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"Work From Home The New Normal"

As the pandemic has made work from home a new normal, it is important to understand its challenges and learn how to adapt to this new normal. Some people find work from home productive, but some face issues.

Apart from the IT industry, working from home in India is something new. Everything changed after the announcement of lockdown due to COVID-19 in March 2020.  Maintaining social distancing has become necessary to avoid the transmission of the virus. 

As per the current statistics of COVID positive cases, neither the virus is going away soon, nor the people are ready to go back to office premises. Around 92% of people opt for safety first, when they were asked, how keen are they to go back to office premises. 

Many IT companies and tech giants have already started extending the work from home. Sundar Pichai, CEO, of Google told employees that the remote work policy will be extended until 2021. Jack Dorsey, CEO, of Twitter, announced permanent work from home even after the pandemic ends. Facebook and Google have also said that they will let their employees work from home for the rest of the year.  

In an interview with Businessworld, Sameer Garde, President, Cisco, India & SAARC said, "In the last few weeks, the core concepts of work and workplace have changed. While remote working is not new, especially to IT companies, the focus it is receiving now across verticals is unprecedented. As this trend becomes the new normal, workforces will become dispersed and diverse. But it takes time for 'new normals' to take hold. At this inflection point, leaders must help navigate unchartered waters and enable a smooth transformation."

To adapt this new normal successfully, let's have a look at the basic questions that arise with work from home. As per the responses received in the survey, the following are the ways of how employees and managers can adopt this new normal effectively for productive results.

How To Maintain Work-Life Balance?

Maintaining work-life balance is all about time management and prioritizing responsibilities. It is very important to follow the schedule and work plan. 

Set the working hours and plot a personal time with family. Sitting continuously at one place for long hours may cause adverse effects on health. Therefore, a daily routine should be followed by workouts, exercises, and, meditation.

As physical movement is reduced in working-from-home scenarios, it is necessary to balance health with work as well. Unfortunately, people do not bother to focus on this side. They generally realize this when stress and anxiety start affecting their productivity and haunting them. 

How to Lead a Successful Remote Team?

Leading a team remotely is equally important as in the office premises. Maintaining effective communication with every team member, present at different locations, and in different time-zone is challenging but can not be overlooked. A number of issues arise when communication falters. 

Working with a remote team can become productive and efficient with proper connections with team members. This can be done by maintaining the right KPI metrics for checking on every aspect such as hiring, revenue, performance, costs, etc.

Some standard practices for leading a successful remote team include,

• Have daily standup or status meeting at the beginning of the day
• Be flexible and allow flexibility to the resources
• Set short-term goals with the team and keep track of the same
• Encourage the team by appreciating and giving rewards to resources on the minutest milestone achievement 

How Important is it to Maintain a Connection with Teammates?

Maintaining a connection with teammates is very important. A sense of connection and understanding is necessary with teammates. After all, they are the ones who run the operations on the ground. Irrespective of the leadership style, it is critical to know each other well and move in the same direction together. 

"A good connection with team members provides peer learning opportunities and promotes workplace synergy", said Rishi Singh, Capita, Lead Business Analyst 

Suggestions for Employees and Managers

Some insightful suggestions for managers and employees gathered in the survey are,

Managers should:

• Create an engaging work environment
• Value every resource
• Promote motivation
• Have regular one-on-one connects with resources

Likewise, employees should:

• Be accountable for their roles and responsibilities 
• Thrive to achieve the goals set by the reporting manager(s)
• Appreciate their peers and work as a team
• Evolve their knowledge and be updated in their respective domains.

"The year 2020 has abruptly forced all of us to a new work style paradigm which is still under mock runs. Organizations are trying to work out their own ways to adapt the new ways. It's important for everyone in the organization to be flexible and adaptive and change their mindsets. We have habits to behave Professionally in the organization and informally at home. But now, we have been learning and trying to be professional while working at home too. difficult but doable. So be ready to embrace the changes coming your way, both as employee and manager", Ashish Puri, CEO, Goolean Technologies.

The future of work is changing. Working from home and remote locations was never given importance before the pandemic. But the pandemic has taught me a lot of things. A feeling of trust, kindness, togetherness, and maintaining a virtual connection with team members and employees is key to success.      

Article By

Anupriya Asthana

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© Anupriya Asthana and Hashtag Inkpen, 2024

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