However, the tables have turned in the past few months and now, most of us are working from our living room.

Surprisingly, this forced remote work has not affected the overall productivity of the workforce as opposed to the popular opinion.

In fact, some of the biggest companies have started giving a serious thought to providing their employees with long-term work-from-home benefits.

In May 2020, Twitter announced that it would let its employees work from home “forever” post-pandemic, if they chose to.

Only 2 weeks later, Mark Zuckerberg followed suit and declared that as much as 50% of his workforce could be remote in the next 5 to 10 years.

So, what changed in this lockdown that made the world corporate leaders take notice of the benefits that working from home could bring to the table?

In this article, we explore the reasons why many organizations have decided to embrace working from home in the long run while busting prevalent myths around remote work. Let’s begin!

Debunking 6 myths about working from home

Myth #1 : Working from home leads to decreased productivity.

In a study undertaken by that covered 1,004 full-time employees across the US including 505 remote workers, it was revealed that those who were working from home led a healthier lifestyle and more importantly, were more productive.

A similar study conducted by Stanford University over a period of 2 years concluded that working from home increased the productivity of employees by 13%.

While remote work does reduce the opportunity of informal bonding of employees with their team, it actually comes as a blessing in disguise.

Now, there are no impromptu coffee breaks, ping-pong competitions or a quick farewell bash to attend in the break room.

On top of it, working from home saves up time spent on daily commutes.

As a result, remote employees spend more time on their tasks, focus better and achieve goals quickly.

Pro tip: If you’re still unsure about tracking the progress of your employees, you could always try different techniques to keep them in loop like virtual standup meetings, setting goals and sending pulse surveys.

Myth #2: Working from home affects company culture adversely

If you look up the definition of company culture, you will find that it means “a set of shared values, goals, attitudes and practices that represent an organization.”

However, the past two decades have instead shown a rise in plush campuses, fun Fridays and the number of bean bags in the office.

Working from home brings back the focus to what matters most for an organization and its culture — flexibility, work-life balance and happy, committed employees.

As per a survey conducted by Owl labs, 91% of the workers admitted they preferred working from home citing better work -life balance as a reason.

In another survey by FlexJobs, 80% respondents confirmed that they would be more loyal and committed to their employers if they had flexible work options.

These statistics clearly establish that if your vision is to provide your employees with an open and creativity-inducing workplace, then remote work should be on the top of your list.

After all, company culture is more about instilling similar values and mindset in your team and not just about making them follow a certain code of conduct.

However, if you still think that establishing a cohesive company culture with remote employees would be difficult, here are a few tips for you:

• Build a culture of trust. Give your employees ownership while they are working from home but inculcate a sense of accountability.
• Make transparency your company’s core value at every level of decision making and operation.
• Simplify the communication process. Encourage everyone to remain available and be prompt in responses.

• Encourage informal bonding between employees and create opportunities by conducting virtual get-together to help your remote employees break the ice.
• Make sure that your remote employees are recognized, included and are a celebrated part of your team.
• Advise your managers to conduct more and more one on one meetings to get to know their team at a personal level.

Myth #3: Working from home causes communication issues

It is the most common misconstrued notion about those who prefer working from home.

And, it is quite understandable why people would think so.

A remote team brings in employees working from different geographical locations and sometimes, even time zones.

But, these are the times of virtual conferencing and global teams.

Even in case of onsite workers, the coordination and task assignment takes place on softwares like Jira and Slack.

As far as being in touch with the direct supervisor is considered, the following survey has a surprising revelation.

According to the survey, 52% of the remote employees ensure that they contact their direct supervisor at least once a day.

We agree that when you have a part of your team working from home, you may miss out on opportunities like a casual chat at the water cooler or a quick update by just walking up to them.

But you could still remain updated with their work, performance and engagement.

In fact, a study by Gallup states that remote workers are 60% to 80% more likely to be engaged than their onsite counterparts.

In the long-term, what matters is how engaged and motivated your employees are whether they’re working from home or from a seat next to you.

With the help of right tech tools, you could easily ensure that the communication channels remain open, clear and conducive for remote work.

Myth #4: Working from home may pose security threat to company data

Cyber security is a major issue plaguing the modern workplace with or without a remote team.

Ensuring that the company’s data remains safe is a bigger responsibility of the IT team and administration than of individual employees.

Investing in VPN and sophisticated authentication measures is a need that cannot be overlooked whether you plan to have a remote team in future or not.

Data security depends more on the awareness of people rather than their geographical location.

You need to educate your teams about the importance of data security and how serious data confidentiality is.

If your team is aware about the value of company data, they will ensure that it remains safe even when they’re working from home.

Myth #5: Working from home deters training and development of employees.

There’s an old saying — “out of sight, out of mind”; and it may stand true in a lot of situations but remote work is not one of them.

According to a survey by TalentLMS, 87% of remote workers receive training regularly, out of which 70% of them get it directly from their company.

With the help of online tools, webinars and virtual meetings, providing training to employees who are working from home is as easy as providing them to onsite workers.

In fact, a survey by GoToWebinar revealed that training webinars lock in the highest number of attendance.

And if you ensure that your organization has enough opportunities for remote workers to showcase their leadership qualities and manage bigger responsibilities, their career progression will be a cakewalk.

Myth #6: Working from home increases business cost.

When employees work from home, you need to amp up your IT cost to provide better security.

And that is why people have a notion that it may increase business expenses.

However, the reality happens to be the opposite.

An insurance giant in America named Atena saved a whopping $78 million dollar by letting go of 2.7 million square feet of office space by opting for remote work policy.

Remote work saves your business from sky-rocketing rents, maintenance costs and other overhead expenses.

It could help you prioritize your investments to ventures that could help you expand your business and even provide better perks to your employees.

Closing thoughts

Productivity and results depend upon how engaged, dedicated and focused your employees are and not their location.

The only good repercussion of the coronavirus pandemic has been the affirmation of faith in remote work.

Companies around the world have understood that as long as you provide freedom and opportunities, your employees will keep up their productivity and efficiency even when they’re working from home.

All you need to do is trust their commitment and keep them engaged.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 29, 2020.

Busting working from home myths and more was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Remote work is the new global trend. It is because more and more companies are realizing the advantages and benefits it can bring.

But there’s another side of the coin. As along with advantages there comes certain challenges such as decreased employee visibility, increased distractions, chances of miscommunication and disengagement. Therefore, comes the question of managing a remote team.

If not managed properly your remote team members can easily feel abandoned and isolated. This can lead to a downfall in employee retention, performance and efficiency.

Is your organization dealing with this chaos because of ill management of the remote teams? If yes, as the HR leader you can take certain measures to ensure the discontinuation of such inconveniences.

Whether you are dealing with newly remote teams or teams working remotely from a long time, in both the cases, it is important to learn about managing remote teams effectively for better performance, engagement and employee satisfaction.

What are the challenges in managing remote teams?

As a HR leader, here are the most common challenges you might be facing while managing your remote teams-

• Communication
• Company culture
• Employee Engagement
• Building trust
• Building human connections

How can you manage remote teams effortlessly?

Here is a 5 step-blueprint for you to successfully manage your remote teams-

1. Train your managers

Training managers and leaders to manage remote workers effectively is crucial to the success of every remote work programme.

2. Communication is the key

Start training your remote manager with the lesson of Proactive communication.

Encourage your managers to schedule one on one meetings to solve any doubts employees might have. One- on one meetings are also great to build personal connections with the employees as well as build trust.

Ask your managers to use icebreakers in such meetings to make them feel comfortable and engaged.

Train your managers to deal with the issue of scheduling difficulties due to different time zones. You can incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous communication with tools like Slack and Zoom to help them deal with it.

3. Support your remote teams

To manage your remote team s effectively empathy and action both are equally important. Thus train your managers to offer a helping hand to your remote employees whenever necessary.

Managers should make your employees feel cared and valued by offering a helping hand especially during this Covid -19 outbreak.

Going this extra mile will help you earn their loyalty and your employees will not hesitate to give their best at every step for your organization. You should never forget the fact that your distributed employees are humans and not robots.

4. Cultivate work culture

Translate the company culture to your employees with the help of your managers.

Make your remote teams aware of the company culture and values and how it aligns to your organization’s vision. Incorporate the company values from day one by letting your new hires know about it.

You can opt for creating a document that clearly depicts your company culture.

Also make sure you and your leaders are adhering to these principles. Because if you don’t follow the work culture yourself, your employees will not work according to it as well.

5. Inculcate trust and transparency

Trust and transparency are the two main pillars of a healthy remote work culture.

Train your managers to make the company goals and objects and the employees’ role in that clear. A Clear objective will help your employees to understand where to focus and ultimately help increase performance. Seeing their work is contributing to achieve company’s goals will further keep them engaged.

Encourage your managers to trust the employees and offer job autonomy. It will help your employees be accountable and keep your managers away from micromanagement.

