Improve Efficiency When Working Remotely

4 hours
Easy

Free online content available in this course.

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Last updated on 3/22/23

Understand Remote Working

What’s your view of remote working? Is it something you’ve already tried? Or have you met people who have tried it and loved it? Or others who feel differently—“Remote working? Never again!”? Perhaps they simply weren’t properly prepared for it? :)

After suffering from an image problem for several years, remote working has now become very popular. It’s now seen as a way to establish a better work/life balance, and has also been proven to be an effective way to keep businesses going in challenging circumstances, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So many of us were pushed into remote working during this time, many without preparation or consideration of the challenges. This is a great time to reassess your view on remote working and see if some small tweaks to your approach could significantly change your results.

Before we go any further into this chapter, let’s look at a definition of remote working, also known as telework. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 provides the following definition:

Though this is quite an old definition, the basic principle remains the same. Essentially, if you’ve been authorized to work away from your employers’ premises, because your job can be carried out using a computer or a telephone, then you’re working remotely! :)

According to a study conducted by American online banking company NorthOne, since 2009, the number of people in the US who work from home has risen by 159%. This vast growth has led us to over half of the US workforce being classified as remote workers!

Infographic presenting the following information: 44% growth in remote work over last 5 years, 91% growth in remote work over the last 5 years, and 159% growth in remote work over last 12 years. 58.6% of the total US workforce was remote due to the COVID — 58.6% of the total US workforce are remote workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic (NorthOne)

It’s tricky to get exact stats when it comes to remote working. This is because there’s a lack of distinction between those who officially work remotely, and gray remote workers.

97% of employees would choose to work remotely for the rest of their lives, even if it was just part time. — The overwhelming majority of employees seem to enjoy working remotely!

After 10 years supporting businesses on this topic, I can assure you that an increasing number of directors and managers are also getting into the remote-working groove.

Discover All the Different Ways to Work Remotely

Remote work can be organized in different ways:

Work remotely every Thursday… or any day you want:

You could plan to work remotely on a set day every week, or change your weekly remote-working day depending on what you plan on working on that day. For example, if I’m writing reports on candidates during a recruitment drive, my remote working day will vary according to when interviews are scheduled.

Work remotely every other week… or whatever works best for your schedule:

You could plan your remote working days on the first Thursday of each month, or lump them together as a set annual amount of remote working days. For example, your company could grant a maximum of 30 days, which you can use when you want and according to your needs.

Remote working twice a week or even every day:

You could work remotely twice a week, or work all five days remotely (which would be full remote). If 5% of your work can be done remotely, in principle you could work a half day from home every two weeks.

Regular remote working or needs-based:

You could plan to work from home every Thursday (I keep saying Thursday, but obviously remote working is also possible on any other day of the week 😀), but come into the office for important activities. For example, at the end of the year, when budgets need to be balanced, it could be all hands on deck, meaning all workers in the office and not working remotely.

Full remote… but up for review:

You could plan to work fully remotely, but review this if it stops being a manageable way to work, for example, if your role or projects change. Don’t worry though, once things settle you could start working remotely again!

Are any of these familiar to you? What’s your company policy?

Identify How Your Work Life Will Change

Remote working will have a significant impact on how you work, on a number of levels:

Your working conditions will be different.
You’ll have to organize your personal and professional life differently.
Your relationships with your colleagues will change.
Communication with your managers will require more organization.
You’ll develop different skills as you adapt to these changes.
Your relationship with your work will shift.

I’ve been supporting the set-up of remote working for my organization since 2020 and I can assure you that it presents workers with lots of great opportunities, but also several pitfalls!

To prepare for the change, take a look at these opportunities and challenges that any remote worker should know about. :)

	Opportunities	Challenges
Working conditions	A calmer environment for better concentration Reduced fatigue and stress	Potential feeling of isolation Unsuitable office space Poor use of remote communication tools
Work/life balance	More time for yourself Less time spent commuting Easier to manage personal commitments	Difficulty stepping away from domestic or personal tasks Difficulty “switching off” from work tasks
Teamwork and professional relationships	Better-structured teams: more clarity over who does what	Difficult to gauge morale and team wellbeing Fewer opportunities to build rapport Temptation to prioritize your tasks over team or group projects
Communication with management	Clearer goals	A tendency to send an excessive amount of emails as evidence of productivity Missing out on certain pieces of information, especially if communicated informally in the office
Professional skills	Increased independence and ability to adapt Developed sense of responsibility Better understanding of strengths and areas for improvement Greater adaptability Training in the use of collaborative tools	Becoming a perfectionist or, on the contrary, doing a rushed job
Relationship with work	Increased motivation through increased responsibility	Boredom due to the repetitive nature of remote tasks Loss of motivation Hard to stop working Hard to start working

Identify Your Approach to Remote Working

Now let’s work out your personal approach to remote working. We all slip into certain habits when we’re working—select yours from the table below.

To what extent do the following statements apply to you? Mark your answers in the table below. You can also download the questionnaire here.

	Never	Sometimes	Always
I tend to give reports on my work to my manager.
I need clear goals in order to work efficiently.
I work best in a calm environment.
I do not struggle to apply myself to my work.
I think that too many meetings reduce efficiency.
I need to feel responsible for my work.
I like to plan the tasks I need to do for the week.
I work well independently.
When faced with a problem, I manage to find solutions on my own.
Having a flexible work setup allows me to be more efficient.
I always schedule meetings to make important decisions.
I prefer to leave tasks to the following day rather than work late.
I don’t need to be in the same office as my colleagues to feel close to them.
I think presenteeism has a detrimental impact on efficiency at work.
For a meeting to be effective, it always needs to be prepared in advance.

The more you identify with these statements, the better remote working will work for you. 😊 The rest of this course should give you all the additional tools you need to make this transition as easy as possible.

If you don’t really feel that many of these statements apply to you, this course can help you to develop the habits you’ll need to work remotely more efficiently. 😊

Let’s Recap!

Remote working describes any situation where an employee is working away from their company premises, because their job can be done using a computer and/or a telephone.
There are different ways of structuring remote work: by the number of days, choice of days, full or partial remote, or seasonal.
Whatever the working conditions, remote working involves big changes for employees: your relationship with your team and managers, your skills, and your work/life balance.

Now let’s set up your workstation! :)