This authored article by Ritish Sethi – India Business Head, SCIKEY originally published in Business World

What makes you a Remote Working Champion? Working remotely is no more a fringe benefit that a few wanted to avail as a perk and use their freedom to improve quality of life. The number of remote workers will see a sharp increase, and whatever that can happen remotely will happen more and more, for a longer than expected duration in the post COVID19 era.

Let us see what makes you a remote working champion and how can the employers get the best out of their remote work strategy for their people productivity.

a. The mindset of getting the job done – A large section of the workforce needs a physical place to work under any circumstances, however, an increasing number of workers are now getting enabled for working remotely. Technology is making remote working easier by the day, though it is not only the technology or the need but the attitude of the individuals that matters and differentiates one from another. The need for remote working makes it important for the person to cultivate responsible habits and manage their time and actions independently with a mindset of getting the job done as committed without any supervision. The technology industry has been doing this for a long time but for the rest of the sectors, it is still an alien concept that needs to be emphasized wherever possible. Without a mindset of taking accountability of getting things done, and remote working will need more handles to make work effective. Such handles may be more supervision, clearly defined daily KPIs or deliverables or fear of losing the job; that may drive the person to work in short term, however, they may not be sustainable in the long run.

b. Staying Connected – Remote working calls for an even higher degree of staying connected with co-workers and customers. This may involve phone calls, virtual meetings, or at least sufficient emails and messages. This ensures that your co-workers remain interested in you and take your help to get things done. There is an old saying ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ and therefore a frequent connection with a good degree of discipline ensures that you stay relevant.

c. Healthy Habits – While working from home gives more time and freedom, it can quickly turn out to be a health nightmare if good habits are not developed. Taking good food, exercising enough, doing meditation, and deep breathing apart from taking good sleep is no more a desired habit for those looking at long term remote working, it is a necessity. Therefore, if you already have these good habits, remote working will further improve your quality of life.

d. Social Connects – Prolonged isolation is not the desired way of remote working. A good remote worker will always take out time to keep up to their social commitments and even taking time to meet their office colleagues physically(only after COVID19) from time to time. It is just human to be emotionally connected and no amount of technology can bridge this gap unless humans mutate into robots. However, please maintain physical distance for now stay safe.

Home Office Environment – Finally, a good space within your home that you can designate as a home office helps in making the best use of time. A familiar, comfortable, and well-equipped corner at home are usually supportive of anyone to be a little more productive while working remotely from home. Frequent changing places, working in erratic schedules, and high temperatures are productivity killers of a home office.

However, it is easier said than done is even more complicated from an employer’s point of view, as not every individual employee’s mindset is tuned to be equally productive as well as committed while working remotely, and therefore the usual downside of “Remote Working” is huge productivity losses for most of the employers that are not ready with a game-plan that not only revolves around the readiness of IT infrastructure tools to enable “remote working” but more importantly is designed keeping in view the alignment of its people i.e. Employee Mindset as well.

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