“Because we work 100% remotely, we achieve trust by being transparent and avoiding micromanagement.”

Brenna Loury, Head of Marketing, Doist

Make sure your managers are setting expectations in the beginning of a project. Also be clear about meetings schedules, holidays, and other such information.

Are your remote employees engaged?

Engaged employees are crucial to a company’s success. And as the HR it is your responsibility to manage your remote teams’ engagement.

Here are a few steps you can take to keep your employees engaged-

1. Check the pulse

Start with surveys and feedback to understand the pulse of your employees. It will help you understand the problems in the present system so that you can work to improve those areas.

2. Make your remote teams feel included

Make your remote employees part of the decision making process by including them in discussions about important projects. This will make them feel their opinion is being valued and thus keep them engaged.

3. Foster connections

Build human connections with your managers as well as remote employees and be available when they need you.

Working remotely can create a sense of isolation among employees which directly affects their performance. Thus It is important to help them establish connection with other team members to keep them engaged.

You can incorporate an internal chat system to make your remote teams feel connected. Also create channels for different interests where your distributed teams can make personal connections.

You can also organize annual meet ups to help your employees bond better.

4. Encourage teamwork and collaboration

Ask your managers to ensure team collaboration among the remote employees.

Organize virtual team building activities.

Create a virtual office by encouraging your remote teams to work for an hour or so with their video on. This will virtually recreate the feeling of working in a physical office with co-workers.

5. Recognize and appreciate

Employees desire to get recognized for their contribution. Recognition is an important factor in boosting employee morale and motivates them to give their best in every task.

Use social media platforms to recognize your employees publically. Also train your managers to encourage peer to peer recognition to help maintain a healthy work culture.

6. Provide your managers tools to manage remote teams

Incorporate tools to help your leaders manage everyone on the go. As the HR you should also make sure that your remote employees have all the necessary technologies such as a good monitor, good internet connectivity etc. in their home office setup.

Tools will also help your managers to track and measure to take the right action. This will also ensure better employee experience.

Include HR software in your remote employee management program. It will help you to comprehend how each project is getting completed, who’s working and when, and how efficient their workflow is.

Here are a few tools for collaboration, productivity, engagement, performance etc.-

1. Tools for smooth virtual communication and collaboration

Slack, Campfire, HipChat, Troop Messenger, Skype, Zoom, Google hangouts, Same Page etc.

2. Tools for remote sharing

Google Drive, Team Viewer, Chrome Remote Desktop etc.

3. Tools for Secure Integrations

Zapier, 1Password etc.

4. Tools for productivity

Krisp, Todoist, Blink etc.

5. Tools for time management

Kickidler, Teamwork, Time Doctor

6. Project management tools

ProofHub, Basecamp etc.

7. Tools for employee engagement

Peoplebox can be an all in one solution for your managers to keep the remote team in a loop. Trusted by managers at more than 500 companies, Peoplebox will help you manage real-time continuous performance with ease.

Key features

• Build better relationships and connect with 1-on-1s
• Increase your remote team visibility, alignment and in sync with powerful, efficient team check-ins
• Prioritize important tasks and conveniently track the team’s progress on them.
• Collect feedback from each employee with the pulse survey and find out what is working and what is not.
• Track your remote employees’ productivity and performance with one click

Conclusion

The challenges you will face in managing remote teams are a bit different from the in-office scenario. And so is the way you overcome those challenges. Putting some extra effort to keep your team in a loop and by embracing technological solutions you can make your remote teams a success.

So are you ready to manage your remote teams now?

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 29, 2020.

How can HR leaders manage remote teams effectively? was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A transformation from traditional work culture to a more remote working model has been taking place with more and more remote companies coming into existence.

Is your company considering to have a long-term plan for remote work as well? If you are still confused about whether it is going to benefit you or not, let’s look at how remote work has impacted some of the companies with a significant impact on the business world.

Take a look at 6 companies, who have successfully embraced remote work culture and what you can learn from them to make your remote teams a success.

Top 6 remote companies and what you can learn from them

First let us talk about 3 remote companies that have been successful on a global scale without having an office-

InVision

InVision, the company which provides one of the world’s most powerful screen design tool, has more than 1000 employees working remotely spread over 20 countries.

InVision shows the path for building (and sustaining) culture and employee experience, and collaboration among teams in a remote environment.

How do they do it?

InVision puts much value on trusting their distributed teams to ensure their company culture. And it starts from their first day of onboarding

To ensure collaboration and connection among employees they have certain norms such as- to thank a colleague for going above and beyond. Employees at InVision also have their employee recognition and rewards solutions.

To rebuild the energy of working together just like in a physical office they use Zoom room and a Freehand to work and chat with their teammates. They rely on tools like Slack to communicate and collaborate.

They work asynchronously, to deal with the issue of having employees in multiple countries and time zones. They record any video call where important decisions are being made and post them for others to see to add a little more continuity and sync.

“As far as team bonding and feeling lonely, I feel closer to my co-workers at InVision than I have been to co-workers in traditional offices.”

JENNIFER ALDRICH,UX and Content Strategist at InVision.

InVision offers its employees home-office stipend and coffee-shop vouchers to encourage them to work in the location they feel most productive.

They also offer unlimited vacation and encourages personal-interest Slack channels for employees to better connect with each other.

InVision also teaches that keeping your remote employees happy is the primary requisite for a productive , motivated and dedicated workforce.

At InVision, CEO and senior staffers put employee happiness at the core. They, in fact, have an actual official Director of Employee Happiness.

InVision has an effective onboarding process for new remote hires where they help their new hire settle into the role, grow knowledge and understanding about the company and empower them with the tools, information, and resources they need to get up to speed quickly.

What you can learn

• Since company culture directly influences things like employee happiness and engagement, it is necessary to ensure and sustain it.
• InVision shows the path for building (and sustaining) culture and employee experience and collaboration among teams in a remote environment.
• Keeping your remote employees happy is the primary requisite for a productive, motivated, and dedicated workforce. And this process starts from the very day of onboarding.

Automattic

Automattic is best known for giving the world the free and open-source blogging platform WordPress.

Founded in 2005, Automattic has around 1,170 employees scattered across more 75 countries, speaking 93 languages.

How they do it?

• To keep employees in sync they rely on tools like Slack, Wikis, Zoom and P2, a WordPress theme for more in-depth discussions. They also have an internal blog to keep the communication open and constant.
• They arrange meetups 1–2 times a year to help their employees strengthen the bond with co-workers from different cultures and work together as a team. In addition to this Grand Meetup, teams meet each year for five to seven days to brainstorm team-level strategy and bond.
• They have Connectomatic for hosted Zoom calls based on shared interests and experiences.
• They use the Donut app for Slack, which randomly pairs off co-workers to help them better interact and get to know each other.
• Automattic’s HR team organize monthly Zoom gatherings called The People Lab, where speakers present anything HR or Diversity -related.
• They have initiated distributed postcards which employees pick up from their local area and send it to a fellow Automattician. They also have an opt-in gift exchange program

What you can learn

• Being remote doesn’t mean being disconnected. So focus on building connections between co-workers and keep them in sync.
• Hiring for your remote teams needs to be approached differently. You need to look for the specific skills along with the candidate’s ability to adjust in your remote work culture.
• You can take a lesson from Automatic on how to build connections between co-workers.

Zapier

Since its launch in 2011, Zapier has been working entirely remotely. It has more than 200 employees spread over more than 15 countries.

How do they do it?

They use a combination of transparency and communication along with automation to make their employees feel valued and engaged.

To Keep remote employees motivated and passionate about their tasks, they start with hiring the applicants who have really used their product before and love it.

Zapier believes in inclusion as the key driver of employee engagement. Thus they ensure that all employees are in the loop by keeping them updated about every change suggested by management. They also encourage employees to offer their input about these decisions.

Zapier also includes fun remote employee engagement activities like channels on Slack where employees can connect with their co-workers on the topic of their interest.

For managing and smooth functioning, they use tools like SheetsCodafor, Airtable, Jira, Rover, Looker, GitHub, Zappy along with more common tools like Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Docs, etc. They use SkillSurvey, to gather background information through data-driven decisions while recruiting new hires.

What you can learn

• Keeping your remote employees engaged is an important aspect of the company’s success. Thus use a combination of transparency and communication along with automation to make your employees feel valued and engaged at every level of the organization.
• Hire employees who appreciate the products and services you offer to best represent your company.
• Make tools your best friend when it comes to managing remote employees. They can make things easy for you as well as your employees.

3 Companies that have adopted remote working for good post-pandemic

Fujitsu

The global technology firm Fujitsu has decided to primarily work on a remote-basis.

“As a DX (Digital Transformation) company, Fujitsu positions digital technology at the heart of our “Work Life Shift” policy.”

Manabu Morikawa, Senior Director, Employee Relations Division, Global Human Resources Unit, Fujitsu.

How do they do it?

