Month: April 2020

Since the inception of work and workplace, work productivity has been one of the prime requisites. The business world does not operate without paying heed to the workplace or work productivity.

So, what is this work productivity?

As the definition goes, work productivity is the efficiency with which the employees work to complete tasks and achieve goals for their employers. A productive workforce brings in profitability and goodwill to the employer.

Not going far, you can just look around yourselves and find several organizations that are literally grappling to achieve productivity, given the global pandemic we are in. Making your employees work for long hours does not make your workplace productive. Again, providing your employees with all sorts of resources does not make your workforce productive. All you need to do is find the most effective methods that would be a perfect fit for your organization and your employees. One should remember that not every method is supposed to bring in results for everybody.

Five pivotal factors that contribute towards making a productive workplace can be listed as –

• The clear definition of organizational goals
• The environment of the workplace
• The careful watch over employee verdure
• The render ample training
• The processes being followed at work

One vital fact to be noted here – the aforementioned factors remain constant but their way of enforcement alters and evolves with time.

Clearly defined goals being the absolute benchmark of productivity, have been proved to elevate the work productivity bar.

Gift your employees a super supportive and positive workplace environment, and the productivity will take off. Yes, it is that simple! An employee’s mood is known to be directly proportional to the organization’s environment.

Watching over employee well-being makes your brand be looked upon as humane. Your employees are not men of straw and hence they deserve to be put before any deliverable. The resultant magnified job fulfillment will take their work productivity a notch higher.

No amount of training is enough when it comes to development. The more trained the employees are, the more productivity you are likely to perceive. An untrained or undertrained employee will not live up to your expectations. Remember that!

Work process exertion is known to elevate productivity. Having said that, engaging in a series of hit and miss is integral before construing potent work processes inside a workplace.

Even though profit is professed as the most important payback of productivity, companies tend to see positive customer responses as a very crucial payback as well. Whenever a company welcomes a new client or customer, the work productivity and the subsequent goodwill speaks on the company’s behalf.

Coming back to scratch, as productivity is directly associated with the employee self-esteem, every company should ponder over every opportunity that comes its way to keep its employees contented. In the absence of adequately groomed and trained, empowered and indelible employees, businesses cannot bloom. it can be difficult for a business to thrive. Having said that, an employee should be absolutely honest and committed to the felicity of his/her employer as well. Remember, this has to be a win-win set-up for both the entities.

The concluding statement: With the upsurge of work productivity, an organization along with its representatives gains the gift of prosperity.

The entire world has gone into quarantine surrounding the uncertainties posed by the outbreak of the COVID-19. Companies, in order to safeguard the health of the employees, have decided to let them work from home. The new remote working policies around the world have for the first-time separated managers and their employees. 

It is always preferable to establish a clear remote working policy and training well in advance. However, in times of a crisis such as this global pandemic, the required level of preparation was not feasible for most companies and managers.

Hence, we have researched for specific steps that, if taken by remote managers, can help in improving employee engagement and productivity without any extra efforts.

The Common Challenges of Remote Working

At the very beginning managers will be required to understand the factors that make working from home challenging for the team. So, what are the challenges you should be careful about?

The Lack of Proper Supervision

With the workforce going remote, managers, as well as employees, will be facing a lack of in-person interaction and guidance. Some managers will be anxious about some of their teammates not giving his best performance when working from home. On the other hand, employees will feel the reduced access to managerial communication and support – to an extent where they might feel that their manager is not in tune with their needs, and thereby, are no more supportive.

• Reduced Access to Information

The employees who are new to the entire concept of remote working will feel astonished at the time taken and the effort given to locate information from their managers or coworkers – even if they are the simplest of information. This often leads to a state of interpersonal challenges among the remote workers. Research throws light upon the fact that the lack of mutual or shared knowledge among remote workers might lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding that will lead to loss of business productivity.

• The Case of Isolation and Loneliness

Given the lockdown scenario and self-isolation, disconnectedness is one of the most common complaints arising out of the new remote workforce. This is happening especially because these employees are missing the level of interaction they had with their managers and their coworkers in the office. The most affected by this are the extroverts, who have no means now to connect with the others the way they used to apart from audio or video calls.

• Distractions at Home are Real

Often at times, we are given a terrible representation of how it feels like working from home – sitting on a sofa with a laptop or typing on a laptop while holding a baby with a smile. That is not how it works, right? I would encourage you to ensure that your remote workers have a dedicated workspace in their homes to be able to function properly. And given this sudden transition into virtual working, there are chances that your remote workforce may be faced with the challenge of suboptimal workspace, and in some cases, unexpected parenting responsibilities. Apart from this, your workers might also be distracted by their family and home demands. As a remote manager, you might have your workers bogging down due to a lot of distractions during this unplanned and sudden work-from-home transition.

