They didn’t just make building blocks. They give people an outlet for creativity — you can use LEGOs to create whatever your heart desires.

And fast forward to now? They’ve created a whole empire with limited edition sets, video games, movies, and amusement parks.

Now think about you, me, and everyone else as the building blocks of today’s society, and our families as the extension of our structure. And think about how many different things ‘family’ has come to mean.

Your historical nuclear family, defined in psychology as a “family unit consisting of an adult male and female and dependent children,” is still here. But it’s complemented by waves of new family makeups.

Take for example: 

• A notable rise in same-sex couple households (1.3M), with more than half of them (58%) married couples. What’s more, an estimated 2 million LGBT people are interested in adopting to expand their family.
• The desire to grow a family with children is still present: An estimated 1 in 8 women between the ages of 15 and 49 years old have received infertility services in their lifetime. 
• A growing ‘fur-baby’ population, a term popularized by millennials, with 66% of U.S. households owning at least one pet in 2023 (a 10% jump from 1988).

As an employer, your family benefits package needs to reflect that diversity.

Family-friendly benefits for all types of families

Modern families need modern benefits. Period.

Old-school benefits simply haven’t kept pace with the modern family. They aren’t inclusive of the different types of families we now see.

• A traditional nuclear family
• Single parents
• Employees struggling with infertility issues
• A same-sex couple looking to adopt or do IVF to start their own family
• Couples that are childless by choice
• A dog mom (or dad)

You also have to think about the age of your employees and how it relates to their stage of family life. Younger employees are just starting their family, while older ones might have grown children or be taking care of aging parents.

If your organization (like most) has a multigenerational workforce, your benefits package needs to be flexible enough to accommodate the different needs of your employees and their families, regardless of age or family structure.

Are your family-friendly benefits inclusive enough? 

Here’s a (not so) fun fact. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countries with zero national paid leave of any kind. This leaves a massive challenge for employers and employees — employers who want to do right by their people, and employees who are faced with decisions about whether they can afford unpaid leave or how to take time to address postpartum care.

Note: Under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), all public agencies and private organizations with 50+ employees must provide 12 full weeks of parental leave. However, this can be unpaid.

But beyond proper family leave, there are tons of benefits employers can offer to their people to make all stages of parenting and family building — for all types of families — less stressful and less of a financial burden. 

At Compt, 10% of our 25+ stipend category spends were on ‘Family,’ showing a need to support family-related expenses.

We’ve listed some of the top ideas below, but we encourage you to think creatively when it comes to how to support evolving families and their needs.

6 types of family-friendly benefits to offer

Families come in all shapes and forms, so standard benefits packages simply won’t work here. That’s why we believe in letting you piece together benefits that fit each family just right. You know, like LEGO blocks. 

To help get your wheels turning, we’ve organized family-friendly benefits you can offer your employees into six categories:

1. Fertility benefits
2. Adoption benefits
3. New parent benefits
4. Working parent benefits
5. Pet parent benefits
6. Childless families (by choice)

1. Fertility benefits

For those looking to start a family, there are countless options available. But with those options comes hefty costs, massive amounts of time spent, and (potentially) an emotional road. According to a study by the World Health Organization, 17.5% of the adult population — nearly 1 in 5 — experiences infertility. Most couples battle this problem through one of two methods: In vitro fertilization (IVF) and Intrauterine insemination (IUI).

The average cost of an IVF cycle is $14,000-20,000. IUI costs are much lower, $300-1,000 per cycle, but they’re three times less effective than IVF procedures. 

You can help those going through the fertility process by providing the following fertility benefits:

• Covering a portion of the fertility costs — Think creatively here. Could you offer a health and wellness stipend to cover a portion of some of their medical bills not covered by insurance? 
• Providing additional days off work for the person to go through the process. They’ll need to go through appointments, medicine, shots, retrieval, bloating, tests, transfers, and much more. Putting a flexible working policy in place or allotting days off for medical treatments outside of regular PTO can be a big help. 
• Mental health support. Trying to conceive can be a long, arduous process, and one that can be emotionally taxing, too, with 56% of women (and 32% of men) in one California study reporting significant symptoms of depression while undergoing infertility treatment. A health and wellness stipend could also cover co-pays for therapy, or you could offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for short-term counseling. 
• Fertility coaching. Maybe your employees are considering IVF, or you have someone right in the middle of their process. Working with a fertility coach can help employees navigate this challenging time and make sure they’re taking care of themselves holistically. If you use Compt to offer a health and wellness stipend, team members could use it for sessions with a fertility coach.

What about surrogacy?

Surrogacy is the process where a woman (the surrogate) agrees to and carries a child for another couple. It’s becoming increasingly common, too. In 2023, the CDC reported 413,776 ART cycles initiated nationwide. With all the legal and medical fees, the average costs jump to a whopping $100,000.

You can help the family that’s going through the surrogacy process by providing the following family-friendly benefits:

• Covering travel expenses 
• Providing fertility reimbursements 
• Prenatal care for the surrogate
• Healthy food for the surrogate
• Payment for surrogate services
• Legal fees

Consider this: Anything your employees pay for as part of the surrogacy process could be uploaded as a receipt through a stipend program. This could be any of what we’ve listed, or even things like flights or hotel accommodations as part of the process.

See fertility benefits in action: All Compt employees can access a $4,000 out-of-state care stipend. When our very own Senior Manager of Marketing Operations, Meghan Ferneau, joined us back in 2022, she used it to cover clinic fees, travel, and room and board when she visited her preferred IVF clinic in St. Louis, Missouri.

Psst: Get a demo of Compt with us to learn more about the various stipends you can offer to your people.

2. Adoption benefits

For those who may not want or can’t have a biological child, adoption is a great option to help children in need of a safe home.

Most of the adoption in the U.S. is divided into three categories:

• Domestic adoption
• Foster care adoption
• International adoption

More than 100,000 children are adopted each year in the U.S. Each route has unique steps, but they share one thing—high costs. Legal fees, home studies, counseling, and travel fees are just some of the expenses that can cost your employee up to $66,000.

To alleviate some of the expense, you can provide adoption assistance benefits, which are employer-sponsored financial benefits designed to offset the costs associated with adoption, which include a lot of the expenses we covered above. Your employees might also qualify for your state’s adoption subsidy, so it’s important to give them information about these programs. 

You can also take steps to support your adoptive parents by creating an adoption-friendly company culture. When you’re thinking of how to document your work schedule, PTO, and leave policies for parents, you need to make it clear this includes things like adoption-related leave.

No matter which parenting path someone chooses, they need leave time for different reasons. Beyond that, you should celebrate adoptive parents just like you would new biological parents with a celebratory note or a small congratulatory gift. One of our clients takes this to heart, with their inclusive spot bonus for new babies stating, “this gift is available to new parents, gestational birth or not.”

See adoption benefits in action: American Century Investments reimburses up to $10,000 of eligible adoption-related expenses and offers 10 weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child. And American Express provides up to $35,000 in adoption benefits to employees.

3. Benefits for new parents

Welcoming a new child is just the start — then the 24/7 care begins. 

New parents face big changes fast, and if you provide them with the right support, it can make a world of difference. Here are three things you can do to help them out:

• PAID parental leave. We already covered this a little, but let’s make it crystal clear: We believe in paid parental leave! Take care of your people while they’re taking care of their new baby. It’s as simple as that. 
• Lactation support. Nursing employees have a right to a reasonable break time and lactation. Provide your lactating employees with a calm, discreet, and quiet place to lactate milk while they’re at work (if you have an office), or consider a health and wellness stipend that could cover some of the cost of a lactation consultant or breastfeeding supplies.
• Coaching. Whether it’s for foster, adoptive, or biological parents, paying for 2-3 sessions of parent coaching can make a world of difference for new parents. In these sessions, they’ll learn how to support their child’s development and establish healthy routines that work for both the parent and the baby.
• Childcare support. Etsy gives their employees $4,000 a year in childcare credits. Parents can use this either onsite or for at-home childcare options. 

See benefits for new parents in action: Our client, Jellyvision, has an inclusive spot bonus for new parents, gestational birth or not, to help adjust to life with a new baby. This benefit can be used for parenting support, health and wellness, food, or specific baby-related necessities. It’s a “well-loved gift” and is “highly utilized by new parents” at the company, the team says.

4. Working parents benefits

As kids grow, so do the demands on working parents. In fact, nearly 27% of mothers with their youngest child under six report working from home at some point during the week. Understanding what your working parents need day in and day out can help you evolve your family-friendly benefits over time.

Here are some examples of family-friendly benefits for working parents: 

• Flexible work option. A 4-10 working pattern, remote work, 9-80, or part-time job can help parents juggle their workload with the responsibility of being a parent.  AccumTech has Core Hours, where everyone must be available from 10 am to 3:30 pm, but employees decide where (and when) to finish the remaining working hours. This is especially helpful to single parents who do a two-people job alone (who are not a small proportion of working parents).
  
  According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation data from 2023, more than 23 million children are living in a single-parent households. That’s 34% of all households with children. 
• Personalized stipends to support household expenses. With each addition to the household, the expenses grow. Consider the cost of groceries, utility bills, nursery buildouts … how could a flexible stipend help? 
• 529 contribution. With this plan, a parent can contribute to their child’s K-12 education, apprenticeship programs, or college education.

And let’s not forget if you have millennials (born between 1981 and 1996), it’s very likely that they are a part of the ‘sandwich generation,’ a term coined to describe a growing number of adults who are caring for both children and aging parents.

Specific elder care benefits or support with financial costs associated with caregiving can be a huge help to these employees.

See benefits for working parents in action: S&P Globa, Inc. offers 26 weeks of paid parental leave to both primary and secondary caregivers, an emergency backup dependent care program, and subsidized dependent care.

5. Pet parents

You might laugh, but more than ¾ of Millennial respondents from a 2022 study said they consider their pet (mostly cats and dogs) their ‘fur baby.’ And these four-legged babies pack on the costs — the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual household spending on pets has increased from $460 in 2013 to $770 in 2021. 

Pets incur a wide variety of expenses, including: 

• Pet insurance
• Grooming costs
• Specialized dog food
• Dog walkers or doggy daycare

By making sure these furry friends are included in your overall family-friendly benefits package, you can help even your child-free employees help all members of their family. What’s more, many employers are even considering “pawternity” (paid pet) leave, to help new owners deal with separation anxiety and training needs that come from a new pet. 

See pet parent benefits in action: mParticle, a customer data platform headquartered in New York, offers two weeks of paid time off to employees who adopt an animal from a shelter. Kinship provides employees with an annual $750 pet care stipend, along with company-supported paid time off for welcoming a new pet or in the event of a pet’s passing.

6. Childless families

Remember that families include those that don’t have children or pets, and it’s important for employers to support them, too. Forty-seven percent of adults younger than 50 say they are unlikely to ever have kids, a figure that has risen by 10 percentage points from 2018 to 2023. 

The reasons are widespread, with nearly 40% saying ‘it just never happened,’ and others citing a lack of the right partner, focusing on other things in life, and affordability as major reasons they don’t have children.

Truly leading companies are making sure their benefits and stipend programs support all employees who may be dealing with hurdles and challenges of their own. Some ideas here include: 

• Financial support on elder care benefits if they are a caregiver
• Mental health support, which could include day-to-day stress relief or couples counseling co-pays
• All-around health and wellness financial help, such as medical co-pays, wellness massages, support with household expenses, etc.

See benefits for childless families in action: Voya Financial offers comprehensive support for working caregivers, regardless of their familial situation, through various programs and resources. This includes access to caregiving support services, flexible work arrangements, financial planning assistance tailored to caregivers’ needs, and a special EAP that connects employees and their families with experienced clinicians specializing in disabilities and caregiving.

An all-inclusive, family-friendly stipend can provide support where it truly matters

Shipping breast milk for working moms, covering formula as part of a grocery stipend, or having a health and wellness stipend that would give a massage, manicure, or pedicure as a treat to exhausting parents—these are all things that companies aren’t going to offer as a team-wide benefit but that a stipend could help cover. 

While the list of family-friendly benefits you can offer to your people is growing, it’s important to remember that the cost of care and need for those wanting to build (any kind) of family is endless, too. 

Request a demo to see how Compt can provide your employees with personalized family stipends to support the modern family. 

The post Family-Friendly Benefits: Inclusive Benefits for the New, Modern Family appeared first on COMPT.

What is employee engagement?

According to Quantum Workplace, employee engagement is defined as:

“Employee engagement is the strength of the mental and emotional connection employees feel toward the organization that they work for, their team, and their work. 

It’s about how emotionally invested employees are in their work and the organization’s goals. Engaged employees typically display a high degree of commitment, are more productive, and contribute positively to the company culture. They’re not just working for a paycheck or the next promotion, but are genuinely interested in their work and motivated to contribute to the organization’s success.”

Employee engagement pertains to how active employees are in their hired roles and socially with their teammates and coworkers as well.