They are planning to introduce “Zinrai for 365 Dashboard”, an AI-powered work style transformation service to help them grasp the current situation and solve problems that emerge over the course of implementing remote working.

Fujitsu also gives an emphasis on factors like employee wellbeing and happiness.

They have been focusing on employee autonomy and trust to maximize team performance and improve productivity. In addition, they have wellness checks to offer support to help employees’ physical and mental well being.

Fujitsu also gives an emphasis on factors like employee wellbeing and happiness.

What you can learn

• If you want your company to succeed, you need to find what’s working and what’s not in your company and keep your employees constantly engaged.
• Well-being has a crucial part in maintaining employees’ performance and productivity. Thus build a comprehensive well-being program that best suits your remote teams.
• Inculcate trust and provide job autonomy to save yourself from the urge of micromanaging.

Twitter

Twitter was the first company to start work from home while the pandemic started, and also the first company to allow its employees to work from home permanently, even after the pandemic ends. Although this new policy wouldn’t apply to employees whose jobs require a physical presence, such as maintaining computer servers and office works.

How do they do it?

Twitter listened to employee surveys and initiated a stipend to set up an appropriate home office set up for employees including expenses for home office equipment, such as desks, desk chairs, and ergonomic chair cushions.

They also increased their investments in mental and physical health benefits to navigate through their new reality.

Twitter has initiated resources to help managers foster deeper empathy with their direct reports. Twitter also introduced a flexible work schedule for its employees through asynchronous work, allowing employees to decide how and when to work.

What you can learn

• Acknowledge the difficulties your employees may face while shifting to a remote work system and help them deal with those issues. Put your employees on the top and Listen to their needs.
• Don’t forget that your employees are humans too. And lead them with empathy trust and flexibility.

Shopify

Shopify has been working in a hybrid model with both remote and in-office workforces. But they announced fully remote work in March 2020.

How do they do it?

At Shopify, they facilitate podcasts, videos, and worksheets, as well as workshops, webinars, and 1:1 meetings to give their team the tools to stay engaged and productive.

To keep the goals clear and transparent they create a document for each project to explain the project, the rationale, the timelines, and key stakeholders.

They have embraced tools like GitHub, Trello, Google Jamboards, Figma, Tuple, and Google Meet for better virtual collaboration.

What you can learn

• Focus on the emotional engagement of employees to keep them motivated and engaged.
• Set clear and transparent goals to make your employees understand the priorities and help them focus on things that align with the company’s vision and mission.

Benefits of remote work

Remote work is one of the fastest-growing trends in the modern workplace.

Why should you opt for remote work than traditional office

1. Hire the best talent

Remote work makes team augmentation possible. Since you are working with distributed teams, you get the luxury to hire the best talent for your company from any location.

2. High employee productivity, creativity and morale

Remote teams not only get more done, but they are also willing to go that extra mile for their company when compared to in-office workforce.

Remote employees also get the privilege to work without any distractions which is a common thing while working in an office with other co-workers. It also increases the work hour as they spend less time on breaks and coffee-machine chats.

In an experiment by Nicholas Bloom, remote workers worked 9.5 % longer and were 13% more productive.

3. Increased employee satisfaction and happiness

The flexibility that remote work offers to work from anywhere, anytime leads to higher employee satisfaction. Working remotely also gives employees the chance to work on other important things in their lives by saving them time they otherwise would have wasted in commute.

Increased happiness and job satisfaction among remote employees leads to lower turnover in comparison to traditional office culture.

4. Cost-efficient

“For Hubstaff, I estimate working remotely saves us over $100K per year.”- Dave Nevogt, CEO

Remote working helps employees to save on food, commute, and other expenses they might otherwise incur at a traditional workplace.

It benefits employers as well by reducing in-house facilities, leasing fees, IT utilities and other expenses.

5. Better employees engagement

According to a two-year study by Stanford University, remote workers are, on average 9% more engaged in their jobs.

Moreover, the technological advances make it easier to keep your distributed teem in the loop and keep them engaged by making them feel part of the larger scenario.

Conclusion:

While remote works have been a well-established practice for some companies, some others are still exploring and experimenting with its scope. Covid-19 has further shifted the working scenario.

Follow the footsteps of these companies, grant your remote employees true autonomy and flexibility, make proper use of tools like these companies have etc. make your transformation to remote teams a success.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 23, 2020.

Top 6 remote companies and what you can learn from them was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A recent study, states that Covid19 has shaped the way we do work. The study finds a surge in the adoption of remote work with 67% of enterprises opting to ‘keep it this way’.

But is remote working good for your business? Does it increase or decrease productivity?

If you are looking for answers to these questions, you have come to the right place.

What does productivity mean?

To understand productivity, we need to look at the different factors that influence productivity

If your remote employees feel motivated and engaged, they will align to the organizational values and hence be more productive.

In an office setup, it is easier to turn your chair around to engage with an employee. It’s easier to maintain social-currency with meetings and fun activities at the office. It’s easy to look at an employee, in person and gauge if they are drained or disconnected. But the pandemic has dictated new rules of working together

However, remote work, especially in the current times of ongoing pandemic, has dictated new rules of working.

Hence, as a business leader, you tend to wonder if in a remote set up your team is:

Myths About Working from Home & Productivity

• and consequently productive.

Let us take a look at some of the common myths.

Myth: Employees are just passing their time

A common fear that employers have is of the employees missing deadlines and not managing time properly.

Truth: Remote employees have no qualms about working long hours as per the study conducted by . 43% of remote workers work longer than their counterparts.

Myth: Employees are taking frequent breaks

But then it is also possible that employees cannot balance life at home and spend too much time working, which could eventually lead to burnout.

Truth: However, according to remote work statistics , 37% of remote workers say the best way to boost productivity is to take regular breaks.

Myth: Employees are not collaborating enough

For decades, organizational teams have been collaborating across geographies. But when a co-located team begins to work remotely, there could be issues in teamwork. How does one replace a meeting room and a white-board?

Truth: According to BCG, 56% of all respondents said they have been able to maintain or improve their productivity working remotely with other team members.

Myth: Employees are not able to focus

Office spaces created a social zone with a focus on the company-related task. Closed environments worked because they cut employees from their potential distractions, hence making them more productive.

Without a private space, it is difficult to understand if the remote employee is distracted. There could be family distractions or personal distractions. There is no definitive way to understand if the home setup is not allowing the remote employee to focus.

Truth: However, a survey by Flexjobs indicates that 75% of people who work from home do so because there are fewer distractions

These myths point to one common myth — that the employees are not productive enough.

Realities of working from home productivity

While some are myths, there are some realities too which make productivity while working from home challenging

1 Not meeting each other every day

Generally, the work-culture dictates bonding with each other. A part of the work-culture is to meet, discuss work and non-work-related issues. With the physical distance, work coordination and engagement is thwarted.

The BCG survey, also indicates the same, about more than 70% of the respondents felt that they were less productive due to social connectivity breakage.

With a lack of outside interaction, especially with lockdown due to a pandemic, employees are blocked from the world. There is a lack of human connection, thus inducing the feeling of isolation and loneliness.

While some feel that working in isolation is bad for productivity, others may be more productive.

Isolation and loneliness affect mental health which affects employee motivation-lack of motivation further affects productivity.

According to a survey by Buffer, 19% of remote employees report loneliness as their biggest challenge.

Think of the one on one meetings, where body language is also a part of communication. Without being face-to-face physically, it is difficult to gauge the other person’s non-verbal signs.

The same is valid for team synergy. With the dependency on team members to complete a task, not communicating enough or misinterpretation of emails can imply conflict. Hence over communication gives way to proper interaction in a remote work setup.

In research, 27% of the remote employees have cited communication as their #1 issue.

It is so much easier to walk to a colleague and ask a work-related doubt. It is also more comfortable to attend an office meeting in person while providing feedback.

While working remotely, even simple doubts, take the shape of a meeting. It makes tasks challenging to execute.

According to a report, the #2 challenge with the meeting, stayed engaged. And the #1 challenge with 31 % indicated audio/video issues, which leads to a waste of productive hours.

5 Uncertainty

With an increase in the number of Covid-19 positive cases, businesses are operationally challenged affecting their revenue. On the one hand, everyone is worried about getting infected on the other losing their job.

No one wants their role to be redundant. With no company growth, remote employees are more concerned about their future, which further deteriorates their productivity.

Pandemic or not, according to a , more people feel the blurred lines between work and home beyond just the uncertainty of the pandemic.

While distances make relationships grow fonder, in times, where everyone is locked at home, working away from home, makes an employee anxious about the health of the family member.

On the other hand, living in isolation stresses the employee impacting mental health.

Will an employee be able to function when his world is falling apart?

Hence according to a survey, 51% of the businesses are offering mental health support for the remote workers.

How have companies overcome working from home productivity challenges?

