Getting Remote Work to Work Better for You in 5 Easy Steps

There was a time in the not-so distant past that working remotely with your team seemed rare—exotic, even. Technology to connect virtually was spotty and top management just didn’t trust this new-fangled way of managing teams. Today, teams located all over the world (including ours!) connect daily as a remote workforce, making out-of-office work the norm not the exception.

This new widespread style of teamwork comes with many perks, like the ability to hire based on skills rather than location, flexibility for your employees and increased team agility. However, it isn’t without its challenges. Meetings and communication can require more effort, time zones can present difficulties, and that “face to face” factor can be lost. The team at Toptal understands and came up with five incredibly helpful ways to minimize those negative factors and optimize your overall remote working experience.

1. Stop high-temperature situations in their tracks with a video chat

We all have experienced clients or coworkers who are difficult to deal with or even openly hostile. Working remotely can sometimes give you an easy out to simply send them email to communicate. It’s more painless because you can avoid direct contact with them. However, there are better ways to diffuse a difficult person. Consider taking advantage of a video chat. In a video chat, each participant can see themselves which tends to create calmer, kinder behavior than normal.

2. Escape the black hole of meeting scheduling

Trying to schedule a call with a colleague can be prohibitively inefficient. Skip the back and forth and try collaborating via a virtual office door knock. Consider a digital messaging/voice call solution like Slack or Skype to ping and call your colleague without the hassle of formal scheduling.

3. Make email threads less annoying

Long email chains that reference information throughout the chain can get extremely convoluted extremely quickly. Keep your emails concise and clear. If you can’t, consider a video chat or a phone call instead.

4. Try a simple hack to supercharge your Internet

If you find yourself experiencing less than optimal internet speeds, consider using a virtual private network or VPN. When you’re using a VPN, your Internet service provider sees all of your traffic equally, so it likely won’t throttle the speed for heftier programs and downloads. As an important and added bonus, you’ll also gain some security.

5. Optimize your life with exercise

It seems basic, but life spent at the helm of a computer screen must be balanced with physical exercise. It will improve your mood, mental agility, creativity, and overall happiness, while keeping that stir-crazy feeling at bay. Thankfully, those who work remotely tend to get more exercise than their in-office counterparts. You can even get in a little desk-side workout without getting puzzled glances from your cube mates.

Interested in building your remote workforce with our Salesforce expertise? Contact us today and let’s start talking.