Tag: remote work

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Telecommuters Don’t Get Caught Doing This

If you worked in an office or other on-site location job which has transitioned into telecommuting, there are important things to keep in mind. There is a lot of talk about what to do to be a good telecommuter but rarely are you cautioned about the things not to do. Being caught doing any of these things could mean the end of your remote working career.

Top 5 Things Not to Get Caught Doing as a Telecommuter

1. Disregarding How it Was

The less dissimilar you can keep your work environment when working from home from on-site work, the better. Of course, you are no longer at the office, so there is a great deal of difference, but try to keep the way you go about conducting your business tasks as similar to the way you would conduct yourself when working on-site. Keep your daily routine as similar as possible.

2. Babysitting

Okay, it is not babysitting unless it is someone else’s kids, but do not be caught being the childcare provider when you should be on-the-clock working. It is nearly impossible to be fully functional while maintaining a positive level of job performance while trying to manage one or more children at the same time. Find someone to take the responsibility of looking after your children while you are working. They could still be in your home, where you will be working, but do not let them distract you, and enjoy the extra time you have to be with them while on break periods.

3. Working in Bed

Yu are telecommuting, you can work anywhere, right? Technically, “Yes,” you can work anywhere and in any state of undress that suits you (even naked) but by becoming too lax in your work efforts, like working in bed, your pajamas, the hot tub, or sprawled out on the sofa, you are not projecting the right kind of energy into your work, and sooner or later, your job performance will decline because of it.

So, create a separate “office space” for you to perform your job tasks. It doesn’t have to be a separate office if space does not permit (but the more separation, the better), but a unique spot with a chair that you can sit upright in would be good. Decorate it any way you want, like you might your own cubicle at work. Just make sure this space, wherever it is, is reserved for work only, and your performance levels will not falter.

4. Allowing Interruptions

Just do not do it. Do not allow the kids, the dog, your spouse, your friends, or your family to interrupt you when you are working from home. I know, the temptation is there. Normally when you are at home you are accessible simply by being present. You need to establish boundaries and let your people know that when you are at your home office space and you are working, they need to wait their turn(s).

5. Being Unconscious of Noise

When you are working from home it is easy to get used to the ambient noise that surrounds you. Your conscious mind just sort of blocks it out, but if you are on a conference call, everyone can hear that noise, the kids in the background, the dogs, the washer, the TV in the next room, and it can all be very distracting.

You may not be able to eliminate the noise altogether, but maybe you could find a remote location, like a closet, that you can use for a phone booth of sorts. If not, then at the very least, you can apologize for the uncontrollable noise and mute your mic or phone until it is your turn to speak.

Keep doing the best you can, and we will all get through this, as we emerge into the new normal together.

 

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The COVID Work from Home Experiment

There has been a great deal of anticipation about the COVID work from home experiment, and it appears that the upside is the many benefits of remote work which has generally improved the performance of office workers by nearly 30% in productivity with very low overhead costs. A huge win in the workforce in the United States of America.

Even with the overwhelmingly positive results and huge benefits to the bottom lines of companies and organizations who have successfully embraced (and cashed-in on) the telecommute work-from-home model has not without its challenges.

At the very least, Internet connectivity, having the basic electronic devices required, being able to have an effective workspace within the home, and managing family around the home office are the basic requirements to have nailed down in the beginning.

The first real concern to show up was paranoia among management. “How can we be expected to trust employees working from home?” The first wave of response was to attempt to initiate surveillance efforts to micromanage remote workers. The results appear to indicate counterproductivity as initial increases in productivity began to decline.

In the new world of the telecommuter, a reasonable degree of trust must be part of the foundation of the teleworking agreement. Employers must find other ways and means of tracking individual employee productivity over time, besides looking over the shoulder of staff members.

After all, they are working from home, which means they could be doing practically anything from drinking on the job to working naked for all we know (and they are).

Nevertheless, for the companies and organizations who fully embrace the idea of staff working from home, their number are up, and expenses are down.

While all the numbers are looking good, it appears that telecommuters in the $150,000-range (and up) are seeing the greatest increase in productivity and value to the employers during this period of time when we are testing the waters of sending workers home to work.

At the same time, other industries that do not translate as well to the telework atmosphere, are barely staying alive, and some of them are closing their doors forever. Channels such as manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, and hospitality, are experiencing the greatest challenges and struggle for survivability during these unprecedented times.