There are a lot of issues with remote work and the problems they bring forward to remote management. Although remote work has its set of challenges to be dealt with, some benefits make it the most productive setup for your team. that working from home increases productivity

According to a survey by S&P Global Market Intelligence, is that 80% of organizations that said they have employed expanded or universal work-from-home policies.

Twitter has announced that its employees can continue to work from home permanently.

Other tech giants like Google and Facebook have said they will operate at around 30% of office capacity, with most workers allowed to work from home through 2020.

If there are drawbacks to remote work, then how are businesses able to transition successfully?

Pandemic forced the organization to adopt a remote working culture. Using digital technology-tools like Slack, the Zoom, WebEx, EverNote has made working from home possible.

Schedule Demo

There is also a considerable shift in the mindset of managers, especially with conveying trust, patience and accountability.

This translates to building a cohesive work culture and making sure that there is constant clear communication from management regularly.

While organizations can develop policies and culture, eventually, it all narrows down to how individuals work together.

Remote jobs like these can be a reality with a smooth transition.

Many companies like Buffer, Stripe and Github already had an organizational structure with just remote workers. The external push of pandemic has forced a few organizations to transition to a work culture of remote workers.

Let’s take a look at some well-known companies who have adapted to the remote work culture and are happy with the productivity of their employees as they work from home.

“ We’re going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale. We need to do this in a way that’s thoughtful and responsible, so we’re going to do this in a measured way “-Mark Zuckerberg.

When Blind surveyed the social media company, about 15% said they would never go to an office while 15% suggested that they would like to work from the office daily. This is also possible because of an individual accountability environment.

In aggregate, many companies could find their offices more than half empty most of the time after the crisis abates.

Fran Katsoudas, Cisco’s chief people officer, was quoted as saying by “ We’re seeing an increase in productivity .”

Most of Cisco’s employees have been working from home productively for months, and their internal data shows many were accomplishing more.

For Cisco, their in-house collaborative tools like Web-Ex help fuel the transition. Cisco re-defined its policies and processes with the remote work culture in mind.

One of the benefits that companies lure their employees to is their office space and amenities. So then it makes sense when the giants are worried about burning social capital because of remote work.

NYTimes quotes Satya Nadella of Microsoft pondering about the company’s improved efficiency: “How long lasting is that? What does burnout look like? What does mental health look like?”

Microsoft evaluated the needs of employees, customers and partners before creating their remote work constitution. They ensured that the customers have enough tools and access to combat the COVID-19 situation.

Summing up

Benefits of remote work are many, and an increase in working from productivity is just one. If you are contemplating going remote, trust is the key to unlock the success of your remote teams.

With digital evolution, the growth of remote work was inevitable, the pandemic only accelerated the move. There is no denying that the remote work is the future of work.

Schedule Demo

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 23, 2020.

Does working from home increase productivity? was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Did you lately receive a call from a client complaining about how your team has been consistently missing deadlines?

Or have you found yourself worrying about your team completing their basic goals, let alone innovating anything?

Are your employees less interactive during daily stand-ups or meeting calls?

Do you think that your company’s culture is going for a toss after you went remote due to COVID-19?

One of the major reasons why the answer to one or more of these questions is a “Yes” is the lack of engagement among your newly-remote employees.

If your company’s culture is the sum of all shared goals and aspirations that your employees have, employee engagement is the ‘ glue ‘ that keeps them involved and emotionally invested in the company.

More an employee is engaged and invested in your company, the more they will be motivated to contribute at a higher level.

A study shows that engaged employees not only produce better business outcomes than other employees do; they do so because they are more present and productive; are more attuned to the needs of customers; and they are more observant of processes, standards and systems.

But what might lead to disengaged employees?

Every decision made at your company can tip that scale towards either engagement or disengagement, leaving employees either satisfied or completely dissatisfied with the work culture.

If you think that the latest changes due to remote working might have impacted them, it is time to look out for the signs for disengaged employees and make the necessary changes to keep them self-motivated and reestablish the emotional connection.

7 signs of disengaged employees in remote teams

Whether you are an HR manager or the CEO of the company, you should watch out for these 7 signs of disengaged employees to keep your company culture intact even while working remotely.

1. Absenteeism

The first sign to look out for is how often is an employee taking leaves, as absenteeism is more serious than tardiness.

Employees who take a lot of random sick days are either genuinely not keeping well or are just sick of work.

If requesting for leaves is coupled with them consistently ignoring pressing deadlines and targets when requesting days off, they are clearly disengaged.

It can also be because the employees are mentally absent — which means they come to work, but their minds wander.

If this is an occasional occurrence, it will be fine.

But, if you have been consistently calling or messaging them to get an answer, or catch them doing everything but their work, you may be looking at a disengaged employee.

2. Withdrawal from team-building activities

Another sign to look out for is the level of engagement they have while the HR department or you set up a team-building activity.

While virtual team building activities have been a good way to ensure that all employees stay connected beyond work, you cannot know about their success until you measure the impact they are having.

Look for team members who are less interested in participating in these activities, who often make an excuse, or are less proactive if involved.

But don’t confuse them with an introvert. Introvert employees are likely to be a little hesitant in opening up or mixing with the team. However, if they are just not interested, it is a red flag for sure.

3. Lack of communication

Communication forms the backbone of any organization, more so if the teams are now working remotely.

Missing out on important information, staying quiet or less involved during work calls, not eager to share ideas/problems during one on one calls, are a few signs of disengaged employees.

An important aspect to consider here is that employees are less likely to communicate if they do not trust their direct supervisors or senior management.

If they feel that their words are falling on deaf ears, they would eventually communicate less.

Another point to consider is if they interact minimally with management and when they do, they lack spontaneity and rapport, keeping things very formal.

But remember that this could also be because they have not opened up to their seniors or are probably new in the system.

As much as you care for existing employees, you must also focus on making remote onboarding successful to ensure that employees get a chance to gel well with their managers.

Red flag: If the employees rely more on gossip than official announcements and guidelines it is a red flag.

This symptom can be contagious as they would then end up complaining and inflating issues, rubbing off their frustration and low morale to their peers or team members.

4. Lacking the zeal to shine

Did you hire an employee after being impressed with their passion and zeal to shine in their career only to find them give in to the 9-to-5 schedule?

An engaged employee sees an opportunity and seizes it. They innovate, volunteer and improve processes.

On the contrary, disengaged employees do not defend their ideas, care much about how their work is going, or are less willing to lead a project and be accountable.

Look for team members who:

• lag in these aspects,
• show a lack of initiative,
• do not try to improve the way things are done,
• are less participating in meetings,
• planning sessions or change initiatives,
• rarely share their ideas.

This attitude often stems from an unfavourable environment.

Pro tip: Recognize your employees’ ideas and enthusiasm, make them feel heard, acknowledge their efforts, and provide the right tools and resources for remote working. Absence of a positive work atmosphere can also be a cause for disengaged employees.

5. Decline in the quality of work

As humans, it is inevitable to not make a mistake, however, making avoidable mistakes can be a sign of disengagement.

Disengaged employees do not aim for maximum quality or meeting expectations.

They might just be doing enough to not get fired!

So, if you find an employee’s overall quality decrease or stagnate, it may signal low engagement.

However, instead of viewing subpar performances as one of the many red flags, make certain that it is not a result of inefficient processes, insufficient resources or unrealistic targets.

As the HR leader or CEO of the company, it is important that you look for additional signs when you consider the quality of work.

6. Showing signs of burnout or exhaustion

Has an employee recently complained about how they are tired or exhausted all the time?

Or does any of your employees now have the added work pressure since they have to manage children, families, etc. due to remote working and the lockdown?

Having too much on the plate, often without getting any time to settle in with a new routine, can often result in physical fatigue.

If you find an employee falling ill more than usual, or who is always tired, talk to them about the same to understand how you can help them while they get some breathing space to rest or adjust to the new work from home routine.

Help your managers set the right expectations and distribute work better.

7. Conflicts with co-workers

Having conflict in opinions is no new thing between employees, as long as they reach a conclusion.

However, since disengaged employees are not interested in solving problems and making progress, they often express their lack of engagement through open frustration and aggression.

They are either at odds with someone or resist new initiatives or their manager’s instructions.

This negativity can be very damaging for the overall morale of the team and the company.

It is time to have an honest discussion with someone who is:

• being impolite more than often,
• being more argumentative as time passes,
• using rude or foul language, or showing similar signs.

What leads to a disengaged employee?

It is unfair to look for signs for disengaged employees without introspecting what you are doing differently.

While an employee might just not be interested in their work or have a personal crisis, it is critical that you consider a few points here to ensure that you have got it right.

1. Lack of recognition

Recognition is a key factor in employee engagement.

After all, who would not like a few motivating words of appreciation, even for the smallest of tasks.

As a manager, while you look for signs for disengaged employees, it is time to also look if your company culture encourages remote employee recognition.

