We are slowly easing back to the way things were before the global pandemic—but not completely. There are some changes that transformed many aspects of our lives and society.
Work from home made us realize the workplace does not have to be physically shackled to one location. Recognizing this fact opened us to many possibilities. Now we thrive in a remote workplace setup.
In this article, we are sharing the skills you need to help run a remote workplace and a couple of trends to watch out for this 2023.
Why a remote workplace?
There are plenty of reasons why we should champion working in a remote workplace. Here are a couple of them:
Hiring remote employees is easier
A work from home setup opens your company to more talents that are outside of your immediate location. That means you have more chances to find the right people for the job and less time searching.
Better employee retention
There are many factors that lead to employee dissatisfaction, burnout, and, eventually, resignation. One of these is the commute to and from the workplace. A remote workplace crosses out this out and have a positive impact, like:
- Less stress
- Save money
- More personal time
Boost productivity
A remote workplace gives your people time for their personal life and, more importantly, for work. Working from home enables people to have an improved work-life balance and better overall health. All of these factor in and improve their productivity, since there are no negative influences.
8 Important Skills to Run a Remote Workplace
High on the list of things you need to learn, or further refine, to help you run a remote workplace are leadership skills:
1. Effective communication
Becoming an effective communicator is a must for every leader—whether it is innate or learned. This skill is essential, especially as more people work from home and only communicate through specific channels like video conference calls, group chats, and via email.
Whether you are in a leadership position or a team member, you are expected to share your ideas, thoughts, and opinions clearly, to avoid any misunderstanding.
2. Technical Knowledge
As a leader, running a remote workplace requires you to wear many hats and become somewhat of a jack of all trades.
You must be equipped with the proper technical knowledge of every aspect of the company. This is crucial to make sure everything runs smoothly. And, if ever there are problems that pop up, you can troubleshoot before it further escalates.
3. Flexibility
In a remote workplace, you will be working with a lot of people from different backgrounds. As a leader, it is up to you how you can guide your team to work well together and bring out the best in each of them.
Being flexible also means you are able to identify when and how you are going to deal with your team members, individually and as a group.
Aside from these, there are more skills for remote workers that you should also possess:
4. Time Management Skills
A work from home setup has its own unique challenges, one of which is time management. Let’s be real, we have other obligations aside from work when we are at home. At work, we have the luxury to only focus on the task assigned to us.
In a remote workplace, it is up to every team member to manage their time to meet deadlines. Regardless, if an individual has other obligations invisible to the leaders and managers.
5. Self Motivation
While working beside the boss or manager can be stressful, it is a lot easier to stay motivated. In a remote workplace, it’s up to you to be self-motivated to stick to deadlines and maintain your productivity.
Instead of just relying on sheer will, it is better if you set up a routine and a designated workspace. These can help eliminate distractions and mentally shift you from home to work.
6. Team Player
The pandemic took a toll on people’s mental health. In addition, the distance makes it challenging to create a sense of camaraderie. Even so, it is important to be a team player and be ready to help whenever possible.
7. Problem-Solving Skills
There will always be problems that will pop up, whether you like it or not. The important thing is that you are able to adapt to the situation and be resourceful that way you can troubleshoot, and find plausible solutions.
Of course, that does not mean that you have to do it by yourself. You can also reach out to your team members and solve it together.
8. Keep Up with Trends
Another important skill is staying up to date on the latest trends and applying them when applicable. Whether you are in a work from home setup or work at an office, it is still important to stay competitive and also keep the company relevant.
With 2023 just around the corner, there are a couple of trends you also have to keep an eye out for the latest trends in web development:
- Dark Mode
- Voice Search
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chatbots
- Enhanced UX for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
- Accelerated Mobile Pages
- Single Page Application
- Smarter e-Commerce Websites
It’s up to you how you run your remote workplace
A remote workplace is the long-awaited next step to how we work in today’s digital age. Given the situation, the pandemic only made us realize this fact and helped us transition much more quickly to the work from home setup.
Even as we collectively recover from the impact of the pandemic, the remote workplace is here to stay. However, it should not be neglected. We should keep the ball rolling to continue enjoying this new era. The skills shared here will help you maintain and run your remote workplace.
If you want to know more about remote work. Just visit our website, we have articles that can help you learn all about the benefits of remote working.