And executives agree that engaged employees are required for organizational success. According to a Harvard Business Review survey of 984 business executives, 81% of them “strongly agreed” that highly engaged employees perform better and are more productive than employees with average or low engagement. 

Virtual employee engagement isn’t easy, but it’s important

Coordinating the 41 ideas below will range from easy to more complicated, depending on the size of the team or company. But even the more complex engagement ideas are worth the effort. According to a study from Gallup, engaged employees are 21% more productive.

Just because we aren’t face-to-face doesn’t mean employee engagement has to go out the window. In fact, you should be placing a premium on it now more than ever.

As Simon Sinek has said:

“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.”

Employee expectations in the age of remote work

Companies have spent more time working virtually for the last five years, and because of this, workplace norms and expectations are changing.

That’s bound to have an impact on a company’s employee engagement.

But how can you ensure that the impact is more positive than negative?

As Vivek Murthy explains in his book, “Together,” the three types of connection are:

1. Emotional: A close confidant or partner
2. Relational or Social: The quality friendships, social companionship and support
3. Collective: The hunger for a network of community of people who share your sense of purpose and interest

Companies can help their people by fostering the last two the most.

Fortunately, access to virtual connection has opened up a world of connection, learning, and socialization possibilities.

Check out the 41 ideas below to foster and deepen employee connection and belonging for remote teams.

Engage each other

1. Hosting weekly “Coffee Chats” for people to join on Zoom and connect with colleagues. Depending on the size of your company and the number of attendees, consider breaking people into random Zoom meeting rooms.

2. Use Donut to randomly pair people up to be connected for virtual coffee, peer learning, and more.

3. Create a pen pal program where people can send each other notes and cards. 

4. Establish a book group and allow members to choose the books on a rotating basis. People connect well with others when they feel mentally well themselves. Invest in your employees’ mental health with a mental wellness program like the ones provided by Unmind. 

5. Begin a weekly photo share with different themes such as “favorite childhood photo,” “favorite trip taken,” “best memory at work,” and more. 

6. Create a recipe swap and bake-along. After swapping recipes, team members can carve out an evening to cook or bake together on Zoom. Trello had an interesting take on this with a Remote Team Cooking Challenge.

7. Video fatigue is real. Host meetings where employees are invited to turn off their cameras or experiment with meeting via chat, such as Slack. If you’re unsure if you need a meeting, here’s a handy guide.

Learn together

8. Ask-me-anything (AMA) meetings with the founder and/or executive teams. Host these virtual sessions so your employees can get to know the company leaders personally. Here’s a great guide from Slack to get you started.

9. Conduct employee engagement surveys to learn how things are going.

10. Participate in an insights program (like Team Insights) to delve deeper into everyone’s strengths and areas for improvement. 

11. Encourage employees to participate in online courses related to their roles and debrief about what they’ve learned after the fact. You can effortlessly support this initiative with a learning and development stipend.

12. Invite an expert to speak on a topic related to company culture, a specific team, or a general shared interest. 

13. Host a hack day. These aren’t just for developers! Carve out a day where team members can set aside their usual tasks to work on an innovative project that will benefit their team. Here’s a handy guide to get started.

Recognize people

14. Create a “You-are-awesome” Slack channel for people to share kudos.

15. Celebrate a person or an occasion with a virtual Kudoboard. Team members upload photos, videos, or text notes to a board for all to see. Check out their sample boards here.

16. Host a weekly “Team Delight & Wins” meeting for people to give shout-outs to one another and highlight their week’s big wins. We just started this at Compt, and it’s been a powerful way for everyone to take a moment to recognize a highlight of the week (focusing their brain on more positivity), and celebrate one another.

17. Recognize your peoples’ birthdays, work anniversaries, or for a job well-done with a rewards and recognition software like Compt.

18. Set up a points program like Nectar where your employees can reward each other for a job well done with points that can be converted to real-world prizes.

19. Recognize people for what they’ve done and who they. Take a note from a coach on how to acknowledge your people.

Promote well-being

20. Bring in an ergonomist. In our People Operations Spotlight interview with Julie Paris from Akamai, she shared that they hosted a virtual wellness session with an ergonomist to help people set up their home offices and workspaces with their health in mind.

21. Introduce flexibility: Since no two employees are alike, create a process for employees to time-shift their working hours to accommodate their unique situations, preferences, and needs.

22. Use My Virtual Mission to create a virtual fitness challenge and track movement through steps, biking, and other metrics.

23. Bring in career and/or personal coaches. Therapy is often a staple for mental health services, but coaching offers a new perspective on well-being. A coach can help people create certainty and boost clarity and confidence. Check out Ace-Up, Bravely, and BetterUp.

24. Offer your people a health & wellness stipend through Compt to let them pick their best health and wellness initiatives. You can make everyone’s health needs possible, from meditation apps (Calm, Headspace, 10 Percent Happier) to home gym equipment, paying for therapy/coaching, fitness apps and more.

25. Foster charitable giving. Research shows that people gain a powerful dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin boost when contributing to meaningful causes. You can set up a single charity, rotate one, or let people pick their own with a charitable giving stipend.

Have more fun together

26. Begin every meeting with a five-minute game, icebreaker question, riddle, or other fun element. Facilitate richer connections and fun at the same time.

27. Start or end the week strong with a fun trivia quiz. Check out Water Cooler Trivia to automate trivia and send to your virtual team at the same time each week.

28. Create a virtual space for people to teach their colleagues about something related to their roles, such as what goes into stakeholder management, HTML for beginners, how paid media works, and more.

29. Play online team-building games:

• Let’s Roam – virtual team trivia
• Goosechase – virtual scavenger hunt
• Check out Among Us
• One Gotta Go – a card game of elimination (download digital edition for remote teams)
• Murder Mystery Party – virtual murder mystery

30. Murder a little too dark? Check out these virtual escape room options for a fun team building activity!

31. Hire a stand-up comedian. If laughter is the best medicine, help people fulfill their prescription by hiring a comedian to host your next virtual happy hour. Check out Laugh.Events to book a comic.

Celebrate the approaching holidays

32. Host a fancy happy hour. Invite employees to change out of their sweats and into an outfit of their choice for a Zoom cocktail party.

33.. Host a virtual Secret Santa. Invite those who wish to participate to fill out a form and include their address. Then randomly assign “Santa’s” a person to gift (with their address), set a modest budget, and let them send a surprise gift. Take it a step further and set up a Zoom for people to open their gifts together and connect over the spirit of giving.

34. Celebrate your people. Thank them for all their hard work by gifting them a spot bonus to spend on the gift they want.

Work experience

35. If you haven’t already done so, have your company’s mission and values outlined and easily accessible so everyone understands why the company exists, as well as the behavior that rewarded.

36. Write down your team’s unwritten rules. A simple list of, “It’s okay to…” items is profound because it lets people know what is and isn’t okay.

37. Offer relevant and meaningful perks. A stipend allows your people to pick the perks that are most relevant and meaningful to them and continues your support for them in a way that aligns with their unique situations.

Onboarding ideas

38. Have your new team members fill out a “How to Work With Me” document to share life details, work quirks, and other important information for their new colleagues. Highlight the other documents of their colleagues so everyone can quickly get on the same page on how to work together best.

39. Have existing team members set up 30-minute chats with new team members. All topics are on the table, which is a great way to deepen connection and develop psychological safety. This is a great idea from the book Never Eat Alone.

40. Set-up a buddy system for new hires. Starting a new company can feel like the first day at a new school. Encourage their connection and success by assigning them a buddy or mentor to help them navigate the ropes.

41. Send them limited-edition swag. These don’t have to be big or expensive items – coffee mugs, shirts, backpacks, and stickers are powerful ways to recognize your new people.

Deepen your learning:

• 15 Thoughtful Ways Companies Can Support Parents Working From Home
• Top Lifestyle Benefits Trends for 2025
• The Ultimate Guide to Fringe Benefits in 2025

Compt is the #1 employee stipends platform that gives your people the freedom to choose the lifestyle perks that are best for them and their always evolving needs, even when remote. Interested in learning how Compt might benefit your company? Request a demo.

The post 41 Innovative Employee Engagement Ideas for Remote Work appeared first on COMPT.

“Hybrid work” is the new term that’s being used to describe this new working model where companies will allow employees to continue to work from home if they want to in some capacity, while also keeping their office. And as this concept continues to take shape, several employers have recently announced their intention to adopt their own version of a hybrid work model.

The employers who are officially taking on this hybrid workforce concept are Microsoft, Ford Motor, Citigroup, Inc., Google, and Infosys, and we’re going to explore what each of their hybrid working models look like in this article. Time will tell how these hybrid work plans will pan out and whether other companies will follow suit – many experts expect many companies will.

Microsoft

The public first learned about Microsoft’s intention to implement a hybrid work model in October 2020, and the company has since shared even more detail about their philosophies and practices around this new model. In summary, the software giant based in Redmond, Washington will allow each employee the option to work from home 50 percent of the time or less without needing to obtain approval from their manager.

Employees who want to work from home more than half the time will need their manager’s approval. They will also give up their desk or office at Microsoft’s headquarters but will have dedicated spots available to them when they do need report in person.

Those approved for permanent remote work also have the option to relocate, although changing their home address might impact the benefits they receive from Microsoft. While the exact amount hasn’t been shared publicly, the company plans to cover their employees’ home office expenses.

Ford Motor Company

The Detroit-based auto manufacturer announced in March, 2021, that it was adopting a hybrid work model for 30,000 employees already working from home. Several major publications including The Washington Post covered Ford’s recent decision and shared more about the hybrid work model the automaker plans to make effective in early summer 2021.

Ford employees who have worked at home throughout the pandemic can choose to continue working remotely with manager approval. They only need to report to the office in person for situations that require face-to-face interactions such as group projects and some meetings.

David Dubensky, a spokesperson for the Ford Motor Company, acknowledged that the nature of its business makes it impossible to offer the remote working option to all employees. This is especially true for those who work in direct manufacturing positions.

The company made the decision after 95 percent of its employees expressed a preference for hybrid working in a June 2020 internal survey. While Ford has taken the lead on this matter, other automakers General Motors and Toyota are reportedly also considering it.

Citigroup, Inc.

March of 2021 also marked when Citigroup announced its own version of a hybrid working environment. The decision comes as employees of the nation’s third-largest bank made plans to return to working full-time from the office earlier this month. Citigroup corporate headquarters are in Manhattan, New York.

Jane Fraser, the CEO of Citigroup, stated that the company based its decision in part from the benefit many employees received from the flexibility of working from home during the pandemic. She also described how the likelihood of employees adopting a hybrid work model depends on how well they can collaborate with co-workers and management from their home office.

The hybrid working arrangement is not available to bank branch or data center employees of Citigroup’s Manhattan headquarters. Fraser also announced a ban on video meetings on Fridays, or “Zoom-free Fridays”, and that a small percentage of the 210,000 employees at this location would continue to work remotely 100 percent of the time.

Google

With many of its offices set to reopen in the spring of 2021, Google announced that it was shifting gears toward a hybrid working environment in early March 2021 as well in ComputerWeekly.com. To prepare for the shift of people working both from home and the office, Google made several changes to its office productivity suite, Workplace. Workplace has replaced both Google Hangouts and G Suite. Examples of its key features include:

• Cloud-based storage
• Collaboration tools
• Endpoint security
• Management controls
• Video conferencing

Google CEO Sundar Pichai decided to take the hybrid working model approach after considering feedback from hundreds of customers. Organizations using Workplace reported improved collaboration from remote locations and across multiple time zones. More than 90 percent of companies responding to a Google survey indicated they would continue to allow remote working or a hybrid work model even as the threat of COVID-19 subsides.

The feedback prompted Google to continue offering flexible and innovative solutions, both to its clients and its own employees. This is not surprising considering that Google was one of the first major corporations to offer flexibility to its employees at the start of the pandemic. After already allowing its employees to work from home through July 2021, Google is still considering specific hybrid work models.

Infosys

As of December 2020, nearly a full year into the pandemic, only two percent of the thousands of people employed by the Indian information technology firm worked full-time from the office. Infosys CEO Salil Parekh announced at that time he would not require employees to be physically present at the office for at least the first six months of 2021.

Once the June 2021 deadline has passed, Infosys will consider vaccine and pandemic data to decide about future hybrid working environments. Parekh has stated that the exact hybrid working model available to each employee depends on the nature of their position. He also expressed enthusiasm that the newfound flexibility would allow more women throughout India in caretaking roles at home to officially become part of the workforce.

This decision comes on the heels of India’s government announcing that IT companies could allow their employees to work from anywhere. Another IT consulting company, Tata Consultancy Services of Mumbai, India, intends to have 75 percent of its staff work from home by 2023.

Key Takeaways

Looking at each of these organization’s individual plans for a hybrid work model, one big thing they have in common is that their decision to move towards this working model have largely been driven by their employees’ wants and preferences – rather than something more objectively beneficial to the employer like remote productivity data. This is a great sign for employees everywhere because when leading companies like the ones on this list put their employees’ needs first, many others will likely follow suit.