This can be as simple as giving frequent feedback that helps someone get better at their work, or sending occasional formal letters, or informal gifts to keep their spirits high.

It is after all, never too late to look for new ways of employee recognition to keep your team members motivated.

2. Lack of growth opportunities

One of the reasons why employees seem disinterested in work or look for opportunities elsewhere is when they do not get the right resources and the chances to grow.

Are your employees armed with helpful digital resources that allow them to complete their work on time?

Are they getting enough training and growth opportunities to aim for better positions and salaries?

Providing remote employees with an abundance of training opportunities to help them learn and grow is another highly effective way to engage remote employees.

Employees today value continuing education opportunities and make career growth a priority.

If they do not see that happening in your organization, they are likely to look outside for companies that would offer them the same.

3. Confusion over processes to be followed

Remote working is new to your employees, just how it is new to you.

As the leader of the organization, it is vital you have all processes and protocols in place and have them communicated to the right stakeholders too.

Chaos and mayhem in professional life is the last thing your employees want, especially in the COVID-19 induced stressful environment we all are living in.

What you should do?

A research found that only 19% of employees self-identified as very engaged, with 35% declaring themselves as somewhat engaged, and these percentages may have actually gone down since the lockdown.

Managers play a critical role in keeping employees engaged as they directly affect all of the aspects of a job.

As the saying goes, “people don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses”.

As social distancing protocols continue to be in effect, it is essential that you remain connected with your remote workforce and be interested in their lives and problems to provide them with the right solutions.

When you stay empathetic, have honest and open dialogues, and extend help whenever required, your employees too will feel free to communicate and be more involved in sharing your dreams.

Having regular one on one meetings is another way to ensure that you get and give ample opportunities to your employees to help them feel involved. Ensure that you make optimum use of these one on one sessions to strike a friendly bond with your team and make them feel safe enough to open up to you.

Simply put, when you start engaging with your remote employees, you will have engaged remote employees who will pay you back in kind.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 23, 2020.

7 Signs of Disengaged Employees in Remote Teams was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you have stumbled upon this article while you were looking for an appropriate remote employee monitoring tool, you’re at the right place.

From capturing keyboard activities and mouse strokes to a random screen capture of an employee’s screen, there’s nothing that a remote employee tool cannot do to ensure that your team is working 24/7.

However, the question which arises at this point is — is it the right thing?

Should you be keeping an eye on every activity of your employees during your work hour?

When does keeping track become an invasion of privacy?

How does one draw a line between them?

We explored all these dilemmas and more in this article.

So, grab your coffee and read on.

Why do you feel the need for remote employee monitoring?

In the aftermath of navigating through the Covid-19 pandemic, most organizations were forced to adopt a remote work model.

For leaders and managers who are habitual of walking up to their employees’ desk for a quick look, this was an unwelcome move.

As quoted in an interview by Brad Miller, the CEO of Awareness Technologies, “ There is a reason why we have offices. It’s not by accident”.

What the top leaders want from a remote employee monitoring tool or corporate surveillance software is simple — to know how their employees are spending their work hours when they work from home.

In fact, employee monitoring was in vogue before the Coronavirus hit us and when employees were working from their offices.

According to a report by Gartner in 2018, at least 50% of 239 large corporations were tracking the social media activities of their employees during work hours.

This constant need for knowing the details of every minute spent by an employee stems from a fear of declining productivity and misuse of resources.

A remote work setup further fuels this fire and hence, we are in the middle of a scenario where the demand for employee monitoring software is going up every day.

But, is it worth it?

Do organisations benefit from adopting remote employee monitoring?

Impact of remote employee monitoring on your workforce

A survey by Baylor University concluded that the presence of an employee monitoring software is directly related to increased employee stress, decreased job satisfaction and a growing turnover rate.

While discussing this topic with a group of people, we had some interesting revelations about what people thought of employee monitoring software.

Here are some of the statements they shared with us

“I feel like I am reduced to a machine”

An employee monitoring software equates productivity with the hours spent on work-related applications rather than an employee’s creativity and quality of work.

Continuous distraction in the form of surveillance not only hampers output but also creates an aura of distrust.

“ I feel like I am not allowed to relax even for a minute”

Roma, a senior software developer with an IT firm, confessed that she found the random screen captures disturbing.

“ I always listened to music even when I worked in the office. Suddenly, my screen capture which shows my music app is proof of my lack of discipline”, she said.

Your employees are humans who have their unique way of carrying out their task.

Their occasional indulgence in a non-work activity is quite normal and in fact, necessary for a stress-free work environment.

However, the pressure of an unpredictable click by an employee monitoring software causes tension, annoyance and fatigue.

“ It feels like there’s always an invisible person peering over my shoulder”

Sounds spooky, right? This was one of the most interesting responses we had.

All of us like to work in silence without any interference and at our own pace.

An employee monitoring software creates an environment of constant hustle to prove one’s efficiency.

An employee never feels like she’s alone — the moment she rests her keyboard to mull over a topic, there’s a chance of her decreased keyboard usage and her dismissal as a slow performer.

A software cannot measure your employees’ breakthrough ideas and innovative strategies.

If not remote employee monitoring, then what?

We have been telling you all about how adverse employee monitoring is but we can’t escape the fact that you do need a mechanism to handle your remote team’s work.

Remote work and distributed teams are great in certain ways but they’re trickier to manage in terms of coordination and cohesiveness.

The only way out seems to be employee monitoring with the help of these tools that give you a sense of control over your teams.

But, why do you even need control?

Your organization requires your guidance, support and leadership.

And leadership is earned with actions, not demanded with authority.

Since the root cause of looking for a remote employee monitoring software is your fear of declining productivity, here’s what’s we suggest instead,

1. Create a culture of engagement

Engaging your employees not only leads them to better productivity in the long run but also inspires them to remain committed and go the extra mile.

Taking interest in employee welfare by recognizing their good work, providing the right incentives and giving them some time off can go a long way in motivating employees.

Ensure that your organizational strategy has a robust employee engagement policy and your managers know that it’s of utmost importance.

2 Build trust

As a leader, you need to start believing in your employees and create an atmosphere where they trust your leadership as well.

This becomes even more important when working with remote employees — a screen can easily become a boundary between you and your remote team.

You need to realize that your employees are committed professionals who have their own set of dreams, a family to look after and other serious commitments.

Doubting their sincerity would only reveal your lack of confidence in people.

Checking on them consistently is one way to start building a good relationship with your employees.

Remembering their birthdays, work anniversary and other such important events show that you care for them beyond their official roles.

Similarly, always be available to help them out or talk them through.

A team built on mutual trust is the surest recipe for long-term success.

3. Make one on one meetings a priority

One on one meetings are important for employee management and can also serve as a great employee monitoring tool.

Frequent one on one meetings help managers in understanding their direct reports’ psyche and where they stand in their professional journey.

Especially with remote employees, one on one meetings can be a great way to address your employees’ concern, direct them towards productivity and get a better idea of how they’re doing at their job.

Establishing a culture where one on one meetings are a must require you to be vigil about them.

Keep checking on your managers to know if they’re taking time for one on ones and encourage them to do so.

Pro tip: You can suggest software that can help managers schedule, manage and conduct effective one on one meetings.

4 Set quantifiable goals

One of the most important tasks during a one on one meeting is setting goals with your employees.

With remote teams, goal-setting can become an effective method of streamlining the activities and monitoring your employees.

In fact, goal-setting can help you make the transition from micromanagement to effective mentorship.

Instead of tracking their every activity, you can shift their energy towards achieving the mutually-decided goals and help them grow.

Remember that the goals should be simple and measurable, for example — Pitching 3 high net-worth clients in the quarter, completing a certification or delivering 4 highly-researched articles.

5. Conduct more pulse surveys

Pulse surveys help you understand what your employees are feeling and what you can do to help them give their best.

They’re short, simple and give real-time insights about employee morale and their grievances.

Instead of monitoring their activities, pulse surveys can help you monitor their inner turmoil or satisfaction which ultimately becomes a deciding factor for the quality of output.

6. Take your daily standup meetings remote

Daily standup meetings are a great way to track the progress of day-to-day tasks and keep the entire team aligned with each other.

Many organizations follow this practice in their office, then, why not continue them with remote employees?

Today, various video conferencing and task management tools can assist in conducting daily standup meetings effectively for remote teams.

We suggest using them to your maximum benefit and making daily standup meeting a norm.

7. Technology to the rescue

There’s no dearth of different tools that keep the entire team in the loop about the work being done and at what speed.

Using task organizers effectively can help anybody monitor their employees without being intrusive or unprofessional.

Remember we spoke about drawing a line? This is how you do it — by making your employees responsible for reporting their task without being a helicopter boss.

Closing thoughts

Remote employee monitoring is more than counting the work hours and the number of deliveries.

It extends to managing and monitoring morale, engagement and productivity.

And employee monitoring software cannot achieve these metrics.

You cannot measure your employee’s productivity on the yardstick of time they spend before their system.