Telecommuters are facing their own set of challenges, such as a general decline of overall mental health, while family viability in workers’ households is declining at an alarming rate, causing some parents to have to make a choice between work and family.

One of the biggest issues for remote workers to tackle is how to manage work tasks amid the various distractions that might vie for one’s attention in a work from home environment. This is in huge contrast to being secluded in a safe and sane corporate office setting, where very little effort need be exerted to focus on tasks at hand.

Instead of the brief interactions that may distract you briefly at the office, home office interruptions may include anything from doorbells, phones ringing, dishes in the sink, impatient children and/or pets desiring attention, and the list goes on and on.

Kids at home who are attending schools remotely online are also a growing concern for telecommuters.

Being able to set up a home office space that has separations from the rest of the household and establishing boundaries seems to help remote workers manage distractions that might otherwise negatively affect their overall performance.

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Prepare for Post-pandemic Telecommuting

Assembling your post-pandemic work from home team, you can take steps to increase your team’s ability to succeed and shine by proactively taking steps that will enhance your connection and productivity.

Use Common Tools

Remote working is different from working in the office but you can help to create cohesiveness among your members by using common tools to tie them together.

For instance, you will need common communication tools, like WhatsApp, Messenger, or Google Chat.
You will need a common area to share files, such as Google Drive or Dropbox
Decide to agree to use a common video conferencing platform, like Zoom or Skype
Shareable whiteboard, something like Miro or Stormboard
Project management tools, like Trello or Asana
And something to accumulate poll data, like SurveyMonkey.

It is up to you, as the team leader, to set up an effective telecommuting environment that will ensure your team’s success. Focus on results and do not let your attention be sidetracked by obsessing about what your team members might be doing while they are reportedly on-the-clock. For all you know, they could be naked or getting drunk while off-camera. You must let go of worrying about what is happening while they are working from home and focus on the results. But do

Set Boundaries

It is reasonable to set boundaries and expectations. As the leader you can establish what you would like the work from home environment will look like. Make it clear what you expect, and the results that you expect from the remote working staff. Then, just assume that compliance is taking place unless you notice someone’s performance numbers declining, then you can address the situation and see if you and your team can help the faltering team member to increase their performance.

Do Not Spy on Your Employees

These days, we have all the tracking and surveillance software and hardware that we could ever need to monitor employees’ activities while on-the-clock. Just because we can, does not mean we should. Plus, making your employees feel like they are being spied on does not build employee confidence or a sense of loyalty, which reduces Human Resource expenses by increasing employee retention in the long run.

Get Regular Reports

Only you can know what type and frequency of reports would be appropriate for your remote staff. Try not to make it too complicated or drawn-out, and possibly allow for each team member to find their own style of reporting and use whatever is comfortable for them.

Create Your Remote Team Culture

Create online experiences that bring your team members together. Host competitions, virtual talent shows, celebrate birthdays and special occasions, just like you might in the office to build relationships among your team members. Be supportive, and fun. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Additional Support

Think about providing resources for your telecommuters, such as coaching and mental health services. Consider adding a Life Coach to your team who can help support and invigorate the lives of other team members and watch your performance numbers increase with each passing day.

When people are working from home for extended periods of time, it causes stress-related issues they would not otherwise be exposed to. A regular mental health check-in may be appropriate to help avoid complications or loss of performance due to any lurking mental health issues.

 

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Who Will Continue to Work from Home?

Employers are going to be faced with the question and having to decide, “Who stays working from home post-pandemic?” and the answer may not be what you expected. While the average productivity is clearly up by 23% or more for telecommuters working from home during these unprecedented times, if employers are going to have to select only, let us say, 25% of the workforce to continue to work from home, who will it be?

Who Will Continue to Work from Home?

The word on the management street is that the first choices will be the highest-paid employees, those making $150,000 or more per year.

If you are earning under that dividing number, you may find it disconcerting, but remember your employer is looking after his bottom line, the return on his/her investment.

If you are making $150,000 per year, you are earning $75.00 an hour. Think about it. If your employer is paying you $75.00 an hour to stay home, the company or organization is making a $17.25 return on their workforce expenditure on that employee every hour. They only pay $75.00 per hour but receive a $92.25 return on that investment (ROI). That’s $34,500 in their pocket every year.