Compt is the #1 employee stipends platform that gives your people the freedom to choose the lifestyle perks that are best for them and their always evolving needs, even when remote. Interested in learning how Compt might benefit your company? Consult with our team or request a demo.

The post 5 Companies Planning for A Hybrid Work Model (And How They’re Doing It) appeared first on COMPT.

It’s hard to believe that we’re five years away from 2020, the year that millions of employees started working fully remote within a matter of weeks, many of whom had never worked outside of the office. While this abrupt shift to remote work was and continues to be a challenge for businesses, many employees welcomed this change from their traditional 9-5 in-office routines.

Even before COVID, workers were asking for flexible work, with 54% of office workers willing to leave their job for one that offers flexible work time. In another study, 90 percent of employees said that flexibility in their work arrangements contributes to their morale.

Now that companies have become familiar with remote working many company leaders are starting to make decisions on whether they’ll maintain some sort of remote work model going forward. In fact, some companies have already committed to their plans to allow work remotely indefinitely and have shared their decision publicly, including Google, Uber, Zillow, Square, Dropbox and Drift.

For companies who have yet to make that decision, and even for those who’ve decided already but want to ensure their decision is the right one, this article will cover the benefits and challenges of remote work, as well the keys to having long-term success with remote work in your company.

Benefits of remote work

People across the globe are now working independently from their homes rather than in offices.

For most, remote work has unlocked a new way of thinking about work, life, and how to approach one’s day. The majority of people who are working from home want to continue in some capacity, even after the world no longer faces a pandemic.

Remote working enables people to spend more time in the ways they want:

• Rather than commuting, employees can focus on their families without having to give up their careers.
• Employees have a greater sense of personal effectiveness and productivity.
• Remote work provides greater opportunities for those with a disability or chronic illness.

The same can be said for companies. Organizations have quickly pivoted to offer a more flexible work environment for their employees-a strategic imperative in today’s world. When organizations offer remote work, they realize a host of benefits:

• Access to new talent markets
• Increased productivity
• Reduction in turnover and absenteeism
• Increased diversity
• Potential cost reduction in real estate and resource usage

It’s safe to say that remote work’ or at least some version of remote flexibility, is now the expectation of the majority of employees everywhere.

Challenges of remote work

Communication

With employees no longer in the same physical space, all of the office communication that used to happen organically is gone. Companies now have to establish and share new communication norms or else communication will become a major challenge.

Remote-first companies need to invest more energy into communication by making the implicit, explicit, and having a plan. If you are serious about making remote work work long-term, you need to consider areas such as:

• Whether remote communication will happen synchronously (in real-time) or asynchronously (independent, not time-bound)
• What time zones will your team work from? Will you have a set of core hours when most employees work?
• When will you host company meetings, such as company-wide All Hands?
• Will video conferencing be the norm to allow for face-to-face connection?

Goal-setting and accountability

In an organization with remote workers, the focus is on output rather than physical presence. Setting clear goals and expectations is critical to ensuring the team is moving forward together.

• Have you set objectives for the company, team, and individual level?
• Do you have a clear process to define key projects, outline timeline, and major milestones?
• Do your leaders drive accountability by regularly having teams and individuals report out on their progress towards goals?
• Do you use 1:1 meetings to establish trust and stay in sync on work progress?

Goal setting and accountability is especially challenging for early stage companies who often don’t have a process yet for setting goals. Building this muscle is particularly important to building a highly productive remote organization.

Connectedness

Companies must invest focus into each stage of the employee journey to reimagine how that experience would be best for the remote worker. You cannot tackle these all at once so you must prioritize based on where the biggest pain points are and where you could have the biggest impact on engagement and feelings of connection.

Organizations can inject important elements of their culture into key moments of the employee journey – from the candidate experience all the way through employee exits. How you weave in virtual-first programming to create connections along the way for your employees has to be intentionally designed.

Keys to Long-term Success with Remote Work

1. Full alignment on the right remote-work model

What you’ll often see is that a portion of the executive team loves the idea of a remote first model, but maybe not all of the executive team is bought into the vision. You might find that some leaders within the same organization are resisting or being counterproductive to the goal – that’s not going to work.

For long-term success with remote work, all of the executive team within your company needs to be bought into these new norms so they’re leading by example.

2. Outline a plan for where you want to be

Once you’ve gained full alignment on your remote working model, companies need to outline a transition plan.

• Where are you today compared to where you want to be in the future?
• What gaps exist?
• What steps will it take to build towards your desired future?

Hubspot describes this so well: “It’s easy for an employer to say that they are remote-friendly, but it’s another thing to ensure that the dynamic and inclusive company culture you promise to employees is delivered to your remote workforce, as well.”

The truth is that many companies who have adopted remote work and are happy with how things are going right now will eventually fail. The reason for this is because they assume that they can simply port their old ways of working into a remote model. We’re already seeing signs of why this won’t work.

Meeting overload is leaving employees exhausted and zoom fatigue is leaving them stressed and anxious. That’s a result of organizations simply taking their ways of working from in the office and porting those over to working from home and expecting that to work. It isn’t.

Companies have to be far more intentional about their remote culture and communication norms. One of the key changes is transitioning their way of working from synchronous work to asynchronous work.

With synchronous work, meetings are used to cover everything from project status, coming together to brainstorm, setting agendas for other meetings, and so many other things. The best remote companies who are most likely to do well working remotely long-term have already shifted all of those tasks to be done asynchronously, so that overall meeting times are reduced and the meetings that employees do have are for gaining alignment and discussing strategy and next steps to move forward.

Defaulting to synchronous communication and meetings can lead to wasteful meetings that negatively impact our wellbeing and productivity. Without shifting communication behavior, your employees will become overloaded, stressed and disengaged.

3. Design your new employee experience

As mentioned earlier, your employee experience is a journey and it includes everything from onboarding to exit interviews and everything in between. When you’ve shifted to a virtual-first working model, this entire employee experience journey has to be looked at with fresh eyes.

Start with onboarding

By the time someone onboards in an office environment, they already have some sense of the company culture, simply by observing the team during the interview process. In a remote organization, this may not be true. It’s critical that remote teams go above-and-beyond to create an onboarding experience that not only helps new hires get set up for success with access to tools & resources, but also welcomes them into the company culture.

Fun and connection

Having budgets, tools and vendors that can support ongoing fun and connection for remote employees are important. Companies can build company-wide, department, and employee-led programs to facilitate connection across many cross-sections of the organization.

• Companies can build “social calendars” to include events such as holiday parties, happy hours, wellness initiatives. Vendors are popping up to facilitate fun events like virtual trivia, murder mystery or cocktail making. Donut is a great example of a company that can provide spontaneous pairings and connections for employees that are difficult to replicate at scale on your own when virtual.
• Department leaders can be allocated budgets to support virtual team building, offsites, strategy planning sessions and more.
• Companies can create programs and allocate budget for employees to create their own fun. Some companies are providing Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or other interest groups budgets so they can self-direct and design programs that make sense for them.

Inclusive perks and benefits

Many companies quickly pulled together programs to support their remote employees when COVID-19 first hit and didn’t put much long-term thought into it. The most common set up was giving employees money at the outset of COVID-19 to set up their home office and possibly cover their internet. In some companies, they converted a gym membership to a virtual membership, or gave a one-time allowance for home gym equipment.

Although companies don’t have to offer remote perks, many companies are considering a remote perks package to stay competitive and to attract and retain their remote employees. Although providing remote work flexibility in itself is a perk and very valuable to employees, the opportunity to find companies willing to offer remote work is much easier to come by in a post-COVID world. Employees now expect remote work flexibility from their employer. The best remote companies are going the extra mile to support their remote workers and set up perks that create the greatest amount of flexibility and inclusivity.

How this shows up in practice is to broaden the definition of your perks and benefits programs to recognize that employees have diverse backgrounds and needs and want more choice in how they use their dollars. Creating an internet stipend, a health and wellness stipend, or any other custom “remote lifestyle” perk stipend with a tool like Compt is where companies are going to see the most value in terms of supporting their employees.

Here’s an example of all of the diverse ways a company can support remote employees’ health and wellness needs by broadening the definition of what that means for them (using Compt).

Rewards and recognition

What a remote worker values in rewards and recognition can look quite different than what was previously designed for your in-office team. The most effective programs for recognizing your employees are ones that are highly visible, and tied to the company’s core values. However, when everyone in your organization only connects virtually, the application of these programs have to adapt.

For peer-to-peer recognition, Bonusly is a great tool for teams to raise awareness for the great work happening across a company and create a shared excitement around a win.

4. Be explicit about documentation

Documentation, like communication, is a foundational part of how any company works and it’s at the core of what can go really right or really wrong in a virtual-first company. If you’re moving to an asynchronous way of working, key company information needs to become available, transparent and accessible in a centralized way. Remote employees should have access to as much self-serve company information as possible so they can be effective in their roles and you remove information bottlenecks.

A few areas that companies should clearly document are:

• Company Culture Handbook: Companies should invest time in developing a company culture handbook that not only shares important company policies but also documents the company history, culture and ways of working. Really good employee handbooks help employees understand what’s expected of them, the company’s stance on important topics such as diversity, equity & inclusion and the resources they have available when and if they need support.
• Communication Norms: Companies should document their communication and meeting norms to remove the guesswork of who/what/where/when/why to communicate to keep work moving forward smoothly. Companies should define their working hours and expected response times. Companies should also define meeting etiquette so meetings are run efficiently and audit their meetings on a regular basis.
• Centralized Intranet: Companies should take time to develop a centralized intranet where company resources can be found all in one place. Some examples of content to include on your intranet are information on your company benefits & perks, past All Hands video recordings, leadership welcome videos and official company goals.

5. Identify a core tool stack

Tools are the backbone of any successful remote-first company. Tools are needed for automation and transparency and should be considered to solve your culture, communication, and goal setting challenges.

There are some tools you may already have depending on the size and scale of your organization, and then there are other tools you may need to adapt to a remote working environment. A great tool stack for most companies would include having a designated tool for:

• People management (like Lattice or 15Five)
• Project management (like Trello, Asana or Jira)
• Communication (like Slack or Microsoft Teams)
• Document sharing (like Google Workspace a.k.a. GSuite)
• Intranet (like Confluence or Notion)
• Design collaboration (replacing the whiteboard with a digital whiteboard, like Invision)
• Connection, rewards and recognition (like Compt, Bonusly or Donut).

In addition to the essential tools mentioned above, it’s important to incorporate remote support tools into your stack. These tools, such as remote desktop software and IT helpdesk platforms, play a vital role in providing technical assistance and troubleshooting for remote employees. They ensure that your team has access to immediate support, minimizing downtime and enhancing productivity.

6. Trust

At the end of the day, having mutual trust with your employees is the most important foundational step companies can take to be successful. Great remote teams will assume positive intent when things feel off. If an employee is behaving differently in a meeting or misses a deadline, don’t assume it’s due to poor performance. Managers should reach out to see what’s going on. They might be dealing with a personal issue or reacting to something you’re unaware of. Be proactive in building and maintaining the relationships with your remote teams to check in and keep the lines of communication open.

In closing, like any other major organizational change, shifting to a remote-first culture and mindset will take commitment, trial and error, and a constant aptitude for measuring, learning and iteration.

Listening to your employees is the number one thing you can do to create and maintain a sustainable culture-and should be baked into your plan to get to your optimal remote working model.

—

Shelby consults with CEOs, People Leaders, and Venture Capital firms who believe people-first cultures empower successful companies.

She provides her clients with guidance in the areas of:

• Remote & distributed work expertise
• People leadership advisement
• People technology strategy

This post was written by Shelby Wolpa, a People Leader & Distributed Work Expert with 15+ years experience building and scaling people functions at high-growth companies while creating world-class company cultures. She led the reimagining of a fully distributed environment at InVision and previously founded three successful people teams at Instacart, One Medical Group, and Palantir Technologies.

Learn more at shelbywolpaconsulting.com

Compt is the #1 employee stipends platform that gives your people the freedom to choose the lifestyle perks that are best for them and their always evolving needs, even when remote. Interested in learning how Compt might benefit your company? Consult with our team or request a demo.

The post Adapting to Remote Work: The Benefits, Challenges, and Keys to Long-term Success appeared first on COMPT.

In this article, we’ll show you how to engage and empower deskless employees to create a more productive and positive workplace.

What is a deskless worker?

A deskless worker is someone who isn’t tethered to a desk or desktop for their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. Instead, they spend most of their day on the move or performing physical tasks. Or, they do their jobs remotely without a designated desk or office space (e.g., a digital nomad).