You don’t need a team that locks in the highest time spent on their laptops; you need a team that treats your goals like their own and takes your organization to the next level.

Your employees are your most important asset and you need a touch of human connection to monitor them well.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 23, 2020.

Remote employee monitoring: Where are you going wrong? was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Are your remote employees missing deadlines? Have you seen a lack of participation among your employees in virtual meetings and calls? Do they lack commitment and are refusing to improve? Are your customers dissatisfied with your remote employees?

If yes, then you must include engagement software in your organization’s engagement program as soon as possible. Because these are among the most common warning signs of disengaged employees.

According to a Gallup article by Dvorak & Sasaki, more than half of the USA’s disengaged employees work remotely.

Even if your employees are already engaged, employee engagement software will help you to strengthen and maintain remote employee engagement in your organization. Moreover, businesses of all sizes can benefit from using employee engagement software.

The COVID -19 outbreak has made employee engagement a primary issue with different social and health effects. Thus it is more important than ever now to incorporate employee engagement software in your engagement program.

“According to Towers Perrin’s research, companies with engaged workers have 6% higher net profit margins, and according to Kenexa research engaged companies have five times higher shareholder returns over five years.”

Can a software help increase employee engagement?

Yes.

It does not just help you provide more communication and participation for your remote employees, but also creates a culture where they feel valued.

It creates a collaborative environment where employees can connect and cooperate in a virtual workplace scenario.

Why do you need a Employee engagement software for your remote employees

• Measurement is the first step towards improvement.
• Develop and sustain
• Make work enjoyable
• Peer-to-Peer recognition
• Keeping goals transparent and resources accessible

Can employee engagement be measured?

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment that your employees hold towards the organization. And it is not easy to express emotion in terms of quantity.

Measuring employee engagement becomes more difficult when you are dealing with teams working from different geographical locations.

Since it is important to measure if you want to improve, thus to quantify engagement you need to ask your remote employees specific questions and deduce your answers from that.

You also have to keep an eye on each remote employee and their performance to measure the engagement level.

Employee engagement software does exactly this for you through pulse surveys, performance tracking, and feedback. It helps you gather and analyze data that you can easily zoom in or out to understand and measure how engaged your employees are.

How to choose the best employee engagement software for your remote team?

Since employee engagement is such an important aspect of your organization’s success, choosing the right software is really important.

To make the process easier for you, let’s divide the process of choosing the best employee engagement software for your remote teams into three parts- self-contemplation, scrutinization and the final decision.

Step 1: Self-contemplation

Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself before choosing an employee engagement software for your remote teams-

1. Does the software aligns with your organizations needs?

To choose the best-suited engagement software, first and foremost you should know what your organization’s needs are and then find the software that best aligns with it. So, before choosing an employee engagement software ask yourself a few questions like -

• What is already working for your organization and what’s not?
• The main issues you are facing to manage your remote teams
• Your primary goals and objectives

2. What features are you looking for?

Before adopting new software consider what things are going in the right direction and what not. It will help you understand what are the most needed features you want in the software.

When there are countless features a software can offer, it may be sometimes confusing to decide. Thus keeping a list handy will help you focus only on the features you require.

Step 2: Scrutinize

Now that you know what your needs and goals are, it’s time to examine the softwares present in market. Here is a list of things you need to look for in your ideal employee engagement software-

1. Does it provide the basic facilities?

Here are the basic functions of employee engagement software should offer-

• Measure employee perceptions
• Discover employee priorities
• Dashboards
• Company strengths reporting
• Employee engagement survey templates
• feedback reminder
• Real-time feedback analysis
• Email notifications

2. Is it mobile friendly?

Ideally, employee engagement software should be accessible through any browser including smartphones and tablets.

3. Does it use AI to improve engagement in your remote teams?

AI-driven software offers your remote employees 24/7 assistance. It will enable employees to easily access all required resources and internal portals from a single interface.

AI-driven software also helps in sentiment analysis and captures employees’ daily experiences in Real-Time . AI uses Chatbot to improve the onboarding experience and team Team Collaboration.

4. Does it incorporate other important tools?

Make sure that the software you choose for your remote employee engagement of your organization incorporates other tools like Google Calendar, Office365 and Slack. It is a necessary feature for the smooth functioning of your remote teams.

5. Does the software provide consistent and reliable data analytics?

Employee engagement is an ongoing process. Thus choose a reliable software that will provide accurate data consistently to help you track long-term progress easily and effectively.

6. Does it offer engagement reports?

An ideal employee engagement software should provide engagement reports to track trends, minute and significant changes in employee engagement, and productivity. It will give you insights into where to focus your employee engagement efforts.

7. Does It incorporate features to support your engagement efforts?

Once the problems in remote employee engagement are identified, Line Managers and HR are expected to work on it. It may be difficult for you to do it without any guidance or training.

Thus choose a software that provides training materials for you to take action effortlessly.

The best employee engagement software will offer automated leadership action plans to support and sustain employee engagement efforts

Step 3: Reach the final decision

Here are a few things you should consider to reach the final decision-

1. First try then decide.

Make sure the vendor is providing a preview of the software. It is best if you can try a demo to understand if the software will work for your organization or not.

2. Choose the software that best suits your budget

Ideally, employee engagement software providers keep their pricing structure transparent. However, if your budget is not directly matching with the pricing list you can ask for discounts for long-term commitment as most vendors are willing to incorporate special pricing models.

3. Is the vendors’ team engaged?

If the vendor does not have a highly engaged team himself it is most likely that their software will also not act desirably.

Thus try to go through the reviews and other sites to determine if the vendor has a highly engaged organization of their own.

4. Are security and privacy in place?

Employee engagement software captures sensitive information about your employee details, demographic information, and employee sentiment toward various company efforts, etc. Therefore, you must choose software that practices strong security and data privacy.

Make sure to review the security policy the vendor offers. Make sure the vendor doesn’t share your organization’s data with any third party or use your data for other purposes.

5. Does the vendor offer support and maintenance of the software?

It is important to consider if the vendors are providing software support and maintenance for issues like bug fixes, software updates, and security.

Peoplebox — One in all solution for HR to feel empowered to build high performing teams through employee engagement

Peoplebox is the best solution for all employee engagement related issues for your remote teams- a software that is trusted by companies like LinkedIn, Zendrive, Optimizely. It uses AI for continuous performance growth.

Here are the salient features that Peoplebox offers:

• It allows you to send automated pulse surveys to understand your employees’ needs better.
• It encourages anonymous feedback to understand what is stopping your employees to go above and beyond for your organization.
• You can use it to monitor and analyze feedback in real-time with its AI assistance.
• It offers powerful insights for HR with a dashboard to drive improvement in the work culture.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 21, 2020.

How to choose the best employee engagement software? was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The initial few weeks when the Covid-19 pandemic hit industries across the globe were mayhem.

Companies did not know how to proceed ahead with work-from-home work culture and employees were finding it difficult to adjust to a new schedule.

Amidst all this, the human resource department across the globe was striving to find a balance and fine-tune processes, making it comfortable for both employers and employees.

Today, after weeks of chaos, when everyone is settled in their own pace and finding new methods of employee engagement, feedback process, meetings goals, and more, HR leaders now face the crucial task of remote onboarding to ensure the company is not short of new talent to grow.

The isolation that remote working brings with it was easy to overlook when the old employees and colleagues were forced to communicate and work digitally, and they did well at that.

However, with a new employee who is in the process of remote onboarding, the equation changes and demands that every small thing is taken care of so that they adjust well in their work routine, understand the work culture and have someone to talk to when in doubt.

A research found that organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.

To make things simpler and easier here is a step by step breakdown that will make sure that you are equipped with all the necessary information and have a clear vision that would make remote onboarding a piece of cake.

Remote onboarding: Before the day of joining

So, you have finally hired a new employee to add to your remote team, after days of shortlisting and interviewing candidates.

Now what?

The next step will now be to ensure a smooth remote onboarding experience, and that begins before their first day at work.

In order to ensure that the entire process is smooth for the managers, new employee and even you, here are a few points to consider.

1. Start with a welcome kit

Put together a list of essential items a new employee would need at least a week before their joining date.

This must include the list of phone numbers they would need, training manuals, and essential documents around the product or service they will be working for.

As a goodwill gesture, you can also think of a few souvenirs that can be sent as a welcome kit or company stationery.

You can send company merchandise like a t-shirt or a mug with their names and company logo to make them feel a part of the team.

2. Help the new employee get comfortable before their joining date

Once you have put together the welcome kit which includes all necessary documents, the next step is to take the new employee through the same briefly and allow them ample time to study those to get a good idea of company values and beliefs.

Being equipped with the right knowledge will help them start their new role with confidence and adjust well in the company.

3. Check with them on the infrastructure

One of the most important things to check beforehand is whether the new employee has the essential infrastructure required to kick-start work.

