Thanks to many of us now working remotely at least a couple of days a week, the number of employees who may need a little guidance from HR when working from home has risen considerably.
And while most of us have by now settled into our work from home routines, if you can see that some of your company’s employees are appearing to struggle - or are noticeably less productive - it’s time to take action.
So how can you, as a Human Resources manager, instill good remote working habits in your teams? Here are some ideas.
4 Remote working tips to give to your employees
1. Remind them to reach out to coworkers
Isolation is one of the biggest bugbears of people who don’t exactly love working from home. The problem is, it’s an easy trap to fall into, especially if one’s role doesn’t need an awful lot of collaboration with others.
And feeling isolated or lonely when they’re not surrounded by their coworkers could have a detrimental effect on both your employees’ mental health and their engagement with the workplace.
Let your people know that while maintaining productivity and a high standard of work is still crucial they should also take the time to connect with their teammates.
Saying “good morning” or “goodnight” in the team chat channel or email group is a quick and easy way of remaining visible but your people may also need the occasional reminder to message their coworkers to brainstorm something new, to ask for help or to talk strategy.
2. Encourage them to leave feedback
We’ve talked before about the importance of feedback at work. But just because someone isn’t in the office, it doesn’t mean that their opinion doesn’t count.
The issue is, when you’re working remotely, it can sometimes feel a little trickier to proactively reach out to a manager or HR to share an opinion, offer feedback, or discuss a problem. It’s just not as easy as asking someone for a minute of their time in an office environment or bringing up a topic in a casual chat in person.
It’s vital that your remote workers feel able to talk to you, or to their superior, so make it easier for them by letting them know the avenues they can use to reach out.
Anonymous feedback surveys are good for this purpose as everyone can easily access them. And don’t forget that at your end you need to make it clear that your organization is one which is open and responsive to feedback.
3. Tell them to communicate, communicate, communicate
And by that we mean over-communicate! When teams are remote or hybrid, people either don’t see each other in person or they pass like the proverbial ships in the night if they’re working different hours or days.
When people aren't physically in the same location, it’s much harder to know whether a project is running over deadline, whether a coworker needs help completing a task, or if a brief has changed.
As HR, you need to make sure your company’s employees’ default setting is over-communication - otherwise crucial information could be getting lost. A daily standup meeting via video call or the use of kanban style boards (such as Trello or Jira) will help keep everyone in the loop.
Yes, some of your people might find this a little annoying but it will benefit them by making work more straightforward. And when projects and your organization’s reputation is at stake, this is the only way forward if they’re working remotely.
4. Suggest they work on one task at a time
Sure, there are distractions in an office: Chatty coworkers being the main one. But when your teams are working remotely, their attention could be being pulled in any number of directions.
Amazon deliveries, the dog needing to be let out into the backyard, the pile of laundry begging to be dealt with, the kids getting home from school.
All these things create a break in the flow of work and make it harder to pick up where they left off. And if people are trying to juggle more than one task at a time, this issue is compounded.
And while you can’t exactly (and indeed shouldn’t!) police what your employees are doing every minute of the day, suggesting that they focus on one thing and one thing alone will help them stay in control of both their time and their workload.
How HR can make remote work a success
The Human Resources department has a big role to play in the success of your work from home or hybrid work policy.
There are definite pros and cons to allowing people to work remotely but if you want to minimize the cons and bring the pros to the forefront and give your employees and teams the tools to succeed you need to take action.
If you don’t already have one, think about creating a new hire checklist for remote workers. This will ensure that those who rarely, or never, visit the office will be primed and ready to embark on a long and happy career at your organization.
You also need to regularly check-in with your remote workers to ensure they know that they haven’t been forgotten by the company. This is crucial in maintaining remote employee engagement.
Finally, making sure you have policies, practices and procedures in place that take into account your remote people will benefit both them and the company as a whole. Maybe you need to consider implementing guidelines for online communication, for example.
With more people communicating virtually, setting your expectations will help avoid miscommunications and ensure all employees, wherever they are, follow the company standard.
How can Hezum help your Human Resources team?
If you’re a small to mid-sized business that is looking for a better way to handle your HR’s daily tasks, we can help.
Just a couple of things we can assist you with include onboarding your employees more efficiently and managing time off with less stress and paperwork.
Generally speaking, we make life easier for busy HR departments!
Want to find out more? Create your company account for free today and let’s get started.
Eve Church
I'm a UK-based content writer here at Hezum. I've an interest in all things HR and company culture.
United Kingdom
