How to keep your staff thriving whilst working from home

In the last two weeks, the news of the coronavirus has left many staff members working from home. Whilst this may be normal for some employees, for most it’s the first time they will move their office into their home.

Challenger work with many businesses all over the UK who have employees that work remotely, including ourselves – so you could say that we are experts! However, we know that when working from home there are many distractions, a lack of office communication and a potential loss in productivity. With this in mind, we have put together 5 ways that your employees can thrive during this time.

Set up a dedicated workspace

Set up a space at home to work, this could be an at-home office desk, dining table or even a breakfast bar. Instead of curling up on the couch with your laptop, avoid areas of your home that you associate with leisure – dedicate a specific room and surface in your home to work each day.

Pretend you are going into the office

There is no reason why you can’t recreate the mental association of going to work. Whilst working from home, stick to your morning routines: set your alarm for the same time, get up, shower, get dressed and make a coffee. This will keep you in the right mindset for a day at the office, instead of a day thinking about putting your feet up in the front room.

Get out of the house

So long as you aren’t self-isolating, take regular breaks, go out for a walk or a short bike ride. We know you probably aren’t missing your daily commute however getting out of the house once in a while will help break the day up. This will also help undo any mental blocks and give you a fresh mind for any tasks you are struggling to tackle.

Pick up your phone

The benefit of working from home is that you don’t have any distractions from colleagues’ conversations and chat or other office noise. The downside to this is that when you are at home it’s harder to communicate over projects with other employees.

Make sure you are picking up the phone to engage with other members of staff. This will not only help work productivity, but it will also keep you from spending your whole day without speaking to anyone.

Challenger offer business mobile and sim only deals, which can be set up on short term contracts, so you can make sure all employees have a way of staying in touch with their team and maintaining productivity!

Have daily meetings to check in

It’s important to keep team communication flowing. In the office environment you don’t have to worry about the ease of communication, collaborating with peers on projects or staying productive and on task.

Have morning team meetings via video chat to remind employees of the list of tasks for the day, giving everyone a chance to go over their agendas and raise any points or ask any questions they need to.

With Office 365 your employees have access to all Microsoft Office packages on-the-go, including Microsoft Teams. Teams has seen a massive uplift in users recently (12 million new users have logged on this past week alone) to utilise their fantastic communication and collaboration platform that helps combine workplace chat, video meetings, file storage and app integration.

Bonus Tip. Stay open minded

We can understand that moving your staff to remote working can be a big change, but some businesses may find that this change is good for them! Stay open minded about how any processes implemented now could benefit your team in future.

Depending on your business needs, our account management team are on hand to help you keep your staff productive whilst working from home. Contact Challenger today to see how we can support you.