The Pro Tips for You

Although remote working may be fraught with these common challenges, there are also some quick and easy things you can adopt as a manager for heightened effectiveness. These actions include:

• Establishing the Rules of Engagement

Your newly remote workers become more efficient and productive when you set expectations for the means, the frequency, and a scheduled timing for communication with the team. For instance, I am always keeping my team engaged through videoconferencing for daily meetings, and only calling up my teammates whenever any urgent need is arising. You should also let your employees know about the best time and way to reach you during your working hours. Keeping an eye out for proper sharing of information through the best means of communication is something that would help you a lot working as a remote manager during this period of lockdown.

• Carving Out Opportunities for Remote Social Interactions

One of the best means to help your teammates stay connected is by structuring ways for employees to socialize beyond work topics. This is true for all remote workers, especially for the extrovert ones who feel that the coronavirus has suddenly transitioned them out of the office. The easiest way to do so is by leaving some time right at the beginning of a team call to discuss anything apart from work, and that should definitely not include the rising tide of positive cases of COVID-19 patients, as that would give the first-morning call a negative start! What I do with my team is to ask everyone to be ready with their favorite morning beverage and talk to them about how I learned making corn sludge with melted cheese! These sorts of virtual socializing reduce the sense of being isolated and promote a sense of belonging.

• Encourage Your Remote Workforce and Lend Emotional Support

Acknowledging stress and listening to your teammates’ concerns and anxieties is important, especially in the context of an abrupt shift to remote working. You should ask each of them how they are coping with the situation, whether they are facing any challenges, etc. And once they start sharing their points of concern, listen carefully and restate it back to ensure that they are being heard. This may very well be the starting point of your team calls. With this kind of support from you, your employees will be taking up this remote working challenge with a focus and a sense of purpose.

With all this said, let me assure you that “you’ve got this!” Follow these simple yet effective tips and see a stark difference in the way you lead your new remote team to perform far better.

Is the coronavirus outbreak and all the anxiety surrounding taking a toll on your physical and mental health? Is the extensive lockdown coming in the way of your regular fitness routine?

Hakuna Matata! Losing a little control is very natural at such unsettling times. All of a sudden the COVID-19 outbreak and the shutting of the gym have thrown your daily health and fitness routines into disarray.

Furthermore, rationing of the necessary food items has hit your daily food habits as well. But, if social distancing and self-quarantining are being advised by governments and health-care sectors all across the globe, then so be it. We are in it together and we’ll win together!

Even if you are on a lockdown, taking good care of your health is nothing difficult. You need to eat well, get sound sleep, engage in exercise or yoga, connect with friends and family, and engage in hobbies you have almost forgotten given your busy schedule. A healthy body needs a healthy mind too.

I am sharing the tricks am following to stay fit and fine, and I hope this would help you as much as it has helped me and my family – 

• The Diet: Add Vitamin B rich veggies like spinach, broccoli, and beans, eggs, fish, and fruits like bananas in your diet. These help your brain to release dopamine & serotonin – the organic chemicals that induce happiness. Additionally, you may toss in some immunity boosters like garlic, ginger, yogurt, almonds, turmeric, papaya as well to make your diet yummier!
• The Sleep: Sound and adequate sleep will clear out the toxins from your body and repair your body cells mainly. Psychological wellbeing is a compulsion in dreadful times like this.
• The Exercise: Work out! It will reduce your stress, help you sleep better and keep you fit. Even the World Health Organization has recommended a minimum of 30 minutes of movement in a day. Engaging in any form of exercise like brisk walking, yoga, pilates, skipping, sit-ups, walking up & down your home stairs and even dance will seal the deal. 
• The Socializing: Practicing self-isolation can be dreadful sometimes and can get on to your nerves. So it is important to revive your social connections via phone calls, video calls, social media platforms and so on. Be distantly social in the wake of social distancing!
• The Hobbies: Getting hand-on with your long-lost hobbies can easily be stress-reliever. This lockdown has gifted us the opportunity of breaking the monotony and stepping aside from the rat race and engaging in activities that will help in promoting comprehensive mental health. 