That is a full-time $17.50 per hour employee free for a year. Though clever management would most likely make far better use of over thirty grand than pick up a free low-wage employee.

If you are making $30.00 per hour ($58,500 per year) $6.90 per hour on your working from home. Still, $13,455-a-year is not chump change.

You can see why those higher-paid employees are going to get first dibs on the telecommuting gigs following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. It is all a matter of working the numbers. It is also clear that if your performance has only been on an even keel since you have been working from home (that means your performance value has stayed the same and you are not a part of the remote workers who have increased their performance from working from home), you more than likely will be invited to return to work.

On the other hand, many employers will not be forced to make such hard decisions. These are the companies and organizations who are rejoicing at the lockdowns, excited about letting most, if not all, of their staff home, or taking volunteers who may prefer to return to the life of the commuter.

73% of forced pandemic telecommuters are actually hoping to return to work at the office. Many of them will be disappointed when they find out that they are having to stay home to work after the coronavirus debacle.

These employers are already scurrying to get out of their leases, and they not only could not care if you returned to the office, but they don’t even want you to think about coming back. These organizations are the best-positioned to not only survive -but thrive – post-pandemic because they are making the extra 23% in productivity, plus cutting huge overhead costs.

And if you are thinking that you can help to glean a little more take home at the end of the month by cutting your expenses and moving to the country? Be aware that, generally, Silicon Valley is cutting the salaries of employees who are moving away to save on expenses, which splits the difference (savings) roughly in half. Half for the employer and half for the employee.

As unfair as it may sound, it is happening now and is setting the standard for things to come.

Something else to keep in mind.

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Poor Work from Home Conditions

The biggest telecommuting obstacle to achieving the highest efficacy in the telework environment is poor work from home conditions including lack of dedicated workspace. Let’s face it, no matter how much you want to work from home and enjoy the benefits of remote work if you do not have an adequate workspace, your performance will suffer.

With the growing concern or threat of telecommuting not being a temporary solution to a viral emergent crisis, it is looking more like telecommuting will be the future of how work is accomplished in the world as we know it, following the pandemic and beyond.

Homeworkers are not equipped for success when it comes to working from home, and 77 percent of them report the weakest link in their ability to maintain a high level of productivity is directly related to not having an appropriate workspace set aside in the home.

Poor Working Conditions at Home

The majority of our telecommuters (77%) are reporting that not having adequate workspace to conduct their duties effectively is impeding their ability to productively keep up with their coworkers.

According to statistics, right now, 42% are working at their kitchen or dining table and 3% can be found working in the bathroom.

The detailed list of complications arising from not having adequate workspace is vast and widely varied, but most all the concerns and complaints about working from home would be quickly resolved if these individuals had an effective office area set up.

So, what is the solution? How do the employees, employers, or anyone else solve the problem of living in a home that does not provide the tools necessary for these remote workers to thrive while not being able to maintain high levels of production?

Many homes are moderate and may have limited space available to work. Even so, there are many teleworkers who have successfully carved out an effective work area, even in small apartments. It may take some time and ingenuity, but this has been accomplished by those who are successfully working from home.

Working from Home with Family

Those hit hardest are those who are working from home, and are trying to manage a family, while working remotely, and have space limitations. In fact, families who have telecommuters in the house are at the greatest risk, which is understandable.

Inadequate Equipment or Services

The next hurdle to overcome is the lack of equipment or services. Of course, employers will not want their employees’ performance to decline due to a lack of technology. It is up to the employee to reach out to the employer to see if there may be subsidies available to help get your home work-area up-to-speed. Do so before your numbers start to reveal that there are problems at home.

The Answer: Coworking Space

Coworking spaces are springing up all across America. They come in all shapes, sizes, and locations. You will find them in office buildings, converted retail spaces, and recently, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, you can find them conveniently located inside apartment buildings that house telecommuters.

The important elements in any coworking facility is multiple workstations, a blazing Internet connection, and any number of various and sundry business accoutrements.

Regardless, it is imperative that remote workers find ways to establish positive workspaces either at home or get access to a remote workspace, like a coworking office space. And if you are telecommuting and struggling with your remote working conditions, check with your employer, they may offer to subsidize your coworking rent, or some employers are setting up rural remote offices, where clusters of their employees may reside.