This includes making sure you send them the company laptop with essential software that they might require, ensuring a stable internet connection, and an ergonomic chair and table if required.

Ask them if they need any support in creating a work-friendly setup at home, for example, if they need to create a dedicated workspace if they have the required furniture to build one.

You can also share with them a few useful articles around remote working to help them set their own pace and maintain a personal-professional life balance.

4. Have a meeting with their reporting manager

It is crucial to be aware and understand beforehand how the reporting manager intends to take it forward with the new employee and if they need any help from you as the HR.

For this to be a success, make sure that the reporting manager is a part of the entire process from day one or is at least aware of the same.

Similarly, while it is easier to conduct training for a new employee in regular office set-up, however, for remote onboarding, the next best way out is to have online training programs in place beforehand.

These can be pre-made videos that can help one understand the work or proper one on one training sessions aimed to ensure the new employee is well acquainted with the product or the service.

5. Early introduction

While nothing beats having your support in the initial few days to adjust well within the company, however, they would eventually be working with their team and the sooner they get acquainted with their fellow team members, the better.

You can introduce them through a Slack channel where all the other team members are present, or if they are comfortable you can include them in a Friday team meeting too.

Remote onboarding: On the day of joining

Once you have made certain that the basics are covered, it is now time to move on to the next step of the process — to ensure that the new employee’s first day goes without a hitch.

1. Get done with joining formalities

Since most of the joining formalities will be done digitally, it is essential to be transparent and clear on all the documents required.

You can also give the new employee a couple of days to get back to you with all the required information.

2. Introduce them to their reporting manager

Although you might have had the chance to introduce the new employee to their reporting manager, take this day to formally introduce them and set the processes straight from day one.

This would also give both of them a chance to understand each other’s roles and expectations from a professional point of view.

Setting expectations right and having a clear understanding of the same can lay the foundation of a strong working relationship.

3. Assign a work buddy

Along with getting acquainted with the reporting manager, having a friend from day one at the new workplace can ease things for anyone.

You can discuss with the reporting manager and assign someone who will be working closely with the new employee.

Someone from the same educational or professional background or even the same city is an added advantage to help them strike a conversation and a connection.

The role of this work buddy is primarily to act as a support system and help the new employee get used to everyone and also the work processes.

While at it, make sure that you choose someone who is a team player and has been in the system for quite some time.

4. Acquaint them with the tools and software used in the company

The next crucial step of remote onboarding is to take the new employee through the tools and software used by the company or the team and get familiarised with them.

Since you have already set up the same beforehand, the new employee might have had a chance to go through it.

However, through this session, it is essential they understand what everything stands for and how is it used.

5. Set the right channels for communication

From the software to the hierarchy, ensure that the new employee is well acquainted with the right channels of communication.

Also, make certain that they know if there is a way through which all communication flows, for example, in case your company uses the ticketing system to assign a new project.

Take this opportunity to also introduce the new employee to other team members (if not done yet) over a Slack channel or other mediums used.

6. Give them an office-like feel

Since the ultimate goal is to make remote onboarding a success, give the new employees and their team members a chance to break the ice and have informal sessions.

Arrange virtual coffee meetups, lunch breaks, etc.

Help them know other teammates and vice-versa by randomly pairing them with people from the team, with whom they will then catch-up casually over a mutually decided time and date.

You can also share with your team a few icebreaker questions beforehand to give them a chance to strike a conversation.

Remote onboarding: After first week at work

A study found that most organizations stop their onboarding process just after the first week, leaving new hires feeling confused, discouraged, and lacking resources.

To avoid this from happening at your company, ensure that you set a process for constant feedback and regular check-ins.

1. Schedule frequent check-ins with managers & yourself (HR managers)

Once the new employee had a chance to get acquainted with the team and their week, take frequent follow-ups with their reporting manager to know about the success stories and the problems too.

This can be done right after the first day and then through a few check-ins all week to ensure all problems are resolved at the earliest.

Having these conversations through one on one meetings with the reporting manager will give you ample chances to understand how you can make things better for the new employee, and for others in the future.

2. Gather employee feedback to eliminate potential problems

Along with involving the reporting managers and other stakeholders to discuss things, also take some time off to gather employee feedback at the grassroots level to eliminate potential problems.

You can do this with the help of an efficient employee engagement software for remote teams like ones offered by Peoplebox.

At Peoplebox, we have built the world’s first employee engagement and performance software exclusively for Remote Team, that encourages employees to come out and share their views through pulse surveys, anonymous messaging, and other options.

Summing up

Remote working and remote onboarding are here to stay for a long time to come.

It opens the doors for companies to have employees coming in from across the globe and a smooth remote onboarding process can ensure that both parties stay efficient without any discrepancies, leading to better productivity.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 17, 2020.

Remote Onboarding During Covid-19 Crisis was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Way before remote work became a necessity in 2020, it had already started to become a lucrative benefit for employees.

However, this year has been momentous for the adoption of remote work or WFH options.

Millions of employers around the world have understood the feasibility, challenges and benefits a remote work policy can bring to their organization.

While the idea of working with distributed teams seemed scary at first, a surprising number of firms have successfully adopted remote work.

This development has also paved the way for more flexible and remote-friendly workplaces in our near (and safer) future.

In this article, we throw light on some surprising facts backed by statistics to understand the present state and the projected future of remote work.

Let’s begin!

1. The Rise of Remote Working Revolution

The year 2020 has become a turning point in the remote work trend or at least, that is what the statistics suggest.

Rise of remote working started even before the Coronavirus hit us!

According to Gallup, 43% of the US employees were already working remotely for at least a part of their time.

The last 5 years have seen a major shift towards remote work.

As per a joint study conducted by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics, the number of people opting for remote work has increased by 44% in the period between 2016 and 2020.

In fact, employees with an option to choose remote work are planning to practice it more often.

Yes, you read that right.

In a study by Owl Labs, a whopping 42% of the employees have admitted to planning on making remote work a regular practice in the next few years.

And those who don’t have the option of remote work would love their employers to take heed.

In research conducted by Buffer, as much as 99% of the employees confessed that they would opt for remote work if given an option.

Interestingly, remote employees do not shy away from recommending it to their friends and family.

In the same research by Buffer, 95% of the employees also agreed to have encouraged their loved ones to choose remote work.

Although remote work seemed to have caught the world’s imagination only after the Covid-19 crisis, its popularity had already been making waves in the corporate corridors.

Most employees prefer remote work because of the flexibility, work-life balance and an opportunity to work for organizations across the globe.

Let’s look at some statistics that speak about the impact of remote work on employees.

2. Rise of remote working, employee engagement and well-being

There has been a lot of discussion regarding employees’ preference for remote work.

The statistics clearly indicate that remote affects talent hunt and employees retention. Let us show you how.

Remote employees are more likely to be better engaged.

According to a study by Gallup, 32% of remote workers are engaged as compared to only 28% of office workers.

Moreover, remote employees tend to stay loyal to their jobs.

In the study by Owl Labs, remote workers admitted that they were likely to keep their current jobs for the next 5 years 13% more than the onsite workers.

Adding to this, remote employees are also way more productive.

In research conducted by CoSo labs, 77% of remote workers said that they’re more productive when they’re working remotely.

Did you know that people avoid the office when they’re trying to focus on an important project?

According to breakthrough research by Atlassian, 76% of employees have admitted that they start working remotely when they know they need to concentrate on a major task.

Remote work does wonders for employee morale.

As per research by Marketing Assets, 90% of the employees say that flexible work schedules and arrangements increase their morale.

For remote employees, job satisfaction is real!

Amerisleep conducted a study on 1,001 remote workers and had some interesting revelations.

57% of remote workers are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than their office counterparts.

In fact, 80% of them experience less job stress.

Remote employees take better care of themselves.

Research by FlexJobs concluded that remote workers get more time to spend on their well-being and mental health.

As a result, remote employees are healthier.

Remote employees have a healthy lifestyle and have low exposure to mental fatigue and physical hardships.

A study by Indeed suggested that 50% of the remote employees take lesser sick leaves and 56% of them have low absenteeism.

3. Increased organizational efficiency with the rise of remote work

For organizations, the biggest benefit of remote work has been access to a global talent pool without any geographical barriers.

Remote work has also proven to be advantageous for the overall productivity of the organization.

Let’s have a look at some of the statistics -

Remote work leads to better organizational performance.

Professor Nick Bloom from Stanford University conducted a 2 year long research in 2012 and worked with professionals from a billion-dollar company to understand their behavior.

In the research, it was concluded that transitioning to remote work improved their employees’ performance by 13% owing to lesser distraction and shorter breaks.

Remote workers do not mind working longer.

Long working hours take a toll on the productivity and health of onsite workers.

However, remote employees have no qualms about working long hours as per the study conducted by Owl Labs.

In fact, 43% of remote workers work longer than their counterparts.

