Employees around the globe have been forced to make the transition from working in an office to working from home, but this forced adjustment has not been without its challenges. In an effort to maintain operations, companies have been brainstorming ways to keep employees as productive as possible. For employees, the challenge has been staying organized, focused, and in the proper head space while working from home.
Here are a few tips, from an IT perspective, on how to be productive while working from home.
Share Your Screen During Video Conferences
Zoom, Google Meet, Skype and almost every other video conferencing technology allows users the ability to share their screen. This means you can project whatever you’re looking at on your screen to the entire group. This can be a tremendously convenient way to keep team members engaged and on the same page during crucial conversations. Whether you’re crunching numbers, reviewing client information, or going through a powerpoint presentation, it can help for the whole group to be presented with the information visually.
The ability to share your screen gives coworkers the opportunity to feel as if they are in the same office, sharing documents, information and ideas. Meetings can get stale when the only thing attendees can see is the other person’s face. Utilize screen sharing to effectively communicate concepts and information.
Take Full Advantage of Your Calendar
If your company is utilizing Slack, the business communication platform, then you should know that the Google Calendar App can connect your schedule to your Slack account. This means Slack can let your coworkers know when you’re in a meeting, if you’re out for lunch, if you have the day off, and any other important status updates. When connected with Google Calendar, Slack can also send you reminders about upcoming meetings and appointments.
Whether or not you utilized calendars before you began working from home is mostly irrelevant. It’s simply more difficult to keep track of time and stay on top of tasks when you’re outside the norm of a 9 to 5 office schedule. Take full advantage of your calendar by connecting it with your business communication platform.
Ensure You Have the Necessary Technology
When you think about what you need to work from home, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a laptop or desktop. Then, you probably think about your smartphone to stay in touch with the office. Both of these things are undoubtedly necessary for successfully working remotely, but if you really want to perfect the art of working from home, there are tons of tech tools that can help you make the transition from office worker to home body.
There are plenty of technologies that can improve your working from home experience, but the top two most important tools to help you crush it while working from home are quality headphones with built-in microphones, and adaptable computer-friendly webcams. These two purchases, while relatively basic and affordable, can help you present yourself professionally even while your dogs are barking a few rooms over.
Working from home presents different challenges for everyone. Whether or not you have kids at home, the area in which you live, and the industry you work are all contributing factors to your ability to effectively work from home.
If you’re struggling with the technologies, softwares, or implementation of the things you need to work from home, contact our IT experts at M&H Consulting. We’ve been helping people get equipped to work from home well before the current pandemic.
Categorised in: remote employees, remote work, remote workers, tips, Uncategorized