Working from anywhere is an exciting but challenging paradigm for many companies, especially those used to the traditional office setup. Unfortunately, we often see well-meaning organizations flop during the transition and conclude that this work strategy is not for them.
How can employees and managers transition smoothly to the work from anywhere model?
General guidelines here include co-creating plans with colleagues, embracing technology for productivity, and trusting employees with their responsibilities. Most of all, leaders should steer management styles toward greater openness and collaboration.
Whether you’re a new employee or a seasoned executive, knowing these guidelines should help you navigate the transition toward work from anywhere setup.
Work from Anywhere Guidelines for Employees
1. Have the Right Tools
According to Biswajit Dutta
, IT Technical Consultant, “This is where technology comes into the picture to meet the demands of the employees as well as the employers.”
You need access to your devices to work from anywhere. This includes the following:
● Laptop or PC
A stable internet connection and a reliable laptop or PC are the bare minimum for work from anywhere setup. While many productivity software tools are usable on mobile devices, most people find a traditional PC or laptop setup more conducive to productivity. Your needs will depend on where you prefer to work.
● Other Hardware
Depending on your needs, consider investing in other equipment. For example, if you frequently have to meet clients virtually, a quality microphone and camera can help you appear professional. Drawing tablets and a stylus might be essential if your work involves drawing figures, while a powerful CPU or GPU is recommended for simulation, content creation, and advanced data analysis.
● Software
Many jobs only require office productivity suites to process documents, spreadsheets, and presentation slides. However, technical staff may need more specialized software for media content curation or programming.
Coordinate with your company regarding the tools you’ll need. Your company will often provide licenses as long as the software is exclusively used for work. A reimbursement is also an option in many workspaces.
2. Ensure a Reliable Internet Connection
Since you can work from anywhere, your internet connection is the only resource you’ll have for collaboration with colleagues. Therefore, investing in a fast and stable connection will significantly impact your productivity, especially in environments with tight deadlines and agile teams.
Check your internet plan and see if you can work with the average and maximum indicated speeds. It would be best to look into service stability, security, and customer service quality. Check out reviews to see how other users think of your internet service provider. Likewise, don’t hesitate to switch to a provider with better services.
You may opt for a wired Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi. Wired connections are less prone to interference. However, they may not be feasible if you’re traveling or your preferred workspace does not allow for wired connections.
Coordinate with your company and see if you can get reimbursed for your internet bills. After all, it’s in the best interest of any enterprise to ensure that employees can get work done.
3. Secure a Dedicated Workspace
Luke Hurst of Lydekker said, “It is important to have a dedicated work area when working from home to help you get in the zone and focus without distraction.” This principle applies to a work-from-home setup and if you work from anywhere.
Unlike your office workspace, this model empowers you to choose where you can work best. Thus, you have greater control over the environment where you perform your tasks. Depending on where you choose to work, you can further use this freedom by investing in customizations.
For instance, you can buy or work in spaces with ergonomic chairs and desks to keep your posture healthy. You can also opt for accessories such as a laptop cooler, desk lamp, or customized microphone setup.
It does not matter where you work as long as you can focus and make the most of your time. Then, when a tiny cubicle no longer binds you, you can maintain discipline better and boost your productivity further.
4. Set Schedules and Boundaries
One disadvantage of a purely work from anywhere setup is that many employees struggle with integrating work and personal life properly. The typical 9-to-5 schedule encourages employees to finish work within office hours, given how awkward and stressful it can be to bring work anywhere, especially at home. Unfortunately, this natural barrier is absent in various remote work setups, so you have to put extra effort into ensuring that your professional life has boundaries.
The most straightforward method for setting boundaries is to stick to a schedule. Treat the ability to set your schedules as an advantage. For example, if your daily routine consists primarily of asynchronous tasks, you can select your work schedules during the hours where you’re least likely to be disturbed. This would help you avoid distractions, but you’ll also be less stressed and more productive.
Aside from time, you should also set boundaries in other ways. For example, inform your family and friends about your work hours. Ideally, they should only disturb you in case of emergencies, allowing you to focus on your work fully.
Setting boundaries is easier said than done. However, this is a necessary step toward ensuring that you remain productive wherever you choose to work.
