to, which can help to ease their transition to their role!

3. Keep meetings short and sweet

Virtual meetings have become a mainstay in the workplace. While it may be tempting to increase screen time, keeping meetings short and sweet may actually be more efficient for your employees, as employees’ perception of effectiveness in meetings has been observed to influence overall workplace satisfaction.

Meeting duration has also been linked to productivity: a recent survey conducted by Otter.ai suggested that managers and professionals indicated having lost 30% of their time which could have been allocated to other productive tasks.

Even with work from home arrangements, there are always other ways to forge stronger bonds within the workplace.

4. Make time to hang out as a team

Got a co-worker’s birthday coming up? Bolster team morale by organising virtual hangout sessions! The rise of the pandemic has seen the need for new ways to bond. What better way to do so than with online group games? Bring retro back with sites such as skribbl io, a drawing and guessing multiplayer game similar to Pictionary. This provides more opportunities for your team to connect, enhancing employee engagement in the workplace.

Care packages are yet another way to show appreciation for your team - think fresh bakes, snack boxes, and wellness products such as tea, candles and essential oils. It’s a great mood booster to beat the Monday blues, while reminding your team that you’re there in spirit, even if you’re working from home!

Last but not least, don’t forget to check in with your team regularly - even a simple hello goes a long way.

This article is accurate as at 16 Feb 2022