Gemma Dale (2022) How to work remotely, Kogan Page
1)
Research suggests that when employees work remotely more than 2.5 days per week, there can be a moderate negative effect on co-worker relationships (findings more than a decade ago). For the entirely remote or predominantly remote worker, there is more evidence for the need to place significant focus on building relationships. But the prime emphasis should be the work itself, work is something you do, not a place where you go.
2) In remote meeting
- Keep camera on and show up. Be fully present and visible
- Regularly look at the camera, not people on the screen. This is the best way to make eye contact with other meeting participants from their perspective.
- Mute when you are not speaking so as to avoid your background noise disturbs the meeting
- Make your background professional
- Avoid multi-tasking
3) Develop your personal brand in a planned approach and this has larger impact if work remote than work in office as there is a tendency of out of sight, out of mind.
- What are your skills, experiences, abilities or strength?
- What have you accomplished, or what are you proud of?
- What makes you different? What can you do that other people can’t?
- What do you want to be known for?
- How can you promote your skills and achievements and let people know about your strengths and skills?
- How can you portray a professional image in the workplace?
- Visibility and personal brand management includes a degree of self-promotion and sharing success.
4) Good career management begins with self-awareness, so an audit by SWOT of yourself is fine.
5) Employers may build more interviews into a process even when roles are not remote for speed and ease, especially when they have a large volume of applicants.
- Where the job is likely to involve a significant amount of remote and hybrid work, the hiring manager may well ask questions specifically related to remote work to assess the candidate’s skills and abilities.
- Make sure you have a professional name as your virtual ID in your professional networking sites.
- Body language is significantly reduced in a virtual meeting, use your tone of voice to help support your communication.
- Dress properly
- Mange interruptions by telling other people in your house that you need to be undisturbed.
- Frame yourself and make you appear centrally in the screen.
- Make sure the laptop is fully charged
6) Remote work interview questions
- How do you organize your day and manage your time when working remotely?
- What skills do you believe remote workers need, and how do you demonstrate them?
- Give an example of when you have successfully worked remotely or in a hybrid way.
- What challenges do you experience as a result of remote or hybrid work, and how do you manage these?
- What is it you enjoy most about working remotely/why have you applied for a remote role?
- How do you manage your well-being and work-life balance while undertaking remote work?
- How do you structure your working week to ensure that you are effective and productive (for hybrid roles)?
- How do you maintain your motivation while working remotely?
- If you were successful, how would you build relationships and ensure you understand our company culture when working remotely?
7) New hybrid workers should make the most of office-based time to focus on relationships and understanding culture, saving any independent tasks for remote working time.
8) Establish a professional looking profile on at least one professional networking site.
- Linkedin is the most popular site for professional networking. (Please note that it quits China market and all accounts were deleted recently according to the news)
9) Regardless of personal preference, managing one’s own CPD is a career essential
10) Managing the team
- Ensure fairness and equity between remote and non-remote workers.
- Evaluate by output instead of working hours
- The individual must understand what is being measured and how they can succeed
- What is being measured must be under the control of the individual
- Measurement should include what the individual did – not merely the outcome of those activities
- How well does the employee collaborate and communicate with other remote or hybrid colleagues?
- How competent is the employee at using remote working technology and tools?
- How well does the employee manage their time and productivity?
- Does the employee need any specific development in relation to hybrid or remote work?
11) Remote work readiness assessment
- Do you have a suitable space at home in which you can work effectively and privately?
- Do you have appropriate desk and chair, and other essential equipment to ensure a comfortable and safe workstation?
- Do you have a strong wifi connection that will support video calling?
- Can you meet all requirements and responsibilities of remote work set out in any of your organization’s policies and procedures?
- Do you have appropriate arrangement in place for childcare or other caring responsibilities to ensure you can work safely and without interruption?
- Do you have awareness of the well-being implications of remote working, and do you have appropriate strategies in place to address these?
- Can you use a range of different tools and mediums to support effective communication?
- Do you consider yourself capable of self-motivation and able to work without supervision?
- Are you able to avoid distraction that might arise in your home environment?
- Can you comfortably work alone, without regular in-person contact?
- Are you confident that you can develop your career and have effective while working remotely?
- Have you previously and successfully worked from home?