 

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Your Remote Worker is Looking for Another Job Online

As much as you have sought to make all the accommodations so that your staff can work from home, even so, your remote worker is looking for another job online. The HR departments of all surviving employers are out there raising the bar, offering more perks and benefits to entice your employees to jump ship, and your people are taking notice.

And if you are thinking that your employees are looking forward to returning to the grind of showing up at your office every day to report to work, be forewarned, an overwhelming percentage of your telecommuting employees would gladly take a pay cut for the chance to continue to work from home following the lifting of pandemic restrictions. Remote work is the future.

If you subtract state, federal, and municipal telecommuters from the equation, 80 percent of teleworkers are looking for a better deal online. Your competition knows this, and they are making their intentions known, because if nothing else, the pandemic has alerted your staff that their earning potential is no longer limited by location. They can now work anywhere in the world, while never having to leave their homes.

And for those workers who were restrained to metropolitan living to accommodate their daily commutes to and from work, they are moving away from the hustle and bustle. Why? They are seeking a better life, freedom from the stress and strain of being a part of the rat race, reduction in the cost of living, and to relocate closer to the families they moved away from to seek grand employment opportunities.

This is forcing small businesses who are doing their best to adapt and survive throughout the lingering effects of the coronavirus outbreak to focus on increasing benefits to telecommuting employees to retain the current workforce.

You are going to have to reevaluate your incentives to stay competitive and increase employee retention during these unprecedented times.

Here are some ideas you can up the ante for employee retention:

1. Loosen the Reigns

If you’ve been tracking your remote workers like the Dickens, then you might start thinking about other methods of tracking your employees’ performance while they are working from home. Teleworkers are not fond of thinking they are being micromanaged or spied upon. Other firms who empower their employees to be responsible for themselves in delivering the goods are consistently seeing record-breaking results from their work-from-homers.

2. Health Benefits

Medical insurance is a highly sought perk for telecommuters. For small businesses, this might be too much of a nut to crack, so think about offering health benefits, like health club memberships, or offer to go halfsies on a treadmill they can use to stay fit at home. Be creative.

3. Workspace Assistance

If you could see the conditions that remote workers are working under to deliver the results you are looking for while they are working from home, you might be surprised that they are working in less than complimentary conditions, while perched on the sofa or curled up in bed with their laptop because they do not have an adequate home workspace. You can offer matching incentives or provide your remote workers with a basic workspace set up.

4. Employee Vacations

Many employers offer vacation time where employees earn a percentage of the hours they’ve worked back in hours to be spent while on vacations, but the growing trend is to also offer a stipend incentive to subsidize the actual cost of getting out and taking a vacation, and not just holding up inside your home, and watching TV. Statistics prove that vacationing teleworkers are the most productive and feel more content while they are on-the-clock.

5. Increased Flexibility

If you empower your employees to adjust their hours to their own schedules, they feel a higher degree of affinity with their employers. If you want to keep them, let them make their own schedules and allow them to even undercut their hours and sacrifice a few unpaid hours to tend to personal details. You gain long-term reliability and increased job performance. So, lighten up.

It looks like your staff’s preference is to continue to work from home even after the pandemic restrictions are lifted, so it behooves you to pay attention to this emerging trend of our new normal and start to make accommodations for employee retention.

 

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‘Tis the Season to Find Jobs Online

No doubt, if you are used to finding a seasonal part-time or full-time temporary job during the winter months or for the holidays, things are extremely different this year thanks to the pandemic.

Nonetheless, ‘tis the season to find jobs online, whether they be temporary or more permanent jobs. You can use the holiday season to get your foot in the door in a telecommuting job, work from home, and be first in line for a full-time job when it becomes available. Not unlike jobs when small businesses had a chance to survive in the brick and mortar venue(s), the streets were open, and we were not on lockdown.

Last year, you could have found seasonal jobs on the streets, by responding to Help Wanted signs in the windows of your favorite establishments. Local shops and retail stores littered the streets, and in a day (or two) you could end up exchanging your skills for cash in a brick and mortar business or restaurant.