Leading a healthy life and maintaining fitness might help to keep you in a better and safer position. The novel coronavirus has already spread across the world like wildfire and is spreading more as we speak and there are yet no medications or vaccines to curb this destruction. So, fitness and isolation might be the most effective weapons to the contagion currently. Let’s pledge to stick by the rules and wipe out the virus in a healthy way!

In the wake of the global pandemic surrounding the novel coronavirus, companies of all shapes and sizes are implementing a work from home policy to keep their workforce safe. This means that most of us are dealing with an unusual challenge – working from home full-time for the first time.

Even if you have previously worked from home on several occasions, mandatorily going remote and self-quarantining with a vicious virus pandemic shaking the entire world has got to be a new experience altogether. This working from home might be for an extended period where you have no freedom of stepping out of the house to socialize and drink. 

So, are you prepared for this sudden and strange shift? 

All that you need are a few tips for successfully getting the office work done from the safe confinements of your house, as well as maintaining your mental well-being.

1. Keep Fresh During the Work Hours

Some of us may just be secretly excited about the entire working from home policy. And some of us do not have to travel those long hours to the office. We can spend all day in our pajamas and sit or lie on our bed and work. It is a bad practice. It may be tempting, but it makes you slow and less productive.

So, just get up in the morning, freshen up and change your clothes. No, nothing formal. But the simple act of putting on fresh clothes sends a signal to the brain that it is time to hustle. Keeping fresh during work hours will make you feel energetic.

Just because you’re working from home does not mean nobody from work would see you. Hello? This is the future of the workplace, and you have a lot of video calls to attend! 

2. Creating an Office Space at Home

Coming to a major challenge that almost all remote workers face at one point or the other is designating a working space where the work and home lives are separate. Being able to disconnect with your work can help you boost your productivity and enables you to look after your household affairs efficiently.

Therefore, creating the physical divide between work life and family is an ardent task, but it is also a crucial one when working from home. The idea of a sperate room for work is something most small apartment dwellers scoff at, just like me. I am writing this article in my living room which also happens to be the dining room. Your workspace does not have to be a room, it may just be a corner – just like in my case. The key is to make your brain feel the physical divide!

3. Scheduling Defined Working Hours

Just like creating the physical divide, you should also be clear about your working hours. If you stick to the scheduled working hours, then you will be able to transition to and from the ‘office mode’ and perform to the best of your abilities. Moreover, if you have a collaborative role, then being on the same schedule as your coworkers or teammates will make things easier.

This hour separation is even more critical when it comes to handling your family. Assigning pre-defined working hours will help you communicate with your family members and establish boundaries so that you can successfully cut down on all sorts of distractions during the work hours. And once your work is done, you will be able to devote time to your family – a win-win situation, isn’t it?

4. Having Occasional Buffer Zones in Between Work

With the lockdown, some of you are missing the drive to your office and the fresh morning air. At least, I am terribly missing my ride to the office. Morning commute to office indeed gives you the buffer time to prepare yourself to get into the work mode. You should do the same while working from home – carving out routines to help you ease into your workday.

Read the newspaper, listen to music, spend time with your pet, exercise, or do anything that you would do on a normal day when you are in office. My point is you should spend time doing something you love in order to stay away from stress.

Similarly, at the end of the working hours do something that would signal your brain that work is finally over for the day. In my case, I have been tuning into Netflix and watching some of my favorite shows, or I have been getting my family together and watching a movie with them. This helps me destress my mind and get ready for a good sleep.

5. Don’t Get Affected by the News, and Most Importantly, Controversial Social Media Updates

Distractions are the biggest challenges of all remote workers, especially ones who are working from home for the first time due to the lockdown. You are at home now, and you will have moments of distractions – your baby running around the house playfully, your dog barking, dad watching the news at a high volume, mom asking you to throw the garbage out, wife asking you to pay the bills online, and more if not less.

Right now, the biggest distraction facing remote workers is the news and the associated updates on social media – fake news, memes, mindless comments, controversial debates, death toll, the Blame Game, etc. Because we are all working remotely due to the pandemic, checking in on the latest COVID-19 updates will be at the front of our minds. We are all anxious and concerned. Isn’t it? 

While I believe that it is good to stay informed but sucking in all the information is not required. I have been restraining myself from scrolling down the news feed and ending up in an anxious mess with all those posts that my friends are sharing every now and then. I would suggest you do the same thing I did to avoid unnecessary distractions – turning off the notifications!

In conclusion, the lockdown and the entire world being affected by a deadly virus is going to be a tough phase for us who will be working from home for the first time. But, with these few essential tips, it would be easier for you to maintain the work-life balance during these trying times.