Three Strategies to Increase Productivity With a Remote Workforce

With around 70% of the world’s workforce working from remote locations at least once a week, we have the assurance that this workstyle is here to stay. Many managers have concerns this lack of direct interaction might lead to problems with employee focus.

So, how can you increase productivity in your remote workplace without causing issues elsewhere?

Below, we talk about three of the most effective methods you have at your disposal to increase workforce productivity. As you read through, think about how you can leverage each one to bring your employees’ focus back to the highest level.

1. Increase Productivity With Clear Communication

One way to foster productive remote work is by ensuring communication with your employees is as clear as possible. The following are some examples of how to do this.

Regular Meetups

Bringing people together for regular meetings, such as standups, can give people the space and time they need to share their progress. They can also discuss blockages or expected bottlenecks in their work, allowing others to step up if necessary.

Without these, people often hold off from communicating perceived issues until it is too late.

Detailed Instructions

It may sound simple, but you want to ensure the steps people need to take in their work are clear. If the task is one you need people to repeat, you can learn from the first people to do it and iterate on your instructions where things need improvement.

Run through the instructions with people the first time they see them. Make sure they understand the steps they need to take and allow them to ask you questions before they start. This can often clarify any issues or make you aware of places that need more work.

Open and Honest Communication

One of the most simple ways to increase workforce productivity is to be up-front about everything going on. Compartmentalizing may sometimes help, but if people feel you are not being honest, they may start to feel anxious about their work. This can then have an impact on their work attitude or ability to focus.

At the same time, you can make sure others in the office can communicate clearly with one another. Give them different methods of communication that best fit your team. This could include email, chat clients, or video chat tools.

2. Encourage Autonomy and Offer Support When Needed

Remote work productivity increases when people feel they are free to express themselves in their roles. This can come when you trust people to display their skills, and they feel empowered to take control and responsibility for their work. Ways you can promote this include:

Professional Training

Allowing people to develop their skills can push them to improve their ability to complete their job. This then should help them see where their processes are not as fast as they could be, or notice what mistakes they might make long before they make them.

One-on-One Meetings and Support

Such meetings let you talk about an employee’s goals with them. You can help uplift them and allow them to feel like they are on the road to a better situation. This is a less rigid form of gamification that can put people on the track to self-improvement and a better work ethic.

During such meetings, you can also discuss areas the employee feels under-supported. This will allow you to discover pain points in their work-life. You can then work to remove such impediments and help free the employee to do a better job.

Free Access to Tools

Productive remote work demands the worker have everything they need in one place to get everything done. If they lose access to the very software, hardware, or online tools they need, they are much more likely to slow down.

Work with your IT department to see if anyone is without access to anything they need. Also, try to use your budget to buy subscriptions or licenses for software people might need to get the best job done.

3. Use the Best Tools and Invest in Technology

There are several software tools you could requisition for your employees to improve their work. Many of these focus on specific problems workers might have, so try to see if your workforce needs these before picking any up.

Time Management Apps

These could be anything from a simple Pomodoro app to a fully featured task-tracking application. Not only can people use these to track themselves, but managers can find out who is working slower and offer a helping hand should they need it.

Communications and Collaboration Tools

To increase WFH productivity, you should empower people to work with one another on anything they need to do no matter where they are. This could be by using applications such as Slack, Email, or a Google Drive shared professional space. Many options exist and you should research what each provides.

Many companies offer competing versions of these applications, so shop around to find what works for you.

Screen Sharing and Virtual Desktops

Some tasks, such as programming or design, work best when there is a direct method of seeing what another person is working on. Comparing and contrasting designs, or pair programming, cannot work without it. Thus, to improve remote worker productivity you should look into screen-sharing applications.

Using these apps can also help if anyone has IT support issues. Many programs allow IT to remote in and solve problems without needing to visit the person or ship the hardware out to another location.

Hiring a Remote Workforce

The above suggestions should give you some ideas on how to increase productivity. All you might need now are more remote workers to complete this work to their best ability. This is where we can step in and give you a helping hand.

Our expert help can provide you with workers from every corner of the world with experience in the kind of role you need. All you need to do is give us a call and we can start searching for your next hires.