With lockdown imposition, everybody is home. But not everyone is enjoying quality time with family because most of the companies have further resorted to work from home. The idea has been devised for the good of all and it does seem fun initially but can get troublesome at times.
Roma Priya, Founder of Burgeon Law, a new-age boutique law firm that provides a onestop legal shop to emerging companies, incubators, accelerators, angel investors, says, “Being mindful of creating boundaries between work and personal life is the key to working from home efficiently. One needs to identify when to work and where to work without getting pulled into domestic chores or personal matters. Start your day early and stick to your regular working schedules every day. Schedule your breaks as you would if you were working within the office premises and not take leeway and stretch these breaks.”
But it’s not just the employees’ efforts that can maintain a stable productivity rate. The other key driver affecting the change in the way the work is done is technology.
“Technology- on-the-go allows the team to complete tasks and attend meetings from anywhere in the world. We have developed proper reporting and tracking software to make sure our employees remain focused on their work. We have also developed the Sales Force Automation App to monitor the activity of our Sales- Force, which helps them to work remotely. Working from home, not only benefits employees by eliminating their daily commutes, but it also increases productivity and leads to healthier lifestyle,” says Sandip Chhettri, Chief Operating Officer, TradeIndia, an online B2B marketplace. A huge number of companies switched to work from home in the wake of Covid-19, but there are companies that are already relying on remotely working employees.
MUMYU is one such first start-up backed by a team of 450 women employees, and four mainline employees – all remotely placed.
CEO and founder Shalini Sharma says, “For a work from home employee, the key is discipline and communication. A proper work station and getting dressed to work kind of setup does the magic. Apart from this, proper flow of information and regular follow up makes it successful. Work from home set up fails only due to the habit breaking barrier.”
Don’t let the kids and family take up your work time. But at the same time, working from home doesn’t mean sitting on the computer day and night. “You can utilise the time spent on ordinary days commuting to and fro from work in favour of family time and selfcare,” adds Priya.
Tips to build workfrom- home productivity
Start your day early and stick to your regular working schedules every day n If well executed and taken seriously, the actual work hours in a work from home set up can actually turn out to be better than office set up because of the home environment and support system.
Companies should ensure that employees have the required infrastructure at home to be able to work remotely.
Use sharing tools such as G Suite (Drive, Sheets, Docs, Slides) to collaborate live on documents when working in teams.
Stay in touch with your team. It increases the productivity. To map the progress, one should create and update a to-do list regularly.