Remote work can be a useful tool to encourage motivation and allow a productive working experience for your employees. That is if it isn’t forced into them like what’s happening during this pandemic.Therefore, to keep your employees productive as they work from home, or if you have teams offshore, you need a different approach. Luckily, you only need to do three things.Related: Working Remotely: How to Effectively Manage Remote Employees During The Pandemic

3 Action Tips to Keep Your Teams Productive When Working Remotely

As an experienced outsourcing company, we’ve found that there are three essential things that you must do to keep your employees productive while working remotely. We practice these tips, and sometimes give them as advice for our clients who are new to having remote employees.

1. Regularly Ask about Their Working Conditions

Ask employees about their working conditions. While setting a workspace or environment is an excellent way to have a productive working experience when working remotely, not all of your employees can have one.Therefore, it’s essential to ask them about their working conditions at home so that you can empathize well with their situation and help them adjust accordingly. That way, your employees will feel that you actually care about their wellbeing, which will motivate them to work.

2. Help Them Have a Plan

While asking them about whether they are having a productive working experience while working at home, you have to follow it up with assisting them to have a plan. Give them advice on how they can be productive while working remotely, or maybe have them plan out their tasks for the week and give them notes.Having a project management tool can make planning easier towards a productive working experience for your employees. Most of these tools allow you to assign tasks to specific people so that you can monitor everyone’s progress. Some of the best tools you can use are Trello, Asana, and Basecamp.

3. Recreate Social Contact

In knowing if your employees are having productive working experience during a remote work, you can use video conferencing to do so and try recreate social contact in group and individual interactions.Before your meetings, you can invest some time in brief, casual conversations. Let your team catch up on each other, share a laugh, or sympathize with one another.Next, establish individual interactions by spending 5 to 10 minutes with each of your employees. You can do this weekly or bi-weekly, whichever you think is best. Doing this on a Monday can help establish a working mood.Both can be time-consuming, however, they are critical in eliminating cabin fever or at least reduce feelings of isolation.Think of it this way; once you all get back to the office, you have established a good, healthier relationship with your teams.Must Read: 5 Side Effects of Working Remotely and How to Fix Them

Communication Is Key When Working Remotely

Keeping your employees have a productive working experience during the remote work comes down to being good communicators. Everyone in your company must actively participate in communicating their expectations, challenges, and goals. That way, you can address hurdles as a team and get through the pandemic stronger, with better teamwork.