Working from Home? 3 Proven Strategies to Make It Work

Working from home is a significant change for everyone: employees, managers, and companies.

In this article, we’re going to show you 3 great strategies to make working from home work for you.

Let’s take a look!

How to Work from Home if You’re an Employee

If you’re a remote worker, the main goal of your WFH strategy should be structure.

1. Structure Your Day and Stick to Your Routine

Pretend like you’re going to the office.

Sticking to your regular routine will help you maintain your regular work-life balance:

• Get up as you normally would
• Get dressed
• Create separate accounts on your laptop for work and for personal matters

If you deviate from your routine, you could overwork yourself and burn out.

2. Create a Home Office

Not everyone can commandeer a separate room. However, you should choose a space in your home that will serve as your home office.

Make sure your “home office” is well-lit (natural sunlight, if possible), and has ample space for your documents.

Consider adding motivational elements such as photos of your family, or a plant or two.

You decorate your desk at the office, so why not do the same when you’re working from home?

3. Reduce Distractions When Working from Home

Finally, if you’re not the only member of your household working from home (or if you have kids staying home from school), you could get distracted.

It’s important to set boundaries:

• Tell your household members when you’ll be working
• Prepare activities for the kids
• Put your phone on silent

How to Work from Home if You’re a Manager

If you’re a manager, you won’t just have to organize your own day, but your employee’s days, as well.

The key aspects of your work from home strategy will be coaching and organization.

1. Coach Your Team on Remote Work

If your team hasn’t worked from home before, they’ll look to you for guidance.

A good idea is using sales gamification software like Spinify to help your team members get used to working from home.

For example, you could give them points for following the new processes.

Completed their task? 5 points. Uploaded a document to the online storage? 1 point.

You should also use the right remote work tools. They’re your remote work infrastructure.

If you’re using complicated tools, make sure you train your employees so they remain productive.

2. Organization Is Crucial to WFH Success

Visibility is key. Your first step should be listing and organizing your team’s tasks.

You can create to-do lists for each team member, or use task management software like Trello that lets you set up Kanban boards, add assignees, and other relevant details to each task.

Make sure you also implement performance-tracking metrics.

If you’re using Spinify, you can monitor a variety of metrics:

• Targets (e.g. sales)
• Behavior that drives success (e.g. calls)

3. Be There for Your Team

Finally, this is a weird time for everyone; your team members likely have a lot of issues because of the coronavirus pandemic.

At best, they’re feeling lonely.

Your mission is to understand and help them.

Hold frequent 1-on-1s, meet up with videoconferencing tools, and make sure you keep everyone in the loop. Even if you can’t physically meet, compensate with frequent communication and coaching.

How to Prepare Your Company for Working from Home

If you’re in charge of running a company with multiple teams working from home, you should provide them with executive support.

1. Remote Working Software

First outline the most important processes. Then, find the right tools for the job.

Chances are, your toolbox will vary from team to team.

When looking for tools, try to find all-in-one solutions like Basecamp or Office 365. They’ll reduce your costs.

2. Measure Performance and Improve Productivity

Give your managers the tools they need to do their jobs and motivate their teams.

For example, gamification software like Spinify helps you prepare your entire company for working from home.

And more!

How to use Spinify for remote work:

1. Add your goals and the relevant KPIs
2. Identify success-driving behaviors
3. Reward your employees for completing their tasks with points
4. Automate achievement celebration
5. Encourage your managers to track employees’ performance and analyze the personalized coaching insights
6. Set up contests and leaderboards to motivate your employees

And this is barely the tip of the iceberg!

Spinify is a phenomenal solution for motivating every employee in your company.

Start your free trial now!