This year, we have seen the biggest downturn in small businesses ever, and those left standing (only about 30 percent) could still use a helping hand during the holidays. Other businesses and organizations who were unaffected by the pandemic were able to quickly adapt to the telecommuting-style of working from home, and they, too, are looking for extra help during the holidays.

Though this year, you won’t find the Help Wanted signs hung in the windows. Now, you will have to find these jobs online, and not all of the jobs are teleworking as many warehouses and other essential businesses are in need of the extra labor to help make it through the holidays.

And if you thought your job search could be done by scouring your newspaper’s classified’s Help Wanted section, at first glance, you will know this is not how it is done. You will have to take your job search online.

If you want to find a job this year, you will have the best luck looking at sites like, jobs.google.com, Flexjobs, Indeed.com, upwork.com, facebook.com/jobs, and CraigsList, just to name a few. And what kind of jobs will you find?

As you might have guessed, right now there is a preponderance of jobs online which are primarily remote work, such as data entry, social media, internet marketing, customer service, telemarketing, and spoken language interpreters. You will also find retail, delivery, and warehouse jobs. And many of them include perks and benefits, including health insurance and paid vacations.

If you have a car and a valid driver’s license, delivery jobs are also in demand at Amazon and Door Dash.

A recent review found many full-time 40-hour workweeks paying $17 an hour for local work and you could earn much more if you have finely refined skills and experience.

If you are feeling like there is a lack of work available, and thinking that there are no traditional seasonal jobs to be had, it would be understandable. Mostly because you cannot see or find them the way you are used to.

Pretty much anyone with a computer and an Internet connection has little to worry about when looking for some extra spending cash, only be aware that there are some criminals who might like to take advantage of your online job search, so exercise your due diligence and check out any potential employer before jumping in to anything.

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2020 Telecommute Statistics Jobs Online Skyrocketing

There is no doubt if we learned anything in 2020, it was how to increase the number of teleworkers thanks to the coronavirus. 2020 telecommute statistics jobs online skyrocketing and final numbers are yet to come. The resulting lockdown in the USA forced many workers to telecommute and move their job online to keep our country’s economy afloat during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Statistics show a general growth in telecommuting and working from home in the 2000s, from 2001 to 2019, then a huge spike in telecommuters in 2020 thanks to the United States’ response to keep it moving through the lockdown, boasting nearly 80 million workers telecommuting and continuing to raise daily.

Those in non-essential job positions who were able to convert their jobs to telecommuting, working remotely, or from home, they were able to keep their positions and thrive, while others were forced to accept federally-enhanced unemployment compensation while under “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” restrictions.

While these changes in workstyles are considered temporary while those who previously worked in an office or cubicle are now working from home, there is a growing trend that is seeing employers re-evaluating their overhead costs.

Employee productivity is up, and costs to run businesses, organizations, and government agencies have dropped tremendously, as more workers are able to move their jobs online.

There is a good chance that if you are currently working from home that this may not be as temporary as you might have thought. Employers all over our nation are rethinking and reimagining the way businesses and organizations will be run in the future, and you are looking at a significant test run in action right now.

The future will see telecommuting jobs (office workers working from home full or part-time) turning into remote work. You might think that telecommuting and remote-working are one and the same. While they are similar, the main distinction is that a telecommuting job assumes that there is some commuting done to and from work, where the commute has been replaced by working via the Internet or teleconferencing.

Remote work represents the type of job that may be conducted disconnected from any commute to and from the workplace. As such, a worker working from a remote office area or home may well be outside the geographical region where the employer is physically located.

Remote is far more highly sought after by employers because there is little or no physical space requirements which are a drain on overhead costs to accommodate employees at the workplace.

That said, not all teleworkers or remote workers work from home. Many choose to work from Internet cafes, coworking spaces, virtual offices, coffee shops, or other remote location(s) which may include any location where a laptop can be powered or charged, and a connection to the Internet is available.

Of course, there are many jobs that cannot be translated into online positions, but for those who can, this is the growing trend.

And if you are one of the one’s who has found himself or herself in a position to telecommute “temporarily” due to the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown, don’t be surprised when the restrictions are lifted that you discover that all (or nearly all) of your commute has been eliminated.

Employers are already looking for ways to exit their lease contracts, as they are finding that telecommuting and transitioning to jobs online is a far better and more cost-effective way to conduct their affairs.

Telecommuting and jobs online are the new normal.