Common examples of deskless workers include:

• Manufacturing workers
• Construction workers
• Retail associates
• Healthcare professionals
• Field sales reps
• Truck drivers
• Hospitality staff
• Restaurant servers
• Dock workers
• Transportation workers
• Gig workers (e.g., for events)

While the term ‘deskless workers’ has historically referred to blue collar workers, the digital age has expanded this definition past the transportation and manufacturing industries.

Deskless = few opportunities to interact

Deskless work is characterized by a mobile environment. An example of a company with a massive deskless workforce is Amazon. Out of the company’s 1.5 million+ employees, more than 900,000 work in warehouses, fulfillment centers, retail locations, and out in the field.

Many deskless employees never intersect. Given the different locations, shifts, and work styles of deskless employees, it’s challenging for them to interact with coworkers or their direct managers. This means it’s a lot more challenging for them to share a collective goal, bond over shared experiences, or feel included in company culture.

When a significant percentage of your workforce doesn’t have a shared understanding of your brand or culture, employee retention and engagement plummet. This helps explain Amazon’s 150% annual turnover rate (which is double the industry average). Every year, Amazon’s eye-opening employee attrition costs shareholders ~$8 billion.

Amazon is just one example of a worldwide trend, though. According to Gallup’s Global Indicator for Employee Engagement, only 32% of the US workforce and 23% of the global workforce are engaged.

This means that the vast majority of all employees don’t feel committed to their company’s goals or connected to its culture.

What makes communication among deskless employees difficult?

Deskless employee engagement requires a different approach from traditional office workers. Significant differences in how and when they work, coupled with limited opportunities for face-to-face interaction, make it a lot more challenging to communicate with deskless workers.

Here are four reasons why:

Different schedules

Most deskless workers work in shifts. This makes it difficult for them to communicate with their coworkers, supervisors, or the entire team. It’s not uncommon for some employees to never meet all their colleagues face-to-face.

Scheduling differences also mean they’ll need information at different times than your office employees, so communications channels like email or Slack that would otherwise help won’t work as well.

Feelings of disconnect

No matter the size or type of company you run, a certain level of disconnect is practically guaranteed. Scheduling, time zone, and priority differences make it tough for these employees to form a community, even with their closest colleagues.

• Many frontline employees feel disconnected from their company’s culture because customers are their number-one priority.
• Remote workers typically face issues with geography, time zone differences, limited access to company resources, and the ability to form a bond with their other team members.
• Blue collar workers struggle with expressing their opinions due to a hierarchical communication structure.
• Night shift workers have minimal direct communication with their in-office colleagues and go relatively unknown.
• Disposable or temporary workers don’t have time to form long-lasting relationships.

Some employees opt for these jobs because of this – they prefer to get in, do their work, and get out. But, on a macro level, the numbers don’t lie. Companywide disengagement is bad for business.

High demand for real-time communication

For frontline workers in industries such as retail, hospitality, or healthcare, communication typically happens on the spot (e.g., a conversation with a customer or an emergency situation). The same goes for anyone working on warehouse, factory, or shop floors.

The time-sensitive nature of certain roles means you need instant, two-way communication between employees. Deskless workers don’t have the luxury of pulling crucial information from their computer. They can check messages on their mobile devices, but reliability depends on how quickly they can get a response.

Outdated tech

Your deskless employees might not have access to the same software and tech your in-office employees do. Even if they do, it might not be designed for them.

To effectively manage communication between your deskless team members and their managers, you need a platform designed to handle the nuances of a deskless workforce – shift and location tracking and real-time photo sharing, for example.

Why communication is important for deskless workers

Deskless employees make up roughy 80% of the global workforce. That means 4 in 5 members of the world’s working population has greater difficulty accessing important information and communicating.

There are untold benefits to having engaged employees – their job satisfaction, safety, and, ultimately, your bottom line.

• Employee retention. In 2022, more than half (52%) said they’d leave their job over tech tools. According to another survey of 8,000+ employees and C-suite execs, 45% plan to leave the frontline altogether. Reliable communication increases transparency from leadership and facilitates a sense of community, increasing employee satisfaction.
• Profitability. When employee morale improves, productivity, efficiency, and retention follow. Highly engaged workforces are as much as 23% more profitable.
• Safety. Adequate deskless worker engagement means they can report safety issues and you can share important updates. If they’re disengaged or don’t have access to the right technology, it’s a lot harder to report and mitigate safety hazards.

The role of technology in deskless communication

Although three-quarters of deskless workers spend most of their day using tech, 60% aren’t satisfied with it. This doesn’t reflect an availability issue – it’s simply that they lack…

• an integrated platform that connects employees, managers, and executives
• a way to easily access vital information and updates (e.g., product information, new orders, or a safety update)
• communication opportunities that go beyond traditional methods (e.g., email)
• integration with the rest of the tech stack

To prevent disengagement among distributed workers, it’s your responsibility to take proactive measures to ensure effective employee engagement.

6 ways to improve deskless workforce communication

1. Audit your current internal communication channels and performance

To evaluate your current platform’s performance and usability, you’ll want to look at team alignment, information deliverability, and engagement levels.

For admins, it should be easy to find this on an analytics dashboard. Look for information like:

• Email open and click-through rates
• Read and response times
• Survey response rates
• Event registrations
• Platform engagement levels (e.g., time spent on the app)

You’ll also want to survey your team members. Ask them how they feel about the tools they’re using and whether they have trouble accessing information.

2. Make critical information easily accessible via mobile technology

1 in 4 deskless workers say a lack of purpose-built tech bogs down their everyday processes. Everything – schedules, product details, HR policies – needs to be available in one place.

Alongside streamlined communication, a central hub for your deskless workforce shortens the time between an employee needing information and receiving it. In some cases, it can cut out the need for a manager’s involvement altogether.

3. Create a comprehensive communications plan

The most successful communication plan for deskless workers requires a simple, easy-to-use tool with multiple communication methods.

• Pop-up notifications let managers share quick updates as employees go about their day. When they clock in, for instance.
• Group messaging allows team members to chat with each other and pour out their thoughts, questions, or concerns.
• Formal announcements keep employees informed about company-wide news.
• One-on-one messaging lets employees communicate privately with their manager or peers in the hierarchy.
• File sharing makes vital documents and photos accessible and easy to find, all in one location.
• Scheduling lets you keep track of employee availability, so managers can create fair schedules that work for everyone.
• Feedback gives workers an anonymous way to share thoughts on company culture and processes.

Managers can lead by example by actively using and promoting the digital platforms designed for communication and engagement. This involves frequently posting updates, acknowledging employee accomplishments, starting group chats, and being receptive to feedback.

4. Set up a rewards and recognition program

It isn’t just about communication. It’s about the type of communication.

Yes, real-time updates and chat functions are great. But to tackle the engagement problem as a whole (and develop a strong company culture), you need to recognize your employees for their work.

Employee rewards and recognition programs are two-pronged:

• Manager-to-employee recognition: Cash bonuses, team member shoutouts, and spot awards a manager gives to their deskless employees for going above and beyond.
• Peer-to-peer recognition: Encourages employees to appreciate each other’s work efforts with messages, “cheers!”, and peer bonuses

You’ll want to give an appropriate award, depending on the significance of the achievement. Read our article on setting up a rewards and recognition program for more guidance.

5. Measure your success from each employee’s perspective

Implementation and adoption are the two biggest challenges when it comes to new technology. So, you need tools that integrate with one another and handle every aspect of the employee experience.

In addition to one-on-one virtual check-ins, exit interviews, and deskless worker surveys, use the following metrics:

• Employee retention levels
• Absenteeism rates
• Employee satisfaction scores
• Task completion times
• User adoption (for software)

You should also consider setting up a focus group of deskless workers to get direct feedback on the tools you’re currently using and how they can be improved.

6. Offer unique lifestyle benefits to enhance compensation

For organizations with a large deskless workforce, offering market rate compensation is the bare minimum. Offering flexible benefits that can impact employees live outside of work is how you stand out from the crowd.

Bonuses, benefits, and team recognition with Compt.

Most companies focus on streamlining their two-way communication and forget the other half of employee engagement. People aren’t just productivity workhorses. They’re human beings that crave connection and recognition.

With Compt, you can give your deskless workers a sense of community, recognize their hard work, and create peer/manager bonus systems that keep them engaged. With Slack integration, you can easily make true human connection part of your everyday communication and, by extension, your culture. See how it works.

The post Deskless Workers: A Guide for Effective Employee Engagement appeared first on COMPT.

• Trello: Manage Tasks Effectively
• Slack: A Communication Hub
• Airtable: Content and Social Media Management
• PeopleForce.io: The All-In-One HR Solution
• Monday.com: Visual Project Management
• Asana: Streamlining Workflows and Communication
• Time Doctor: Tracking Freelancer Progress
• Hubstaff: Understanding Team Productivity
• Virtual Whiteboard: Traditional and Cloud-Base Functions
• ClickUp: Orchestrating Remote Collaboration
• Notion: Logging Work and Tracking Progress
• Teamwork: Enhancing Productivity and Cohesion

Trello: Manage Tasks Effectively

Trello is considered essential for managing our remote team because it enables us to create boards, lists, and cards to track tasks, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress. Despite its lightweight design, it offers several integrations with other popular tools like Slack and Google Drive, making it even easier to manage projects from start to finish.

Trello also eliminates the need to sift through reams of email to identify relevant attachments. The files are kept with the correlating tasks by simply dragging and dropping them onto a card. When we’re up against a tight deadline, this feature is incredibly helpful.

Ricky Spears, CEO, CMO, and Entrepreneur, Ricky Spears

Slack: A Communication Hub

A technological instrument that has become an essential component in efficiently overseeing our remote team is Slack. This collaboration and communications platform has significantly altered the landscape. It enables seamless remote collaboration by facilitating real-time communication, file sharing, and integration with a variety of applications.

We have established specialized Slack channels for various departments, initiatives, and even informal team-building exercises. It improves the accessibility and organization of discussions, reducing email congestion. Integrating applications such as Trello or Google Drive has significantly improved the efficiency of our project management and document-sharing procedures.

Enhanced team connectivity, increased productivity, and accelerated decision-making have been the outcomes. Our remote work infrastructure relies on this adaptable technology to promote cooperation and teamwork.

Steven Athwal, Managing Director and Tech Enthusiast, The Big Phone Store

Airtable: Content and Social Media Management

To manage my remote team, I’ve found Airtable indispensable. It’s like a supercharged version of Google Sheets. This tool combines the best parts of task-management software with the simplicity of spreadsheets.

I mainly use it to keep track of tasks related to our website content and social media posts. It’s user-friendly and makes organizing work much easier. In a remote setting, having such a clear and easy-to-use tool helps everyone stay on the same page.

Martin Potocki, CEO, Jobera

PeopleForce.io: The All-In-One HR Solution

Absolutely, hands down, it has to be PeopleForce.io for us at EchoGlobal. This all-in-one HR platform is the Swiss Army knife of business management. We’re talking about seamless onboarding, real-time performance analytics, and the holy grail of time tracking, all rolled into one sleek interface.

What do I love most? Its dynamic reporting features. Being able to deep-dive into data and pull out actionable insights at the drop of a hat? That’s game-changing.

It’s not just an HR tool; it’s like having an extra member on the team who never sleeps. With PeopleForce, we’ve streamlined our workflows, eliminated bottlenecks, and made my life as a CEO a lot easier.

Lou Reverchuk, Co-Founder and CEO, EchoGlobal

Monday.com: Visual Project Management

One crucial tech tool that has bolstered my ability to manage my remote team effectively is “Monday.com”. This platform is more than just a project-management tool-it’s a navigational beacon for our dispersed team.

From easy-to-read Gantt charts to automation and integration capabilities, it keeps us all in sync. The interface is visually appealing, making task tracking and project progression feel less of a chore.

Monday.com has streamlined the way we operate, fostering accountability and making coordinated teamwork a reality, despite us working from various corners of the world.

Abid Salahi, Co-Founder and CEO, FinlyWealth

Asana: Streamlining Workflows and Communication

In our B2B SaaS company, Asana has emerged as a pivotal tool for remote team management. This cloud-based task manager streamlines workflows with real-time updates, ensuring everyone stays aligned.

Task assignment and deadline management become straightforward, promoting accountability. A standout feature is in-thread communication, centralizing discussions and reducing external communication reliance.

Asana’s asynchronous communication support is invaluable, especially for team members in varied time zones. It lessens the need for frequent meetings, allowing updates at one’s pace. With Asana, we’ve seen a 30% boost in project delivery efficiency and a notable drop in communication overhead.

Madhurima Halder, Content Manager, Recruit CRM

Time Doctor: Tracking Freelancer Progress

We use Time Doctor to track freelancer progress. It’s an effective tool for tracking short-term projects with our freelance remote teams. Recently, we expanded our company to other countries and hired freelancers to handle customer support for our foreign clients.

During this trial period, it’s essential that we have an employee management tool that can accurately track effective working hours. We want this trial to result in more permanent hires, so having this tool allows us to see the excellent performers.