5. Find Ways to Connect with People
It is significantly harder to build good rapport without face-to-face interactions. According to Samantha McLaren, Lead Copywriter at LinkedIn, “It’s easy for remote employees to feel isolated. When most of your workforce is spread out, it can be difficult to maintain a strong company culture.”
This difficulty in connecting with people can lead to more misunderstandings and barriers to collaboration. Events such as onboarding new staff can compound this problem. As a team member, ensure that you proactively find ways to continue nurturing connections.
Practice both your verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Without a face-to-face set up, people only have limited information to understand what you’re trying to say.
Take part in social activities, even something as simple as a quick chat with a colleague. After-office events such as virtual parties are also great ways to unwind and talk to people.
Work collaborations are more manageable when you and your team take the time and effort to connect.
Work from Anywhere Guidelines for Executives
Transitioning to work from anywhere involves effort from all levels of the organizational hierarchy, but it’s worth it. We wrote more about its benefits in this article, “What Is a Work from Anywhere Model?”
Managers and executives should also know what this setup entails and how to prepare their teams for virtual work. Practicing these guidelines can better ensure a smooth transition, enhance productivity, and boost morale.
1. Assess How Work from Anywhere Would Affect Your Team
Working from anywhere presents a vastly different work dynamic than more traditional setups. Employees now have more freedom to adjust their workspaces as they see fit. They also save money and time since they no longer need to commute and eat out. On the other hand, working from anywhere makes it harder to have the everyday face-to-face interactions that ultimately build camaraderie.
Some types of work are more suited for telecommuting than others are. As a leader, you need to assess the suitability of work from anywhere model for your team. Figure out which work functions are best suited for this setup and focus on those. Even for jobs that traditionally require physical presence, you should still be able to find work duties that can be completed remotely.
2. Survey Technological Needs
You should also take a long look at what tools your team will need to work anywhere. Nicholas Martin, Technology Advocate, said, “People need the right equipment to work efficiently.”
Are your employees able to use their current devices, or would the company provide standardized units? Do they need specialized software, or would a basic office suite suffice?
You need to foresee what tools employees will use so that you can provide adequate support.
The last thing you’ll want is workers to be unable to work effectively because of inadequate tools and poor management.
Balance performance and cost when assessing the need for hardware and software tools. In many cases, free and open-source alternatives exist for proprietary software. Your company may also secure great deals from electronics suppliers. A proper assessment of technological needs should help you determine the best strategy for procurement.
3. Provide Training
Being able to access the internet and use modern technology requires a baseline level of digital literacy. Therefore, any organization needs to ensure that its members are familiar with working with computers, particularly those who are not digital natives.
As an executive, you are in the perfect position to raise awareness of this issue. Your company needs training and support systems to ensure digital literacy as you transition to a work from anywhere model.
You can easily outsource the development of training programs on digital literacy. Many training providers would be happy to help your workforce succeed in the digital era. At the very least, choose software with user-friendly interfaces and helpful documentation so that people can perform basic troubleshooting by themselves.
Even after your company has fully embraced the work from anywhere paradigm, there should be opportunities for continuous learning. Digital tools evolve, so regular training schemes will help you and your employees remain competitive.
4. Establish Common Goals and Expectations
The challenges of virtual communication mean that coordination is more important than ever for teams that work from anywhere. Moreover, workers are expected to produce outputs with less supervision than before, tempting bosses to compensate through micromanagement and enhanced surveillance.
Instead of taking this aggressive approach, leaders should set clear expectations regarding workflows and outputs. Douglas Ferguson of Voltage Control said, “We need more empathy now more than ever, especially in the workplace.”
Essential Work from Anywhere Tools
The work from anywhere scheme underscores the importance of infrastructure to facilitate employee performance. Unlike in traditional setups where hardware and digital tools are more standardized, workers empowered to work from anywhere will have varying access to equipment and software. In addition, IT personnel should be available to provide technical assistance, but they can’t visit every employee or provide split-second help.
Hence, having the right tools is even more vital for companies that want to transition to a work from anywhere model. Consider these essential tools before implementing the setup to ensure a seamless experience and maximize your team’s efficiency.
