Working From Home: Is Your Company Ready?

The idea of working from home has been slowly taking over industries for many years now. In fact, data from Gallup’s State of the American Workplace revealed that almost 40% of US-based companies let their employees work from home. According to the poll, those who work from home log an average of four hours more per week than their in-office co-workers. This finding highlights a potential plus for allowing your employees to work from home, and the benefits are not limited to that. The Gallup report also concludes that 32% of employees who work from home self-report as being engaged in their work, compared to a mere 28% of in-office workers who feel similarly engaged. But, although there seem to be several empirically convincing reasons for allowing your employees to work from home, actually implementing a work-from-home policy is slightly trickier. An office provides critical infrastructure for productivity that oftentimes a simple home office cannot compete with. But, with the right technology, you can take your office wherever you go. Supported by the right technology, where you are will matter less and less, and what you do will come into focus.

Organize Your Workflow

Organizing your workflow is paramount to the success of your employees being able to work from home. No one wants to spend their days ensuring that their workspace and work processes are organized, but creating a structured workflow is critical to ensuring components do not fall through the cracks. On that same topic, it is critical to be equipped with the right tools to ensure that you are successful and that your processes are streamlined. Whether you decide to work from a cafe or go into your office, having a structured workflow is essential for the success of any employee.

The good news is that once you create a workflow that works well for your business, you can easily add it directly to Accelo. Once you do that, you can stop wasting time and let technology automate the tasks you would normally do yourself. It’s like having a personal assistant who is always there to remind you of what you have to do next—or better yet, a personal assistant who takes care of it for you. Systemizing your processes and adding them to Accelo will ensure you close the gaps in your work and will help your employees succeed when working from home.

Whatever You Do, Don't Skip Those Hallway Conversations!

A major benefit of being in an office is running into a colleague and starting a conversation about your weekend or a significant project you both have been working on. When it comes to working from home, that kind of interaction becomes more of a luxury. It may seem insignificant, but it’s these daily chats amongst coworkers that build relationships, ensure better collaboration in projects, and establish team spirit and company solidarity. Understanding the importance communication brings to people and relationships is critical in running any company.

To be successful at working from home or in a remote working environment, you cannot overlook the importance of these interactions. Thus, it becomes essential to have the ability to easily and immediately check in with your coworkers—and no, an email does not suffice.What you need is complete transparency. Moreover, it is imperative to have a tool that allows visibility into everyone’s work, so that even if someone misses that hallway conversation about the new upcoming project, they can still see it coming down the pipeline. This type of business intelligence and transparency across your company will ensure success for your team, regardless of where they are. Accelo's Activity Stream is a case in point, where everyone has access to a Facebook-like news feed—ensuring that your team is updated on what is happening in the company and what everyone else is working on. This kind of interaction, although virtual, is still significant, and creates a more accessible community culture that transcends the office walls.

Making the transition to adopting a work-from-home policy can seem stressful and isolating, but it can also be liberating. If a work-from-home policy is something you are considering for your company, it’s important to set yourself and your staff up for success, so that everyone can thrive in a diverse working environment. The bottom line is this: working from home can equate to more productivity and happier employees—you just need the right tools to ensure you are successful in the process.