Time Doctor is an indispensable remote-team management tool because it has robust scheduling features and allows freelancers to clock in easily. It saves us a lot of headaches when working out compensation.

The project management features also make for effective tracking when coupled with scheduling and usage tracking. We have a centralized platform where we can analyze project efficacy and identify solutions to project delays.

Alister Wood, Owner, VisitUs

Hubstaff: Understanding Team Productivity

Hubstaff helps us understand how our team spends their time so we can better manage productivity rates and ensure we’re setting up our workforce for success.

We use it to automate team check-ins, easily manage employee scheduling, and turn our production data into customizable reports that tell us how we’re really doing.

This platform has made it even easier to manage our team and understand strengths and weaknesses in our workflows, even from afar.

Hardy Desai, Founder, Supple Digital

Virtual Whiteboard: Traditional and Cloud-Base Functions

One of the most indispensable tools I’ve found for managing a remote team effectively is a virtual whiteboard. A virtual whiteboard is an uncommon platform that combines the functionalities of a traditional, physical whiteboard with those of cloud-based collaboration software.

With it, team members can join video conferences and write on the screen in real-time-great for brainstorming ideas together or keeping each other accountable to deadlines and tasks.

It also allows teams to save projects, track progress on tasks, access assignments from any computer or phone with an internet connection, and even break down tasks into smaller sub-goals while still keeping track of what needs to be done overall.

Michael Alexis, CEO, Virtual Team Building

ClickUp: Orchestrating Remote Collaboration

In navigating the nuances of a remote team, especially one as pivotal as ours, I’ve found that the tech tool “ClickUp” has become truly indispensable. Imagine the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel combined with the reach of a global satellite. ClickUp offers real-time collaboration capabilities, akin to a conductor seamlessly orchestrating a symphony across continents.

Its in-depth analytical features provide a clear picture of each team member’s productivity, while its integrative communication functions ensure that the team remains harmonious and aligned.

Just as an architect relies on a compass to draw a perfect circle, I rely on ClickUp to maintain the intricate balance of efficiency and collaboration among our dispersed team members. The right tools, like ClickUp, have the potency to turn challenges into opportunities.

Ankit Prakash, Founder, Sprout24

Notion: Logging Work and Tracking Progress

Notion has been a great resource for managing our team’s performance and projects. We make a habit of logging our work in Notion each week, allowing us to keep a record of each team member’s accomplishments and progress. Given that we have a heavy asynchronous culture, having one centralized location to refer to regarding work is helpful.

Kelsey Bishop, CEO and Founder, Candor

Teamwork: Enhancing Productivity and Cohesion

For me, the tool that has proven to be indispensable in managing my remote team is Teamwork. This project-management software has streamlined our workflow and drastically improved our communication.

For example, Teamwork allows us to easily assign tasks, track progress, and collaborate on projects in a centralized space. This has eliminated the confusion that often arises from long email chains and multiple document versions.

The software’s integrated chat feature has made it easier for us to maintain the personal connections that are essential in a remote setting. Thus, implementing Teamwork software has significantly enhanced our productivity and team cohesion.

Timothy Clarke, Sr. Reputation and Marketing Manager, Rize Reviews

The post 12 Indispensable Tech Tools for Effective Remote Team Management appeared first on COMPT.

TIPS CATEGORIES:

If you help your team acquire all these abilities, your company will be remote work-ready!

• Communicating clearly & constantly 
• Focusing on consistency
• Having the right tech
• Emphasizing transparency and thoughtfulness
• Setting and communicating clear goals
• Helping your team find their best working style
• Helping your team embrace the perks of telecommuting
• Helping your team be healthy & take care of themselves

These tips and best practices are useful to all remote workers but are specifically for HR/People Ops Professionals who want to support their remote teams better.

Communicating clearly & constantly:

A best practice for running any team, this one is especially important when you have a remote team. When working from home, you can’t turn around and tap a colleague on the shoulder whenever you have a question, so you must incorporate more intentionality around your communication processes. By helping your remote team succeed with this tip, you are preventing problems that may arise from miscommunication.

Clear and constant communication is all about being purposeful, prepared, and building in a process on what, when, and where people can get the information they need to succeed. This allows everyone in the team to be heard, so everyone feels just as important from home as they would in the office.

How to make this best practice possible:

Use communication frameworks

Two excellent communication frameworks that can help ensure clear and constant communication include the “clarify and verify” method, as well as the time-test technique of repeating the content that matters.

Clarify and verify:

This technique is used by many people, from top CEOs to career coaches, and it helps to ensure that the message which was sent to the listener was heard and understood. Each time you communicate something to another person, ask them to repeat back to you what they heard. The same goes for the opposite direction.

Repetition:

To make sure the most important information makes it through and sticks, we need to repeat ourselves regularly. Whatever information is important, say it until you feel like you’ve repeated yourself too much, then say it again.

Make small talk with the team:

By inspiring your team to build rapport with every member of the team through small talk, each member will begin to build trust with one another. Having this strong communication also works by getting to know the complete person, not just talking about work. One big problem of working from home is loneliness, so combat that by building a strong community through communication. You should also try to have a team reunion at least once a year to continue to build your company culture.

Set up tools to help people communicate:

Use video as much as possible! The technology for this has never been better, and seeing someone’s facial reactions helps you understand the situation much better than just through audio or chat. You can use this technology by having longer one-on-ones with remote employees. Take time to talk about what they are liking/not liking about working remotely, their daily routine, if they feel included in team decisions, and if they think anything could be changed for the better.

Develop a process to create “bursty” communication:

Bursty communication are chunks of time designated for rapid, energized talks where questions are answered, and ideas are aligned so all members can then go back to working diligently. This form of communication is said to be the secret of teams that are in-office or remote because it allows people to communicate everything they need, ask the questions they need, get the answers they need, and then go back into a heads-down mode so they can continue their work.

Expert Advice

Async all the way doesn’t work — while the majority of remote work should be able to happen asynchronously, it’s critical to remember there are moments where hopping on a video call are essential, specifically when giving feedback.

Leah Knobler People Ops for Help Scout

Focusing on consistency:

In a remote team, being as organized and streamlined as possible when managing can be the difference between success and failure. Within a distributed team, you want to ensure that your off-site employees are just as in the loop as your in-house employees. This, coupled with clear communication, creates an environment of balance so that no employee feels lost.

How to make this best practice possible:

Balance in-house and remote:

The trick is to make remote employees feel just as important as those in-house. You can do this by creating a habit throughout the company of adding people on calls. Like how you would randomly invite a coworker into a meeting, this allows the right people to feel included in conversations they should know about.

Shift brainstorming to digital:

Because you can’t really create a physical mood board or ideate with post-it notes, tools like Miro or Whimsical can help capitalize on ideas from all team members. This will keep the juices flowing throughout the company and strengthen employee bonds.

Offer perks to everyone:

It must stink if a remote employee hears about all the advantages and benefits that in-house employees celebrate without them. Don’t let this happen in your team because trust can be lost! Teams love Compt because it makes all employees feel valued by offering personalized perks for each and every one of them. If you want to make all your employees feel equally loved, learn how lifestyle spending accounts can make that happen here.

[Are you trying to support your remote employees but having trouble? Talk to one of our HR experts in a 15-minute consultation about your remote strategies and how to give them the perks they need to succeed. Schedule a call here.]

Expert advice:

“Remote works for some and not others because many companies focus mostly on the technology for remote employees instead of the process for performance. Yes, the technology will result in improvements, but it’s essential to return to the fundamentals of work: communication, coordination, and culture. Companies and teams which want remote work to be successful must form clear processes that support these three core principles.” (Sean Graber)

“When you switch from an in-house to a distributed team, you must be intentional about benefits, wording, and how inclusive you are with the group. Know going in that you are going to be battling two cultures and keeping the same isn’t possible, but can be intentional. Adjusting benefits and talking about the perceptions and differences is crucial.” – Remington Begg, the Chief Remarkable Officer at Impulse Creative, where 60% of the team is remote

“Consistency is key to building a successful distributed team. No matter where a team member is located, they need to feel like they have the information, direction, benefits, compensation, and care of the organization in a manner that is in line with any folks working out of a headquarters office.” –Amy Spurling, CEO of Compt, which is a fully remote company since 2020.

“Hire people who you trust and that align with your company’s values–this will make the jump to remote flexibility much easier and increase overall perceived reciprocity. Say no to candidates who are not a “strong yes” in culture fit.” -Liz VanZandt, Lead Recruiter at Pana, which has a few remote workers and allows WFH flexibility

Get a FREE perks audit today

Talk to one of our experts about your perks program and how you can give your employees the things they want and need.

Having the right tech:

If your team is working from home, it is crucial that they have the same tools they would need to succeed if they were in the office. They can have all the skills they need, but if they are at a disadvantage with the proper equipment, then they won’t reach their fullest potential. And remote work may end up becoming a burden. This could be easily solved with the right technology and resources.

How to make this best practice possible:

To make working from home successful, all employees who are telecommuting need everything in place they’d need as if they were in the office. Having the right tools in place affects productivity and communication. You can help your team do this by telling them to have things they need in stock (pens, paper, stapler). This makes sure they don’t waste time during work trying to find or buy things they’ll need.

There are many tools out there for remote workers to make life easier for them while working. Ensuring things like project management, communication, and document storage are working smoothly for remote workers is essential for productivity. For help finding the best tools for remote teams, read this blog post with our top picks.

Expert advice:

“When working with distributed teams, it can be hard to feel heard if you aren’t in the main office – If you’re facilitating a meeting, take the time to make sure that appropriate tech is in place so remote employees can hear and be heard physically” -Allison Sproul, Head of Recruitment & HR at CozyKin where they have 4 fully remote distributed employees and employees work remote 2 days per week on average

“Buy yourself the best tools available. Even if you don’t like to spend money in your personal life, this situation is different. Don’t ever compare buying a $200 bottle of wine to a $200 piece of software. Those are two completely different things.” – Ionut Neagu

Emphasizing transparency and thoughtfulness:

Remote employees deserve the human emotions they would otherwise receive in the office surrounded by people. By being transparent and holding each other accountable throughout the company, you can build trust throughout your business so the company culture stays strong. This can also work to make sure everyone is on the same page. And remember to keep those employees who telecommute feeling included in the team.

How to make this best practice possible:

Make sure everyone is on the same page:

If everyone knows what is going on, everyone can focus on getting their work done. Through clear communication, you can make sure everyone is on task and not lost.

Transparency allows everyone on the team to work together towards their goals. Something that can make transparency really work is, at the end of meetings, having people repeat back to you what they have to get done. This way, you know there was no miscommunication, and they understand where their priorities should lie while working. Also, don’t be scared to ask multiple questions, some people might think they are explaining themselves well, but it might take longer for the other person to comprehend. It’s better to do/say things right the first time and take a little longer than to do it quickly and then waste time later having to repeat yourself or fix something.

Accountability & giving credit:

Something else worth mentioning on the note of transparency is the importance of accountability, especially in a remote team. If something is not working according to plan because of someone’s actions, it’s vital that someone talks to them about it. This way, that person can learn from the mistake and not repeat it in the future.

And with accountability comes giving credit where it’s due. Sometimes remote employees can feel forgotten, not seen, and not heard. But by rewarding them when they complete stand-out work, you can help them feel appreciated. One way to do this is by incorporating spot bonuses, read how to do that here.

Expert advice:

“The trick is to make it easy for others to see what you’re doing but not overwhelm or interrupt them. Two tools I find essential are an open and visible calendaring system and a threaded conversation platform.” –Bob Gower, Director of Process and Innovation Management at Citrusbyte

“Be intentional about the way you’re including your remote team members! This could be something as small as making sure the phone microphone is closest to the person who’s talking in a meeting so remote folks don’t miss any details. It’s these thoughtful moments that remind remote employees they’re a valued part of the team! -Lexi Kantor, Senior People Operations Associate at Ovia Health, where about 1/3 of the team works remotely full time, and the other 2/3 are welcome to WFH when needed

“Involve your team when considering remote practices. Ask for their input every step of the way. Let them know their voice matters when figuring out workflows. And remember, it isn’t always for everyone. I have two pieces of advice for anyone thinking about going remote, and I will borrow from our client Basecamp for one of them: Start small. Take an afternoon a month and try it out. Another piece of advice is for owners: Know what you stand for, both as an individual and a company. It’s so critical to know that even if you are alone in your thinking when you’re acting from that place of self-knowing and self-confidence, everything is ok, and you will be fine.” – Cathy Atkins, President of Metis Communications, which is 100% remote

Setting and communicating clear goals:

The power of clear goal setting enforces a team’s missions and values. It allows a team to work cohesively toward a unifying sentiment. There are many types of goals, so making sure they are all understood throughout the company is crucial so that everyone is motivated on what they are working on.

