One of the things people miss most since the start of the COVID-19 shutdown is face-to-face interaction. Employees miss greeting their colleagues when they walk into the office in the morning. They miss bumping into one another in the break room. Many even miss weekly meetings that they used to dread attending. There’s nothing like socializing in an office setting, but with remote work here to stay, you need to try to bring the same connectedness to your team virtually. Read this post to learn how to stay connected while working from home.
Utilize Video Chat
First, use video chat to stay connected. While seeing one another through a computer screen isn’t exactly the same as seeing one another in person, it’s a lot better than only communicating via email. You can build stronger relationships from wherever you and your team members are by leveraging video technology. Schedule weekly team meetings and make video chat mandatory. Encourage your employees to video chat with one another throughout the day and talk about the things they’d normally discuss at the water cooler. You can even host a virtual happy hour or coffee break using video technology. It’s a great way to keep remote workers connected.
Automate Your Workflows
Another great way to keep employees connected while working from home is to automate your workflows. Without the ability to communicate on the spot like you would in the office, remote workers can get buried in the mundane and manual tasks, struggling to stay on top of their work. This, in turn, creates high levels of stress and can create isolation, keeping team members from even saying “hello” to their coworkers at the top of the week. With workflow automation software, you can automate manual tasks and give remote workers more time to stay connected and interact with one another. At the same, you’ll increase productivity levels and save both time and money. It’s a win-win!
Digitize Your Mailroom
Moreover, consider transitioning to a digital mailroom if you haven’t already. This is a great way to stay connected virtually because it makes sharing important business documents across teams incredibly fast and easy. All you need to do is find the right digital mailroom partner that can customize a plan to meet your unique business needs. The best provider will pick up your physical mail from your location or a PO box. Then, they will sort, scan, and data capture your mail. Once it’s digitized, your partner will route the electronic document images to the appropriate people or system for processing. Your remote team can receive critical pieces of mail from anywhere, on any device. Leave your outdated, physical mailroom behind and adopt a digital mailroom to stay connected when working remotely.
Encourage Collaboration
In order to keep remote workers connected, encourage collaboration. Working together plays a big role in feeling like a team, and many employees forget to do so when working from home. As a member of your team, it’s your duty to remind your coworkers that working together on projects is just as important at home as it is in the office. In fact, many team leaders feel that it’s even more important when working from home. By staying connected on projects, you avoid falling behind, can remind one another of due dates and special instructions, and gain the opportunity to socialize. Keep this in mind as you try to stay connected virtually.
Optimize Your Document Management System
Document management is critical to staying connected when working from home as well. When working remotely, you can’t access key pieces of information that’s stored at an on-site location. You don’t have the privilege of sorting through paper files in your office cabinets. You do, however, have the opportunity to enhance your document management system by going digital. With the right solution, your team can quickly search, retrieve, route, and manage documents from anywhere, on any device. This can lead to increased productivity levels and more effective collaboration. Employees working on a project together won’t need to wait for each other to send over relevant documents. They can access them themselves in seconds. Find a secure document management solution to keep remote teams connected.
Staying connected while working remotely hasn’t been an easy task for most teams, but it can be a lot easier than you think. For instance, you can use video chat to socialize with your colleagues and encourage collaboration. You can also partner with a trusted company like MetaSource to automate your workflows, digitize your mailroom, and implement a secure document management solution. Click the link below to learn more about these services and how MetaSource can help your team stay connected when working from home.