BEST WAYS FOR STARTUP’S TO GET MORE PRODUCTIVE WHILE WORKING FROM HOME

Working from home during the lockdown is a result of COVID-19, but making sure your business not only survives this situation but also comes out of it stronger is a key challenge in front of many business owners especially small business owners or start-up owners.

Start-ups are always formed with a certain risk factor and their role in the ever-changing market and now the owners of these endeavors have a challenge of working from home. Many businesses like such are consisting of a small team but some of them are working on a bigger scale.  

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has drastically changed the business landscape in 2020, with more start-ups than ever and their employees to increase in working from home. So, what is the situation now? While many employees already do some work remotely, many start-ups and their team members are still trying to adjust to this paradigm shift.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?

Well, first of all, an increase in working from home means more distractions. And these distractions are further added with fewer ways to interact naturally with fellow employees, and more social isolation which ultimately and collectively leads to less productivity.

While globally, many sports events have been canceled or postponed, in India, the cricket matches have witnessed the same effect. Cricket, being a game that has been bringing the diverse nation together as one, has also had the online betting sites in India and various fans of the game waiting for the situation to be over.

The Indian betting sites had their own challenges to overcome as a business – suddenly there’s no available betting on Cricket, so they have to think out of the box and think of ways how to stay above the water? Some of them began offering betting on various markets that are still continuing and some even added casino games to their arsenal. This is a great business step that gives a worthy counter to the current situation.

Online casinos did not have many challenges due to the situation, but they did want to increase their revenues by giving a focus to their mobile casino activity. By improving their mobile services, they managed to become much stronger – despite or even thanks to the situation.

HOW TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES?

Naturally, this question arises and employers should explore new ways to manage and collaborate with employees and enable more ways for employees to connect. We, at Start-up city, have curated a few ways to help your start-up with some working from home tips for employees.

Here are ways you can keep your team productive while working from home tips for success.

• Equipping Team with Tech and Productivity Tools

Initially, working from home for teams requires them to have one of the most important workings from home tips for employees to help teams succeed while working remotely, i.e. to get the tools to help them stay connected and productive.

What do these tools include?

• Work from home productivity tracker apps such as Asana and Airtable
• Chat/messaging apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams
• Video conferencing apps such as Zoom and Google Hangouts.

In a scenario of everyone being isolated in their respective locations, without any physical contact, these are the applications for working from home for teams to ensure that everyone stays on the same page no matter where they are working from.

• Establish Daily Check-Ins

Checking up on the team is an essential working from the home tip for the team. While working from home is a situation present, everything is not as same as before where they are used to getting daily face time with employees and employees not being able to chat around the proverbial water cooler. So, creating a daily check-in routine is of the highest precedence to set priorities and foster connections.

A morning check-in via video chat, phone call, or instant message can create a sense of normalcy. These check-ins can be one-on-one or held among small groups for which one may want to use a video conferencing app to have a virtual version of the same meeting each morning.

• Encourage Dedicated Workspaces

Now, what we usually see is that the regular office workers have never needed dedicated workspace in their homes, but if they are now regularly working from home, it is the responsibility of the managers to encourage the creation of home offices that are separate from communal space as working from home tips for success. In some cases, companies have even offered large stipends to help workers create appropriate, productive spaces for remote work.

The dedicated workspaces from where the start-ups can ensure easy and productive working from home for teams is a way to help liberate the employees from the normal distractions from home life. The team can be inclusive of the parents who are in lockdown at home with their children due to school closures and so an office away from family can allow you to maintain focus and stay on task. Where can be this temporary office be set up as a working from the home tip for teams?

It can be set up in the guest room, basement, attic, or walk-in closet to help one mentally separate work from home.

• Offer Emotional and Steady Support

Having anxiety and stress in this scenario is only normal and hence one as a team manager or start-up owner has a huge responsibility to ensure that one does not become a prey of the working from home side effects like loneliness and negative emotions and should do what they can to provide emotional support to employees as one of the workings from home tips for teams.

What to do?

Start with setting up the tone for the virtual offices with a calm and upbeat presence, be more available than usual for check-ins and other questions that may come up given the unfamiliar circumstances along with the fixed virtual office hours, and be present on instant messaging apps throughout the day to help employees.

• Last But Not The Least: Self Care 

Leaders should additionally encourage self-care among their employees with activities like exercise, getting quality sleep, taking showers, and continuing with lives as normally as they can.