How to make this best practice possible:

Schedule meetings:

Keeping everyone on the same page about goals is much easier when meetings are implemented to develop ideas and ensure everyone involved fully knows what to work towards. You can have weekly or monthly meetings where you update on work progress, share new ideas, and create game plans to accomplish those goals. Schedule 1:1 check-in meetings, retrospectives, company-wide meetings, or whatever you need to connect on your goals, upcoming projects, and daily tasks. You can begin running meetings that POPPP to make your meetings more effective.

Share MITs:

As we do in Compt within smaller teams, you can institute daily MITs (most important tasks). These are the main tasks you must finish by the end of the day. It helps keep everyone focused on the most important job to be done so that if other things arise, as we know they will, employees still know what they have to get done. This keeps communication open, motivates employees to get their work done, and allows people to hold each other accountable if needed.

Use Project Management Tools:

Something else that you can start doing to make sure goals are clear throughout the company is having a specific place the whole team keeps their ideas, projects, and progress. There are many project management tools that can help with this, you can find a project management tool that fits with your company here.

Expert advice:

“The importance of clear goals . . . we are still working on it, but having quarterly company-wide meetings has been a godsend.” -Sam Tilney, Director of Operations at BuySellAds

“If members of your team work in different time zones, then make sure that you have an overlapping period where everyone is working and organize your virtual meetings during these times.” – Time Doctor

“Who is responsible for X should be obvious to everyone. When it’s unclear, you end up having more meetings, calls, emails, and conversations than you should. This is a recipe for disaster.” – David Fernández, Co-founder of Readsmart (20 Way of Working Tips for Remote Working)

Remote Work Best Practices for Your Team

The following tips are more specifically for remote employees. As an HR pro, you can help your team learn these skills to be more successful with their work.

Helping your team find their best working style:

Understanding how you work best becomes even more important when you consider working by yourself because you won’t really have anyone else who you can copy their habits. Maximizing your efforts without burning out is the crucial balance necessary when working remotely. This can include the right environment, timing, and mentality for focus. By sharing this information with your team and helping them find their working style, you will support them in reaching their fullest potential.

How to make this best practice possible:

Find the right environment:

You now have the power to work from anywhere you want; take advantage of that! You need to find the right environment to concentrate. There are places you could work from to create the perfect space for you. One idea is to create a special space at home, maybe in the guest room. It is important to keep your bedroom as your own sanctuary, so we don’t recommend working from there. Instead, find a place where you will be free of distractions and can get your work done! Other options include co-working places and cafes/coffee shops.

Work during your best hours:

It’s also important to create a schedule that allows you to perform your best work. If you know you work most efficiently in the mornings, then do your most important work in the mornings and save the afternoons for other projects. You can also make a schedule for team-wide meetings. So if there are specific dates/times that your employees are free, you can start scheduling important meetings with that schedule. This process allows you to learn about yourself and your teammates, grow and apply the new learning to actions to make processes more cohesive.

Expert advice:

“It will help you reevaluate your efforts and will give your mind a break from life at home. If you can, try working from somewhere that has a lot of natural light … exposure to natural light increases workspace productivity tremendously.” – Tucker Schreiber at Shopify

“Build your calendar in a way that supports the way you work. Control your own schedule and block off time accordingly. Whether that is time to actually get work done, work out, take care of yourself, etc. Make sure you build it into your calendar so others don’t unknowingly take that important time away from you. –Samantha Anderl, Co-Founder of Interimly (20 Way of Working Tips for Remote Working)

“Whatever it is you do, I guarantee there are some aspects of the job you enjoy more than others. My advice is to do those things in the morning. Schedule preferable tasks in the afternoon.” – Stephen Key

Pay attention to your habits and design your day around your peak productivity. -Sarah Daily, Digital Marketing Programs Manager at GitLab (20 Way of Working Tips for Remote Working)

Helping your team embrace the perks of telecommuting:

People choose to work remotely for various reasons, many of which are highlighted by Goremotely’s graphic below. It’s important to remember why you and your team have chosen this work style to stay motivated and productive with that reasoning in mind.

How to make this best practice possible:

Remembering the luxury of working from home can help you and your employees stay happy and engaged as telecommuters. Let your employees know they can take the opportunity to travel while working, it’s something so many people would love to do. They can also use the flexibility to work on things that make them happy and even attend networking events. And if you give them the ability to pick which hours work best for them, then tell them to work the hours when they are the most productive. All of these apply to all remote workers, including you.

Expert advice:

“Working remotely allows you to be there for the ones you love and be more available for them. It allows you to see more places without ever having to commute. On top of that, working remotely removes almost every distraction.” – GitLab’s The Remote Manifesto

Helping your team be healthy & take care of themselves:

Although working from home can seem like the best option for many people, it can become out of hand if not administered correctly. For example, make sure you or your employees are taking sufficient time off. As studies show, 52% of remote workers are less likely to take time off, even when sick (GoRemotely, 2019). So even though it may seem like the perfect choice, make sure to use this power wisely and in a healthy manner.

How to make this best practice possible:

Know when to stop working:

When you can’t see your co-workers walking out of the office to return to their personal lives, it can be tricky to know when to draw your own line between work and play. Especially when working from home, this line can become pretty blurry. You and your employees must know when to stop working and have a division between when you are and aren’t working. Make sure to make this clear to your employees, so they can feel valued because you care about their health. This is where taking advantage of (or offering) a company phone, laptop, equipment, or email can help.

Have a process for sick time:

As mentioned above, many remote employees don’t take the necessary time off, even when they’re sick. It’s important to put in a process to ensure remote workers don’t work when sick. This should also be included in employee onboarding so that every hire can understand the importance of their health and know that you also care.

Have a Health & Wellness Stipend:

One way remote companies currently care for their employees is through health & wellness stipends. These allow employees to spend their allocated budget on whatever they feel helps them best stay happy and healthy. If you want to learn more about Health & Wellness Stipends and how Compt can help you give these to your team, read here.

Expert advice/statistics:

“Use the flexibility of remote work for good, not evil. Good: Getting up for a sunrise hike. Taking your dog for an afternoon walk. Getting out of the house for lunch. Scheduling time for networking. Traveling while working, if that suits you. Evil: Using all of your time – from waking up to going to bed – to work. Not leaving the house for days. All signs point to burnout, but you just keep going. Use the power of remote work for good, not evil.” –Marie Prokopets, Co-founder of FYI, which is a fully-remote team

How many of those best practices do you and your distributed team already accomplish? Just imagine what your team could accomplish if everyone took all 8 of these tips seriously.

Want to stay in the loop with the rest of our remote work/distributed team content? Read below:

• Why Remote Employees Need Perks & How You Can Offer Them
• The Best Tools For Remote Teams
• Resources To Help Your Remote Team Work Successfully
• Free Remote Work Leadership Course [in partnership with HubSpot Academy]
• 21 Thought Leaders on Remote Work  
• 7 Best Perks For Remote Employees

The post Experts Weigh-In: Tips & Best Practices for Working Remote appeared first on COMPT.

Traditionally, HR positions have been in-office; however, it’s not uncommon for businesses to now have a remote HR department and, with the right setup, it can work brilliantly and be a great benefit for employees on that team.

Here’s all you need to know about working in a remote or hybrid HR role.

Should HR team members work remotely or in the office?

If you work in human resources, you may be wondering whether you can enjoy the flexibility of remote work without changing fields.

The answer is yes – if your company allows it, that is! 

But, there are a few challenges. Most significantly, many businesses believe that HR team members need to be available in person all of the time or at least on a hybrid basis. But if other employees are remote, there’s no reason why HR employees can’t be too – it totally depends on the working model of the company.

Why are more HR teams going remote?

There are three important factors that have led to the increase in remote HR jobs:

1. The requirement for greater flexibility by employees: During the period following the COVID-19 outbreak, working remotely became the new normal, and people had the time and freedom to think about work-life balance. This led to a desire for greater flexibility, and now people from all departments (HR included) want remote or hybrid roles, knowing they can work just as effectively – if not more so – from home.

2. Increased competition for top talent: Now that remote work is demonstrably viable across the board, employees and candidates have a lot of negotiating power. Due to this, companies that want to hire the best talent must strengthen their benefits to fend off competitors. Those competitors can even be overseas. Today, it’s possible to use an employer of record (EOR) service to hire internationally without local entities. An EOR provider like Remote simplifies the global hiring process to the extent that any company can take advantage of it, so it’s not surprising that SMEs everywhere are increasingly looking to source applicants regardless of location.

3. HR is becoming more digital: With more tools and HR tech available for payroll, skills testing, recruitment, accounting, and more, working remotely is much more viable. That means many of the tasks done by HR teams don’t need to be completed in the office and working from home works just as well.

How should you deal with HR problems remotely?

One of the biggest challenges or concerns of having a remote HR team is how it will affect the team’s ability to manage staff. For the most part, this shouldn’t be an issue, but it does depend on whether the other employees are fully remote and the types of problems HR usually deals with.

Some top tips for dealing with HR problems remotely include:

• Always maintain good communication with other employees, whether that’s on Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or email. When staff members know you are easily contactable this can help resolve issues quickly before they escalate into bigger problems.
• Continue to follow HR procedures as you would usually. Just because you’re not always in person doesn’t mean that normal policies should go out the window! 

Can disciplinaries be done remotely?

Yes! Disciplinaries are an essential part of HR and they can still be done remotely, according to CloverHR. Depending on the nature of the situation, you should consider whether a remote disciplinary or in-person meeting is best, but you can achieve a good outcome either way – as long as it’s well planned.

If you believe that a disciplinary can be conducted fully and fairly, then formally invite the employee to a disciplinary meeting (with adequate notice) and begin planning. Most often video calling is the best course of action, but consider the following questions:

• Will you turn your camera on? As an HR representative, it’s a good idea to turn your camera on as this will improve communication with the employee and create a less overt atmosphere.
• Should the employee turn their camera on? You should encourage the individual to also be visually present, however, be prepared if they don’t feel comfortable or refuse to do so.
• How will an employee’s representative or support witness be present? Employees have the right to have a union representative or a coworker ‘present’ at a grievance or disciplinary hearing, even remotely, so they will need to join the call.
• Will remote disciplinaries increase the chances of recordings? If an employee chooses not to have their camera on it is much easier for them to record the meeting without permission so always make it clear whether recordings are permitted or not.

The pros and cons of working remotely in human resources

Pros

• Can be more productive due to fewer distractions:

HR teams can be extremely busy dealing with different departments, queries, and tasks. Being in the office can make this list even longer, especially when anyone can just pop into your office with a “quick question.” (It’s not uncommon for staff members to go to HR with questions that could be answered by their line managers or colleagues, therefore leading to more distractions.) Working remotely, however, can boost productivity. Job search platform Indeed reports that around 57% of remote workers say they are more productive when they work from home. 

• More confidential, especially if you don’t have a private office:

If you don’t have a private office in your place of work then there’s a risk that colleagues may see sensitive information simply by looking at your computer. Alternatively, at home, you’ll have more privacy to keep employee and company information safe.

Cons

• Being in the office can make you more approachable:

No one should feel worried about going to HR for support or simply asking a question. Being present in the office can make employees feel more comfortable approaching you and therefore more satisfied at work.

• It may be quicker to get answers when everyone is in the office:

With everything that HR does, even small delays can have a big impact on work. If colleagues are particularly slow at replying to emails or messages, it’s often quicker to speak to them in person and when you’re only on the other side of the office this is no problem!

Final Thoughts

More and more HR teams are going remote and it’s easy to see why! Today, office-only jobs seem a little outdated. With plenty of resources available and greater opportunities for hiring outside your local area, HR is well on its way to joining the long list of remote positions.

The post Are HR Jobs Suitable For Remote or Hybrid Working? appeared first on COMPT.

In this new era, remote working tools have become essential for many businesses. Remote working tools allow employees increased flexibility during their workday and maximize productivity on all levels. Below you will find eight different tools that range from VOIP software to project management software that can help you take advantage of all the benefits of remote work.

Tool #1: eFront learning

What is Efront learning software? 

eFront learning is a cutting-edge learning platform with advanced features that support both simple and complex training modules. The software is content friendly and allows users to re-use their best content across multiple courses. You can also import useful material from the web to further enhance the quality of your training. eFront’s assessments engine offers native support for multiple types of questions, quizzes, and tests, and it has extensive reporting on all results. eFront also provides a courses marketplace, built-in support for the most widely-used content platforms, and top-notch interoperability standards that make it easy to enrich your courses and enhance the learners’ experience.

What are the benefits? 

eFront software lets you harness the power of your remote workforce. It can help you train your employees, which in turn will create better experiences for your customers and partners. Some of their solutions include employee training using an LMS (learning management system), which is loved by both learners and administrators alike. eFront’s intuitive interface ensures a hassle-free training process. Gamification tools like leaderboards encourage healthy competition and contribute to a superior learning environment. Some other solutions eFront offers are customer training, which helps boost customer happiness and loyalty, as well as employee onboarding and compliance training. 

Tool #2: CloudTalk

What is CloudTalk software? 

