05 Jul How to build an awesome work from home culture.
In any business information sharing is the key to being successful. So is the case with work from home. The biggest problem is that managers have no way of knowing how much work has been done for the day or week. Some employees put in additional hours because they work form home. But sadly this goes by un noticed and destroys the the work from home culture.
So how do your build an awesome work from home culture?
STEP 1: Reporting
Setup a rock solid reporting process. It can be a weekly or monthly reporting. Try to avoid a daily reporting process as this leads waste of time. Use this time for something more productive. Try to work with numbers and analytics to showcase the success of your work. Some bigger companies have clear processes and reporting mechanisms that allows employees to work from home with ease. As a startup you will need to define these carefully. Have a communication plan for online meetings and offline meetings such as the preferred tools like Skype, Hangout, Slack etc.
STEP 2: Clearly Defined Tasks
Have a clear task list built together by your team. Make sure that everyone is on the same page and no one is over committing to work. Taking up more work will only mean that you will never be able to complete it at home or either at your office. This would only lead to one conclusion at the end of it all “Work from home does not work at all!”.
SETP 3: Goals
Have weekly or monthly goals setup. This will give your team a milestone to reach. As a team every one would be more motivated to achieve that one goal. Do not set too many goals and do not set a goal that can never be achieved. Know your teams strengths and weaknesses. This will help you set goals that are achievable. Remember that failing to achieve a goal will demotivate your entire team and work from home cannot take the blame for that!
STEP 4: Trust and Accountability
Trust your team to deliver. Everyone in the team must be accountable for their individual tasks and the common goal. Hold a weekly retrospective and see what works and what failed. Try to improve your process one step at a time until perfection.
STEP 5: Reward and Recognise
Always celebrate an achievement or goal accomplishment as a team. This gives you and your team confidence to tackle and difficult problem whether you at office or working from home.
Also read: 5 reasons why bosses hate work from home options.
