Small and medium-sized Brazilian companies are going through tense times with the second wave of Covid-19. What seemed like a return to the "normal" state of work caught a large part of managers and entrepreneurs by surprise.
Many are worried about financial difficulties due to the disruptions, while others live in fear of having to close permanently. Meanwhile, offices that don't need to be physically open to stay afloat are once again adopting the much-lauded work-from-home model, seen as the " new normal ."
Collectively, remote work is still a challenge; after all, managing remotely and maintaining the same productivity is not simple, but it is necessary. That's why adopting priorities and putting some strategies into practice can make all the difference and perhaps save the company from many difficulties.
Below, we'll look at 5 security and productivity hacks for small and medium-sized businesses to better adapt to the hostile work-from-home environment they find themselves in.
1. Create an ergonomic workspace
Organizing the work environment correctly is just as important as having the right tools. When space is a problem and employees can't perform their work smoothly, it reduces their productivity, and over time this becomes a nuisance.
Correctly positioning your arms, feet, and even the height of your computer monitor at eye level can greatly help with muscle tension and pain at the end of the day. The chair also significantly influences the comfort needed for work.
Check out the SESI portal for 10 ergonomics tips for the workplace , and try applying them to as many employees working from home as possible, simply optimizing productivity during the workday.
2. KPIs to monitor
Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), when monitored analytically, can greatly improve the productivity of a remote team:
- Self-discipline: an employee's ability to work independently and with less supervision;
- Effective communication: an employee's ability to communicate effectively and efficiently with teams and clients;
- Learning and adaptation skills: an employee's ability to learn new things efficiently and also to adapt to new environments and new ways of working;
- Responsibility: employees must learn to take responsibility for their activities, after all, supervision is less in a home office setting;
- Collaboration: everyone should be able to work with other team members, even when geographically dispersed, adapting communication methods and processes;
- Availability: Even with flexible work schedules, everyone should be available for meetings when needed
Identify which employees possess the adjectives and characteristics mentioned above, and determine which ones require more attention. Improvements in this area positively impact the productivity of the team as a whole.
3. Create a flexible schedule
This is a challenge for most companies because they believe that business hours are universal.
However, for teams working from home, the idea of a work schedule needs to be discarded. You must remember that people are working from home, and unlike the office, the home environment can present several obstacles to working during conventional hours:
- Children who are not in school
- Family responsibilities
- Networks and devices with lower performance
- Internet and equipment failures
- External factors such as construction work near the residence
It's important to consider that your employees may prefer working from home and still be more productive in that seemingly comfortable environment. But this enhanced productivity may come at a price for the company: flexible hours.
Remember that if the work is being done on time, it shouldn't matter when it's being done.
4. Manage Burnout
Burnout is a problem related to an employee's lack of adaptation to working from home. The reason is the inability to separate work from home. When this happens, employees may begin to feel as if they are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Furthermore, there is usually no (necessary) break for family life.
The key to resolving burnout problems is open communication with one or more people, seeking to help them during this period.
Here are some tips for educating your team:
- Create a routine with clearly defined work hours and home hours
- Establish a dedicated workspace; work takes place in that area, and the rest of the space is your home
- Make sure your employees are communicating with their loved ones outside of work hours
- Measure the stress levels of each employee. High levels may indicate the onset of a burnout crisis.
- Understand priorities. Know which tasks are a priority and which can be postponed, so as not to overload the team.
If team members don't work smartly, they'll burn out quickly. Feeling "in the office" every day is exhausting. To combat this, you'll need to allow the team to work flexible hours.
5. Use the same office software without installing anything
With the economic crisis, time has become synonymous with revenue. Therefore, wasting time on unnecessary activities is wasting money. Adapting systems, files, and software on remote workers' computers is a lengthy and, in some cases, complex task. But, to have the same software as the office, the same files, and use the same systems, there is a solution: using a Business VPN.
With Lumiun's Business VPN , for example, it's possible to remotely access the company's internal files and systems securely, without compromising the data transmitted during access, and also increase productivity while working from home.
In addition, Windows has a tool called Remote Desktop, which allows a remote employee to quickly access the system from another computer. This tool is proving to be an ally for companies seeking remote access for employees working from home. You can learn more about this functionality in the article " How to Access Remote Desktop Securely" on our blog.
6. Automate everything you can
Automation can be used to make remote employees more productive, worrying less about details and leaving small tasks to technology.
One of the biggest productivity killers in the business world is repetitive, low-priority tasks that don't require human intervention to be performed correctly. Things like filtering emails, updating databases, approving leave requests, or adjusting schedules can be automated to save time.
Some sectors can automate tasks to a certain extent, and when full automation is not possible, creating a process to streamline routine tasks can dramatically increase productivity.
7. Focus on tasks by remotely controlling internet access
Since remote work was adopted, managers have been concerned about employee productivity. Specifically, companies want to know if their employees are actually working when they are out of the office.
Therefore, the demand for internet access management and monitoring systems has been increasing, as small and medium-sized enterprises attempt to implement supervision and accountability in a remote work environment.
On the other side of the coin, there is the factor of flexibility and engagement, where certain "permissions" can improve the employee's performance when working from home.
However, allowing everything to be unrestricted does not guarantee productivity improvements; on the contrary, it can hinder the employee, taking up their time and attention with websites and content outside the scope of their work.
Implementing an internet access control system for employees working from home is a relevant action and should be seen as a valid strategy by managers and IT professionals responsible for creating solutions to improve the productivity of remote workers.
Lumiun's Business VPN can be an ally in this strategy. In addition to allowing employees to remotely connect to the company's local network, it also allows for blocking and unblocking websites, applications, and categories.
Learn more about how to monitor internet access while working remotely .
The next step
This year will bring many challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises, where the strongest and most prepared will find the best ways to overcome these difficulties.
As we saw earlier, security and productivity in remote work can greatly facilitate this process, so the next step is to identify the bottlenecks in your company and try to apply as many of the hacks mentioned as possible.
If you want to see more tips and useful tools for working from home, access the Home Office Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses .
Until later!
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