CloudTalk software is an innovative Call Center Software that improves your interactions with customers and makes your workflows more efficient. CloudTalk’s features include call recording and Automated Call Distribution (ACD), which is a system that automatically receives incoming calls and distributes them to available agents. CloudTalk’s streamlined ACD can help inbound contact centers sort and manage large volumes of calls, which in turn can help avoid overwhelming your team, not to mention that it boosts customer satisfaction. CloudTalk also offers Interactive Voice Response (IVR), call forwarding, and click-to-call, all features that improve communication within your business and elevate your customer experience. 

What are the benefits? 

CloudTalk offers a unique collection of integrations that help you connect to the business tools you already use and love. CLoudTalk is compatible with HubSpot, ZenDesk, Intercom, and more. CloudTalk can also focus on VoIP, a flexible and dynamic addition to your business. VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol, is the future of business, especially in a remote work environment. VoIP offers much lower installation and maintenance costs, higher scalability, and a variety of useful features inside the platform like IVR menus and automatic call recording.

Tool #3: ProofHub

What is ProofHub software?

ProofHub is a comprehensive project management and collaboration tool designed to streamline workflows and improve team productivity. It offers a wide range of features, including task management, document sharing, team collaboration, time tracking, and more. It has been trusted by thousands of businesses and teams worldwide. The top features that make ProofHub an ideal choice for remote work management include:

• Transparent work allocation and real-time updates
• Granular access controls with custom roles
• In-built time tracking promoting accountability
• Effective collaboration tools like proofing and in-built chat
• Flat pricing with no per-user fee

What are the benefits?

With ProofHub, you’ll experience efficient communication, deadline tracking, streamlined processes, enhanced team engagement, precise billable hour tracking, and uninterrupted remote work, no matter where your team members are located. 

ProofHub is available not just in English but also in German, Spanish, Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Polish. This versatility means you can seamlessly connect with teams from diverse regions, breaking down any language barriers. 

Additionally, the flat pricing structure with no per-user fees ensures you can scale your operations without worrying about budget constraints.

Tool #4: Engati

What is Engati software? 

Engati is free chatbot software; it offers a no-code chatbot and live chat platform to build AI chatbots and engage in real-time conversations on WhatsApp, eCommerce platforms, and more. Engati’s WhatsApp Chatbot allows your business to run campaigns, convert leads, provide support and drive engagement with Engati’s chatbots & intelligent automation. Engati’s Shopify Chatbot gives store and business owners access to a full view of their customer’s journey, pre-built templates to get started with the program, support in over 50 languages, and full omnichannel engagement. The AI Chatbot software created by Engati allows businesses to deploy AI chatbots using minimal coding. Their Live Chatbot gives customers a variety of options when looking for assistance – video calling and auto-translation give customers flexibility when interacting with your business. 

What are the benefits?

Engati’s software gives businesses a variety of solutions in eCommerce, logistics, education, and even government entities.  eCommerce bots are programmed to handle questions about products, policies, and more, while logistics bots streamline delivery scheduling and shipping notifications and bring your customer service to the next level. Educational institutions can use Engati bots to create a seamless student experience and government agencies can benefit greatly from the software as well. 

Tool #5: Zoom 

What is Zoom software? 

Zoom is a video conferencing platform that is a staple in most modern and remote businesses. Zoom’s platform can be used for both audio and video calls. A free account grants users access to start their own calls for up to 100 people; paid versions can support up to 1,000 people. You can make unlimited phone calls, hold unlimited meetings, and even record both. Zoom contains unique features that give users and businesses alike maximum flexibility like: 

1. Virtual Backgrounds 
2. Keyboard Shortcuts
3. Integration of Third-Party Apps
4. Automatic Audio Transcripts
5. Breakout Rooms
6. Disable Audio/Video When You Join

What are the benefits? 

Zoom has countless benefits for small businesses to large corporations. Zoom offers easy and affordable plans with a variety of features, intuitive user experiences, and a plethora of video and audio controls. 

Tool #6: Slack 

What is Slack software?

Slack is communication software that has completely innovated chat for teams and businesses. Slack is a “messaging app for business that connects people to the information they need. By bringing people together to work as one unified team, Slack transforms the way organizations communicate.” Some features Slack offers are:

• Pinning messages and reference links to channels
• Managing and tracking documents
• Advanced search modifiers
• Using shared channels across workspaces
• Streamlining your sidebar
• Lightning-quick navigation
• Image and file integration into chat 

What are the benefits? 

The benefits of using Slack’s communication software are obvious: it helps teams operate faster and more efficiently and stay in sync, no matter if they are working from home or the office.

Tool #7: Monday 

What is Monday software?

Monday is a versatile, scalable, and incredibly impressive project management software. The software itself is loaded with functions – collaboration features, time and calendar views, and more. Take a look at some additional features of Monday: 

• Dashboards: Simplify decision-making with real-time insights and collaborate with your team 
• Integrations: Keep your business tools all in one place – Google Drive, Zoom, and more
• Automation: Save time and leave repetitive work behind – assign tasks, get status updates, and more
• Gantt: Visualize project milestones and dependencies, as well as schedule and organize using Gantt software so you never miss a deadline 
• Docs: Turn words into workflows and collaborate in real-time
• Files: Add context to your tasks by uploading any file type

What are the benefits? 

The benefits of using Monday speak for themselves — you and your team are granted full and total customization and control, it is intuitive and easy to use, and Monday helps better communication and collaboration amongst teams. 

Tool #8: Kickidler 

What is Kickidler software?

Kickidler is state-of-the-art employee monitoring software for analyzing employee performance at a PC level. Kickidler allows businesses to monitor user activity through their easy-to-use, secure, and versatile tools. Kickidler software is “already being successfully used in 60 countries to supervise employees and increase their productivity.” Some stand-out features of Kickidler include: 

• Online screen monitoring 
• Time tracking
• Productivity analysis
• Screen video recording
• Work time reports
• Remote access 

What are the benefits? 

Kickidler can be used for all types of businesses, whether you are in IT, security, or traditional business. The program allows for automating control of personnel and improvement of the level of information security in the organizations. Kickidler can be used by small to large businesses and also in the state agencies where employees work on personal computers – you can monitor one to 10,000 workstations, remote or in-person. 

Tool #9: Jobsoid

What is Jobsoid software? 

Jobsoid is a cloud-based recruitment solution offering software tools designed to simplify the hiring process for agencies, startups, and businesses of all sizes. At its core is an online Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that promises to streamline every aspect of recruitment while supporting real-time collaboration between team members. Cast a wider net to source talented candidates, issuing customized application forms and posting opportunities to online job boards, social media, and a branded careers website. Track job hopefuls with centralized candidate profiles that store personal information, contact details, email correspondence, and uploaded resumes.

What are the benefits?

Jobsoid offers an integrated solution that simplifies recruitment tasks, from sourcing to hiring. The software stores all candidate information in one place, simplifying collaboration with other departments and hiring managers. Job openings can be automatically posted to multiple job boards and advertised on social media. Businesses can set up branded career portals to display job openings and offer information about their company’s culture to attract top talent.

The Bottom Line

The modern workforce demands modern tools – the above remote team tools can help maximize the efficiency, creativity, and productivity of your business’ remote workforce. 

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And as we look forward, more and more companies have made the decision to transition to either a permanent 100% remote work model (like Quora, Basecamp, Shopify, Upwork and Drift) or a hybrid remote work model where remote work will remain a critical part of how they operate for the foreseeable future (Spotify, Slack, Hubspot). 

This massive shift in the acceptance and long-term adoption of remote working has stirred up questions about what that future will look like in terms of productivity.

Particularly…

Is remote working more productive? 

Are remote workers more productive than those in office? 

There looks to be a clear answer to that.

Remote work productivity research that’s been conducted both before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic points to YES: on the whole, employees who work remotely ARE more productive than they are/were in the office. 

That’s not to say that those who don’t find working remotely leads to higher productivity have no argument. Every employee is different and not everyone will do well remotely. And when you look beyond the statistics and talk to real company leaders and employees, working remotely introduces its own challenges that may hinder productivity such as:

• poor leadership
• inequality of remote support, access and connectivity 
• isolation and lack of socialization
• a lack of work-life separation
• communication with remote employees
• employee burnout

In this article, we’ll cover the question of whether working remote work leads to more productivity from several angles. We’ll look at statistics from before the pandemic started and after, as well as real experiences from company leaders who have been managing their remote teams for a year or more. If you’re interested in creating a work from home stipend for your team, let us know!

Remote work productivity statistics before COVID

• Stanford University conducted one of the most cited research studies on remote worker productivity in 2013: this 9-month study monitored 16,000 call center employees volunteered to work remotely, who went on to show a 13% performance increase. 

• Another remote work productivity study by Telework Research Network revealed that 47% of people who have the option to telework are “very satisfied” with their jobs, compared to 27% of those who are office-bound. In the same study, it talks about how Best Buy’s average productivity had increased 35% through its flexible work program, and how American Express teleworkers handled 26% more calls and produced 43% more business than their office-based counterparts.

• ConnectSolutions’ Remote Collaborative Worker Survey also confirms that workers are more productive when working remotely. Of the 39% who work remotely at least a few times per month, 77% report greater productivity while working off site with 30% accomplishing more in less time and 24% accomplishing more in the same amount of time. 23% are even willing to work longer hours than they normally would on site to accomplish more while 52% are less likely to take time off when working remotely-even when sick.

• A 2017 Flexjobs survey showed that workers are more productive at home, with 76% claiming that they’re more productive when working remotely because they experience fewer distractions, and 62% attributing their productivity to a less noisy work environment.

Current remote work productivity statistics

• Great Place to Work measured employee productivity from March to August of 2020 – the first six months of stay-at-home orders – and compared it to the same six-month period in 2019. Results showed productivity had improved while working from home (see graph).

• Mercer, an HR and workplace benefits consulting firm, did a recent remote work survey of nearly 800 employers and it revealed that even though working from home is often viewed skeptically, 94% of employers surveyed said their company productivity was actually the same (67%) or higher (27%) than it was before the pandemic, even though so many of their employees have been working remotely this year.

• A PwC remote work study shows that remote work has been an overwhelming success for both employees and employers. The shift in positive attitudes toward remote work is evident: 83% of employers now say the shift to remote work has been successful for their company, compared to 73% in their June 2020 survey.

Real experiences of remote work productivity

If you go by just the statistics, remote work is the ideal setup to ensure maximum productivity across the board. But when you actually hear the real experiences of companies and their employees who are working remotely, things aren’t so positive and easy. 

Yes, for the most part working remotely has led to higher productivity, but not’s not the case for every industry, person or situation. And even for those situations where productivity is up overall, there’s been significant learning curve and not every company is going to get it right. 

Here are 20+ company leaders on whether working remotely is more productive, how they know / measure that, and their unique perspective on managing a remote team:

20+ remote company leaders on whether remote working has been led to more team productivity:

People’s efficiency during WFH very much differs from person-to-person and can’t be evaluated in a blanket statement. Some workers thrive from being in their own space without distractions from coworkers or the pressures of commuting; others find WFH isolating and have many additional stressors around the home. That’s why hybrid work models will become so appealing once the pandemic winds down-it will allow workers to personalize their environment towards what works for them, based on their own evaluation of their needs.

Dr. Tzur Gabi, Co-Founder of Caligenix

We have been remote since the pandemic hit last year and our data around employee productivity has been pretty interesting.

Like most things in life, after conducting a detailed internal analysis of all the data we could gather around employee productivity pre-COVID and post-COVID, there is no black and white answer. We cannot say categorically that yes, remote employees are more productive, or no they are not. Instead, *what the data shows is that it depends. 

With respect to administrative work and repetitive, task-based assignments, such as data entry, invoicing and other simplistic activities, *productivity is significantly up since going remote*. To be specific, for these types of tasks, our team’s productivity is up 34%, measured in terms of how quickly these tasks are completed each day.

The best I can surmise here is that whereas employees used to stretch this work to fill more of their workday when in office, they are now incentivized to quickly knock these tasks out so they can leave their computer and focus on personal matters. For example, they know a certain task pre-COVID was expected to take 3 hours when in office, but when their foot is put to the gas pedal, they can get it done in 2 hours. As such, they quickly complete the work when remote and can then sneak away to do what they want, as no one is looking over their shoulder at home.

Conversely, *we have also found that team-based projects have seen a massive decrease in productivity. *To be exact, projects thus far appear to take 23% longer to complete than they used to. This one is difficult to nail down with respect to cause, but the best I can figure here is that lack of interpersonal communication and meetings slows down progress. People can more easily punt on tasks and delay in responding to coworkers. The sense of urgency that a team lead or project manager can instill in person doesn’t seem to work over Zoom or email.

John Ross, CEO at Test Prep Insight

Common wisdom has always been that employees will be less productive working from home because they don’t have as much oversight and have far more distractions. My experience has shown the opposite, though. Our staff moved to fully remote in May of 2020 and they’ve been remote ever since. While there was a brief adjustment period where productivity slowed, after that I’ve seen productivity stay at the same level as before or even better.