Project Management Software
Today, you can find hundreds of online tools presenting the next digital tool that improves productivity. While some of these tools might seem nothing more than fads, having project management software is essential in keeping on top of your current projects at work. Here are some of the kinds of programs you should look into:
● Fast and Robust Software
Your tools should be able to synchronize quickly, provide downloads and offline functionality, and stay resilient even if some of your members encounter connection issues. You also should not overlook the quality of customer support.
● Cross-platform Tools
The tools you use should allow employees to access them through their computers or mobile devices. They should also have intuitive interfaces and clear documentation so that your team faces a shallower learning curve and can more readily integrate the tools into your work routines.
● To-do Lists
Having a clear place to show delegated tasks should reduce coordination workloads and ensure employees know what to do. In addition, if your company uses a particular project management framework, the chances are that there’s already a corresponding app or software package for it.
Video Conferencing Tools
Video conferencing tools are essential for remote collaboration. When choosing video conferencing software, aim for tools that provide good video and audio quality without consuming massive amounts of internet bandwidth. Recording options are also crucial to make documentation easier.
Cross-functionality and usability are also important factors. For example, many of the most popular tools have intuitive controls and guides to help new users navigate the interface.
Popular video conferencing tools include Zoom and Google Meet. While both software is available for free, consider availing of paid options to gain access to longer meeting times and other features.
Messaging Applications
Even if you have the best video meeting software, don’t underestimate the value of a reliable messaging application. Messaging software allows people to communicate quickly with each other. In addition, unlike email, many messaging tools have features designed to make conversations easier to navigate, such as search functionality and conversation views.
The tools you use should also have good management capabilities, given the tendency of work teams to have overlapping members. Finally, look for data privacy features — you don’t want confidential corporate data to fall into malicious hands!
Learn more about essential communication tools in our article “Tech Tools Every Modern Business Should Use.”
Rewards and Recognition
Recognizing a job well done is an underrated component of employee motivation. However, it can be hard to do without face-to-face work. Fortunately, more digital tools provide companies with a platform for employee recognition and rewards.
Reward platforms can be as simple as a bulletin board that lists notable achievements. Other methods you can consider are point-based rewards and leaderboards, which allow you to gamify work performance.
Related Questions
What are some common pitfalls when transitioning to work from anywhere?
If a company is unprepared, many things can go wrong as work teams adopt remote work. In many cases, leaders fail to adapt their management styles and push back against trusting that workers will continue to work productively with minimal supervision. For example, they may implement aggressive tracking software that gives a minute-by-minute view of each employee’s screen or fill up the day with multiple meetings to see if people are still on track. Unfortunately, these techniques only reinforce distrust and can distract from productive work.
Another common mistake is failing to prepare the workforce for digital tools and processes. Some organizations might hastily switch to a work from anywhere model without ensuring that employees are digitally literate. Without proper documentation of systems and processes, some workers may also do their tasks incorrectly. In other cases, employees might not be given the tools needed to continue working remotely, forcing them to spend out of their own pockets.
Finally, some companies might choose software that is clunky, expensive, and difficult to use. These organizations may refuse to explore more updated alternatives through habit or inadequate planning and force employees to work with outdated software. They would not only miss out on cost savings, but their employees will also have to bear with potentially confusing, insecure, or downright incompatible software.
How can managers ensure that employees are still productive without becoming too overbearing?
The key factor here is to assess performance based on output. Updated management guidelines increasingly consider output-based performance metrics. Moreover, since a person’s output matters to the company rather than the time they spent working, it makes sense to focus on increasing output.
The most efficient employees can do more work with less time, and these types of workers thrive in remote workspaces where productivity is based on the quality and quantity of output. Therefore, managers should switch their perspective on helping employees do more with their time rather than enforcing that they work a certain number of hours per day.
Aside from shifting towards output-based work, teams should practice openness and trust. If a manager insists on knowing what their direct reports are doing every few minutes, they create a working environment that reinforces distrust. When leaders step back and give employees space, they’ll find that their employees are better able to work properly and provide better outputs.
Learn more about preparing a healthy work culture in our article, “14 Ways to Create a Company Culture People Want to be a Part of.”