The reason why they were okay with longer work hours was the fact that they loved what they did and appreciated the flexibility provided by their leaders.

Remote work helps in reducing costs.

Due to low operating cost, remote work proves to be a more beneficial option for the organization.

In a research, 77% of organizations agreed that allowing remote work may lead to a reduction in their operational cost.

There’s no doubt that remote work has tremendous potential for both employees and employers.

But, there are certain challenges in remote work that need to be addressed.

Let us take a minute to find out what they are.

4. The roadblocks to the rise of remote work

Remote work has all its perks, but it can become difficult without the right support.

To reap the true benefits of remote work, some obstacles have to be removed.

Here’s what these roadblocks are -

Remote work makes communication difficult.

With onsite employees, communication is effortless.

Remote employees, on the other hand, find lesser opportunities to communicate with their colleagues and managers.

In a research, 27% of the remote employees have cited communication as their #1 issue.

Pro tip: You can use a software to make communication seamless and effective with your remote employees.

In fact, regular check-ins or one on one meetings keep remote employees engaged.

Remote work can be isolating and lonely.

In an office, employees get a chance to socialize and build rapport with their team.

However, remote workers spend their day working alone and deal with their difficulties on their own.

The barrier of a computer screen further makes it difficult to forge reliable relationships with teammates.

All of these problems make isolation a pressing problem for at least 13% of the remote employees.

Despite these problems, remote work has become a desirable attribute for every job seeker and even the organizations have become fairly welcoming of it.

Let’s delve deeper into what the coming years have in store for us.

5. The future of remote work

The rise of remote work is trending all over the world and it will continue for sure.

All the statistics indicate its growth and business leaders are making efforts to carve a roadmap to make their workplaces more remote-inclusive.

Let’s look at some figures that vouch for this fact.

Remote work is already the norm.

Nearly 41% of global businesses are already offering remote work as an option for their employees.

In fact, the United States and Australia are on the list of top 5 countries that have most remote workers.

Most teams are all set to resort to remote work.

According to research conducted by Upwork, 73% of all the teams around the world will have remote employees by the end of 2028.

Young leaders prefer remote employees.

Millennials are the leaders and managers of tomorrow.

In the same research by Upwork, it was found out that 69% of young managers will have employees that work remotely.

Closing thoughts

From environmental benefits, better productivity to happier and healthier employees, remote work has something to offer for every stakeholder.

In the longer run, our workplaces will become borderless, more connected and truly global.

Remote work is going to facilitate and accelerate this process of shared ideas and growth beyond boundaries.

Lastly, we would like to conclude by admitting the obvious — the rise of remote working clearly indicates that remote work is here to stay.

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 16, 2020.

The Rise of Remote Working: Present and Future was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Understand the pulse of a remote employee automatically using our employee engagement survey software with ease.

How are you feeling today? The question must have sparked many emotions. This is an emotional question, of course, the answer to which is subjective.

But what if you had the options,

• Happy
• Motivated
• Sad
• Tired

to choose from? That would make it easier for you to express yourself. So is the case with your remote teams.

Have you ever wanted to check if your employee is happy with work? Are you sure that they are communicating well, and there are no issues with the organization?

As interpersonal relationships are essential for day-to-day activities, it is evident for your employees to face conflicts.

While some issues can be gauged by body language, it comes more understated in distant teams.

Bullying, harassment, low motivation and communication become more prevalent in remote work. Understanding employee issues not only helps in motivating them but helps in retaining the talent.

The biggest challenge for HR today

The biggest challenge faced by the organization and its HR managers is to ensure employee productivity which is dependent on employee motivation.

With this as a goal, organizations strive to provide the best working conditions for their employees to make this goal a reality. How is this possible in remote work?

In the course of doing this, it is essential to note that both the employer and employees have needs which can in one way or the other affect the organizational goal.

Abraham Maslow in 1943 in a paper titled ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ published in the Journal Psychological Review categorized human needs into a five-tiered hierarchical structure.

He claimed that human necessities move in a particular order; lowest to highest. The satisfaction of such needs occurs successively, i.e. it begins from the bottom, which after satisfied, ceases to satisfy till one gets to the top where he becomes self-actualized and all he ever dreamt of being.

Maslow, a psychologist, observed that people live in an environment where the inability to satisfy their needs may ultimately result in their incapability to function healthily, optimally or even adjust well.

He categorized the human needs into physiological (basic), safety (security), love (belongingness), esteem (confidence) and self-actualization (self-expression) needs.

Most of the employee work health issues can be classified in the manner Maslow has classified. In theory, one cannot understand if an employee is motivated enough by mere classification. This has to come from the employee itself.

Changing face of HR

Traditionally, HRs deployed multiple ways of understanding the needs and eventually boosting morale — Coffee chats with HRs and Managers, Team Feedback without the Management, one to one meeting, and even sending organizational level’ voice of workforce’ surveys.

However, with more and more companies going remote, employee engagement surveys designed keeping in mind what the HRs and management want, are becoming a new tool to tackle issues faced by the employees.

Gone are the days of manual data entry and analysis, which made employee feedback analytics prohibitively time-consuming and expensive.

So, how does an employee engagement survey help?

The employee engagement surveys provide HRs with essential insights.

• They help in understanding the motivation levels.
• Check if an employee on the verge of a burnout.
• Check if an external factor like the ‘new norm’ during COVID19 is affecting work.
• Know how to retain the employee by understanding these needs.
• Know how to motivate employees
• Understand the health of the workforce, in general
• Check if a change in the organization is creating a positive impact

A manual survey and meeting are subjective. It can easily miss hidden meaning and themes. It’s difficult for a human to overlook patterns or trends in big data sets.

What should you consider to design an employee engagement survey?

To design any survey, especially to understand the workforce, HR must ask some key questions.

• Consider the most pressing people issues — Retention? Innovation? Efficiency? Or better yet, ask your people what those issues are.
• Survey your people about how they think they are doing on those most pressing issues, and what they would do to improve.
• Keep in mind to communicate with your people what you learned. If it’s about the company, they’ll have ideas to improve it. If it’s about themselves — they’ll be grateful.
• Ensure that you run practical experiments based on what your people tell you.

Why do you need an employee engagement survey software?

In general, it isn’t easy to quantify or understand subjective inputs, especially the one generated from meetings. Data can be interpreted in different ways.

It isn’t easy to decouple personal inputs when a manager or HR enters data from meetings. It is also challenging to take the survey at face value without understanding the nitty-gritty of the organization itself.

A self-designed survey could be a victim of ‘Survey Bias’. It could both lead to a question order bias and a response bias. The order of the question could influence the person taking the survey.

In some cases, with employee privacy an issue, the response could be not truthful or misleading. Designing these surveys and understanding the voice of the workforce is not an easy job but extremely necessary.

Hence, many external tools help in creating surveys and monitoring the results. It is not easy for HR to determine the best tool for their organizational need.

Must-haves for employee engagement survey software for your remote team

Typically, a tool must be

1. Easy to configure, easy to use so that the time spent on understanding the usage, to create the survey and to make it available to all the employees is less. Hence not adding to the existing workload. It should be automated.

2. An employee survey software needs to collate relevant information and showcase without additional frills.

3. It should provide detailed analytics so that the data can be represented to stakeholders and to make better-informed decisions on the results.

4. While the primary goal of the survey could be retention, motivation or even better support, all in all, each of the survey questions should help to understand the pulse of the employees.

5. A tool should have anonymous reporting and communication to know deeper employee issues.

6. A key deciding factor is affordability. The employee engagement survey software should be under the organizational budget. Most surveys tend to fall under a per-user or organization structure.

While an employee survey software helps in understanding the pulse, if not implemented correctly, it could lead to ineffective usage with no apparent results.

Hence an HR leader should make it a point to run the survey effectively.

• An HR should communicate the need for the survey and indicate how and when it will be conducted.
• An HR needs to set clear expectations around the survey with both the stakeholders — management and the employees. With the right expectations, there is no misalignment on the goals.
• A follow-up with the survey takers is necessary so that everyone valid responds.
• Once the survey is complete, the HR should provide actionable insights and communicate the same to the survey takers.
• The task of the survey does not end with insights. The insights should then convert into feasible action.

Fundamentally, an employee software survey tool should help understand the employee needs, especially for remote work which is a tough task as the employee is not in sight.

“I don’t think we need more regulation and more oversight. … What we need are tools that measure the quality of care. A bad survey may be the consequence of how a single employee dealt with a single resident.”

Carl Young, Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist

Wrapping up

A remote team is exceptionally vulnerable, and it becomes more challenging to build their morale.

Employee Surveys tools from Peoplebox can help tap into the different needs and help develop the employees further. Then it becomes easier to gauge questions from “Are you motivated enough in your current role?” to “How are you feeling today?”

Originally published at https://www.peoplebox.ai on August 15, 2020.

Best Employee Engagement Survey Software | Remote Teams was originally published in peopleboxai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.