I believe this is because employees are able to focus on their own jobs without having to worry about the distraction of coworkers. They can set their schedules, for the most part, and work when they’re most productive.

Jake Hill, CEO of DebtHammer

“We are a 100% female run e-commerce social enterprise in the health and wellness industry. The key benefit our team has experienced as a result of going fully remote as a result of the pandemic has been a dramatic decrease in stress levels. Our team reports a significant decrease in stress largely due to their ability to avoid a sometimes lengthy commute to work, a rush at lunchtime, and having to fight traffic on the way home. 

In addition, they report that avoiding their commute back home also leaves them in a better state of mind for the rest of their day after work, making it easier to recreate and recharge for the following day. Interestingly, this decrease in stress levels has been paired with a significant increase in productivity. In particular, our team is able, in the same amount of time as a standard working day before the pandemic, to get more done. While this was certainly not the case at the start of the pandemic when we were still working out our protocols and systems, the team seems to have come up the learning curve and is now able to work seamlessly. 

Our #1 tip for other companies considering a fully remote workplace is to make sure all your systems are fully functional before taking the plunge. Experiment by giving everyone the option to work remotely on Fridays, and use those as trial runs to help work out the kinks before going fully remote.”

Jessica Rose, HR Director of Copper H2O

“When working remotely, productivity really hinges on having the right tools and innovative leadership. At MuteSix, we always ensure that each member of our team is equipped with the best apps and software to complete their projects and tasks, as well as supported by a company culture that helps breed creativity, efficiency and, above all else, productivity. Working from home doesn’t have to differ from a traditional office environment beyond the team member’s geographic location. Every process and procedure that boosts productivity can be applied, paired with the benefit of time saved on commuting to the office. In fact, many employees thrive when working from home, and this can easily be measured by projects staying ahead of their deadlines, and goals that are on target.”

Greg Gillman, Chief Revenue Officer of MuteSix

“We’re a law firm, so I would say no, we’re not as productive working remotely. The amount of work we do that involves the courthouse has slowed down our processes as the courts are closed and operating under COVID restrictions. We have significant delays that impact our caseload. As an attorney, the challenge is that we have lots of legal documents that need to be signed and sealed at the courthouse. We’ve gotten better at waiting, but no one is pleased with the delays and workarounds.”

John Berry, CEO of Berry Law

“I work as a Network Security Engineer on a major ISP. There I lead a team of 20 engineers in a project regarding a process mining approach to cybersecurity.

[Things] began good but gets successively worse.

At the beginning of the pandemic when I and my team began to work from home, I saw an increase in productivity. Things got done faster and with fewer complications than before. But as the pandemic has proceeded things have progressively gotten worse. With more complications and slower progress.

I believe this is because as new people have joined the project, the communication in the team has gotten worse. As people don’t know each other as well as before. Therefore, many don’t ask for support when they need it, and ideas aren’t thrown around to the same degree as before. Furthermore, I also believe people are beginning to get tired of working from home, and thus the motivation to get things done has taken a hit.

As for the future when the pandemic is over, I hope that we can have a hybrid approach to how we work. With some days being office days and others with the option of working from home or the office. I believe this would be the best compromise for everyone.

Andreas Grant, Network Security Engineer and Founder of Networks Hardware

“We haven’t seen an incredibly significant amount of change in productivity since we’ve moved into working remotely, which does come as a surprise, to an extent. It’s really been about tending to the needs of our employees and keeping an open line of communication available for them at all times. It’s all been a collaborative effort towards making sure our business keeps moving along during a difficult year. The key to understanding productivity is catching an issue before it arises, or as it is arising, and as we’ve done that, we’ve been able to nip any issues in the bud. I believe that is why we haven’t seen a huge dip in the productiveness of our employees. There is a direct correlation between company culture and productivity.”

Jim Beard, COO of BoxGenie

I’ve found that hiring good people and trusting them to do their jobs is the cornerstone of remote work success. Remote workers also often have the flexibility to design their day around when they’re most productive. They can take real breaks when needed, which research shows is key to staying productive and refreshed throughout the day. Although working from home offers its own challenges and distractions, these are more than offset by the time saved by not commuting and not trying to get deep thinking work done in a noisy office environment.

Finally, to ensure remote workers maintain productivity, leaders should use apply outcomes-based metrics, not measurements based on hours worked.

Larry English, President of Centric Consulting

Personally, I would say that my employees are more productive working from home. I have measured this by our productivity from last year’s numbers. I believe this is down to my employees time management. When we are at the workplace there is more opportunity to converse with each other and our break time is at set times, but many have said that working from home has helped them stay more focused on the tasks at hand and are more likely to work and eat so that they can create free time for their families once their tasks are completed for the day. Working from home also means no travel times which gives my employees more time to start and complete their duties earlier.’

Ethan Taub, CEO of Goalry

“In our company, we use a calculation process called Utilization rate. This is used to calculate both employee productivity and spare capacity for them to take on more work i.e us to take on another client. Our staff’s productivity has gone up by 30%+ since working from home as they are less tired (commuting and longer in bed), less distractions as our office is very busy and chatty. 

Once the utilization rate hits 75% then that is a signal that we need another member of staff to cope with the workload. 75% is the cut off because there needs to be a buffer of 25^for personal projects, coffeebreaks and unexpected work or colleagues being sick and they have to pick up some of their work.”

Benjamin Rose, Co-founder of Trainer Academy

“Since we’ve started working fully remotely about a year ago, we have not noticed a drop off in productivity from our employees. In fact, we’ve become more efficient. The reason I know this is because we use tools like Notion to organize all of our projects and keep track of what everyone is working on. Also, each of our teams participates in daily standup meetings at 10AM PST. During these meetings, we discuss what we did yesterday, what we are working on today, and talk through any issues we are experiencing. We do all of our meetings via Zoom to keep each other accountable.

Another important strategy for productivity that I highly recommend is to focus exclusively on KPIs and deliverables. Managers should not start wasting everyone’s time by measuring and tracking every little move that employees make while working from home. Again, set clear expectations in terms of KPIs and deliverables that each employee is supposed to achieve and let it rip. These goals should be just as ambitious as the ones you would set if your employees were in the office, but they must also be achievable. You don’t want to sandbag yourself, and you don’t want to overshoot. Set SMART KPIs.”

Kevin Miller, Co-Founder and CEO of GR0

“As a SaaS company, most of our work can be done from home. We went from office to remote since last year, and we found that our employees are just as productive as working in the office.

We measure this by setting up weekly targets for employees base on their workload prior to remote working. Every employee is able to meet and if not exceed their weekly targets.

The main reasons for being more efficient at home are:

1. The workers save on traveling time, which would allow them to spend more hours doing productive work.

2. There are less unproductive meetings where everyone is asked to attend for the sake of attending. We now only have zoom meetings when it is absolutely necessary and invite only the essential parties.

3. The employees are given more flexibility on when to work so long as they can meet their weekly targets. Some of them would spend the day taking care of their family and work harder in the evening to make up for the lost time. So they actually get to produce more.”

Kim Chan, Lawyer and Founder of DocPro.com

Our employees have been, on average, 25 percent more productive over the last year while working remotely. We know this because we work off of weekly targets and week over week, since we began working fully remotely in March of last year, we see that the majority of our people take 25 percent fewer hours to hit their weekly targets.

The primary reason that this has been the case is almost certainly that employees understand it is entirely their responsibility to structure their workdays in the way that best suits them while accomplishing their daily and weekly tasks. They are able to make more effective use of their time, especially now that commuting and the typical distractions one deals with in an office setting are no longer issues. I also think people really want this arrangement to work out long term and are motivated to prove to management that they are even more efficient while working from home.

Rolf Bax, Chief Human Resources Officer of Resume.io

My team works remotely ever since, so I’m familiar with all the signs of an unproductive employee. Remote workers are definitely more productive than when working in-office. But there’s a lot that goes on as to why they thrive more in remote work than in the traditional setting.

You see, employees who work from home aren’t tired of travel or commute. They have ample time to rest before they start working. They can eat as they work and have more nutritious food choices. These collectively add to the comfort of working from home, which helps them be more productive. We listed down more of its benefits in this article.

However, remote workers can only be productive when their personality fits the setup. Many extroverts struggle to transition to working from home because they want a highly social environment. This can be a significant barrier in having work efficiency.

Michael Shen, CEO of Skill Success

“Less productive, no. I don’t think anything can beat an office environment for clear & timely communication and culture building that ultimately impacts productivity. But here are the things we do to ensure we get the most out of our staff working from home. Every morning we have an all-hands-on-deck meeting at 8 am. This ensures everyone is ready for the day, knows what is going on and what is expected of the company. Regular scheduled weekly department meetings also take place so that our staff knows when and what they have to prepare for. 

We also use computer monitoring software that records start time, end time, total hours worked and productivity during those hours by department or project.

Michael Melwicks, President of Shipmoto

“I would say we have seen an increase in productivity since we made the switch to remote work. Maybe you would think the opposite would occur, but people develop their own routines from home. People are comfortable and can wear whatever they want, sit wherever they want, eat whenever they want. Those aspects of remote work can actually increase productivity- being in your own comfortable, familiar environment.” 

Olivier Momma, Co-founder of Esker 

“The work we do is largely remote and I have found that productivity varies across the board but on a whole, remote productivity is high, providing it is properly managed and it is accepted as different to office work and treated as such.

Remote work can’t be judged on hours worked, it has to be task based. In this way, workers can take whatever time they want and be flexible. I have found this approach to produce much higher productivity levels than an office where they are there for a set time and paid regardless of work achieved.

Joe Wilson, Senior Career Advisor at MintResume

“The challenges that come with remote work and productivity all relate back to how our minds work. We are all influenced by our environment, whether it’s the people surrounding us or the daily tasks that are thrown in our direction. Therefore, when working in the remote environment, it’s about catering to those needs in a transformative way. 

Naturally, productivity will suffer from home. It’s hard to find motivation when you’re working from the same room you’re sleeping in. Our employees have expressed concerns about their productivity, and we have worked with them to overcome any issues that pop up. Complex tasks are the ones that have a grip on our minds, which has been translating to more productive days at times. At other times, it has been causing some burnout. On the opposite end, mundane tasks have also been equalling more productivity. It’s easier to get the simple things done- you don’t need as much energy or motivation. That’s why we’ve found it’s important to maintain a balance and divide those tasks evenly amongst our team.”

Jing Gao, Founder and CEO of Fly By Jing 

“We have found that our team members have been incredibly productive while working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team members will send along roundups each week of what they worked on which allows us to track and follow their assignments and deadlines. We also take Zoom or phone calls on a regular basis with team members to hear how things are going outside of work. This is important because every employee has a different remote work situation. They may have needs they would like to discuss that are unrelated to their workload or simply want the opportunity to chat with us about life since we have fewer watercooler interactions on a day-to-day basis. Active listening ensures that we are able to offer support as needed if we pick up on subtle cues that could suggest they might be a bit overwhelmed and need some extra help or are ready for a short break by taking a day off.”

Dana Case, Director of Operations of MyCorporation

If we are talking about remote work productivity, a year into the pandemic, then anecdotally, employees are working more. This can be connected to the fact that we are no longer working from home out of convenience, but out of requirement. Our office and our kitchen table have been one and the same since last March, which makes it more and more difficult for us to go home at the end of the day, because home IS the office.Even before we, as a workforce, primarily worked remote, managers and senior leaders may have felt the need to be work after 5 PM or be available when needed. Those expectations are now bleeding to everyone within the organization – because we are readily available through our laptops and our phones. And, to be fair, it’s not like we’re going anywhere. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, the boundaries between home and work life were blurred – now they’ve been obliterated.One way we’ve determined that we are working more, therefore being more productive, is the fact that we complete timecards to track billable hours for our clients. Personally, I can’t remember a week in recent memory where I haven’t logged less than 40 hours in a week. Not only are clients expecting more availability, but everyone feels the pressure to perform because they don’t want their jobs to be at risk if we find ourselves in another pandemic that will require another round of layoffs. We’re also all expected to do more with less, because of the hesitancy to fill positions or the inability to financially support filling vacant positions.

Eric Mochnacz, Senior HR Consultant at Red Clover

Conclusion

Working remotely, whether it’s just until it makes sense to go “back to normal” or on more permanent and long-term basis, is going to be a challenge no matter how your employees adapt.

By introducing remote-friendly benefits, revisiting and updating your remote tool stack, taking steps to foster better remote engagement, and most importantly, listening to your employees’ unique needs, are all things that will give you a better chance at having a team that can be truly productive while remote.

Compt is the #1 employee stipends platform that gives your people the freedom to choose the lifestyle spending accounts that are best for them and their always evolving needs, even when remote. Interested in learning how Compt might benefit your company? Consult with our team or request a demo.

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