How to Work from Home effectively
With the COVID-19 pandemic spreading across the globe, work from home (WFH) is no longer an option, but a compulsion which individuals, teams and organisations will have to adopt, and adapt to.
While some companies are flexible towards, or even encourage WFH, other companies and individuals tend to be skeptical towards it.
In this blog, we lay out what it takes to work from home effectively.
Communicate
Identify and effectively use the medium of communication with your team (Slack, Hangout etc). Keep your stakeholders and team up to date with your availability. Radiate as much information as you can. Hold regular short catch ups within your team. Be prompt at replying to your team’s collaboration tool (Slack, Skype, etc.). Longer delays increases the chances of building a negative perception.
Collaborate
Biggest challenge of remote working is collaboration. However, there are tons of tools to help in this regard. Identify tools that will help you and your team. Get used to screen share, video calls, remote desktop etc. Build common understanding of what you are trying to build, how are you building it, tools to be used, code review templates etc. proactively.
Do not hesitate to seek help from your team when you are stuck, at the same time be available for the team when they need help. Define the SLA for your team and core working hours. Post your availability breaks, lunch time etc. so that the team is aware and people plan their work accordingly.
Focus on work
Keep away from distractions at home. Designate a separate area of work where you ensure that you do not get disturbed. Make sure that you have comfortable seating space to avoid back pain and other discomforts.
You will also need a lot of support from your friends and family. Keep them informed about your work hours. It’s important for you to sensitise them about the fact that you are indeed working from home and therefore must not be disturbed.
Don’t hesitate to call or to get on Video call
If you are not used to working remotely, you may be hesitant to call someone as you may think that you may disturb them. Please do not hesitate. It is important for you to nudge people and get things done like you would do when you are in office.
Looking at someone and speaking with them results in a much better experience than talking to an empty screen. It establishes a strong level of trust and you build empathy towards the person. Don’t hesitate to turn on the video. Insist more on video calls than audio only.
Also, please maintain your daily schedule, hygiene and upkeep just like you would while working from office. Be presentable on the video.
Give and receive critical feedback
Seek and give regular feedback to your colleagues. Highlight the challenges early on and act upon those immediately. Be open to give critical feedback if you see things are not working as they should be. Be open to receive feedback and work upon those. Faster the feedback and resolution cycle, the better it is for the teams.
Be highly productive
Get on discussions when ever needed. Proactively seek help and provide help whenever needed. Ensure that you deliver what you signed up for (or even more). Leverage the time that you have saved in commute and other things, and use that in more collaboration and adding more value.
Don’t be impromptu with your plans while working from home. Plan your day (or days) beforehand. Avoid “stepping out for a couple of hours”, “will be unavailable for next 1 hour”, “guests at home”, “plumber at home” etc. unless it is absolutely urgent.
Be on top of your work, never let work be on top of you.
Maintain uninterrupted high speed infrastructure at home
For remote working, a high speed internet connection with a UPS (inverter) backup is a MUST. Also, the UPS must ensure charging for your laptop in case of power cuts. Make sure you have such provision at home.
Ensure visibility of your work
Keep your team / stakeholders informed about what you are working on. Don’t think that you will spam others by sharing more information. Radiate as much information as you can. Frequency can be 2–3 times a day or more or when you are at a logical point, whichever works best for your team / stakeholders.
Go extra mile for better client experience
All of us have clients / stakeholders be it internal products, external products, services, people team (HR), leadership team. It is important to identify these stakeholders (if you have not done so yet, it is a smell that needs to be addressed in itself) and keep them posted about your plan and progress. It is important that they know about your plan and are up to date with any deviation from that.
By doing all of these, you may feel a lot of your time has gone in just staying on top of things, specially if you are not used to remote working. Be open to not restrict yourself to limited work hours (40 hours) and go extra mile to add value to showcase best client experience.
Demonstrate Ownership
Proactively identify your plan and your deliverables. Set up goals for yourself / your team and own them. You are accountable. Ensure that the things that are stated above and all your team’s agreements are followed.
Doing the right thing
All of the above boils down to being true to yourself.
It goes without saying that you must take a leave if you are unwell or not in a position to work effectively. Ask yourself if you were productive in the day; if working from home has impacted you or your client in any way; if you were able to add value to your client; if you were able to seek regular feedback, if you were able to identify and act upon your mistakes. It is OK to take leave if you think you could not concentrate at work in spite of spending full day at work. It is OK to lose one day as leave rather than losing trust.
Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching you. Make this as integral part of your professional life.
In a nutshell, working from home is a big responsibility which requires utmost discipline, ownership and professionalism.
We hope this article is helpful and wish everyone safety and health in these testing times.
