Getting the most from remote working

These tips offer practical advice on how to effectively manage different aspects of remote working, including online meetings, keeping healthy and effective habits.

Managing remotely: advice for managers

10 top tips for managing remote teams

Agree team ways of working. Make sure every team member is clear about how you will work together remotely, what tools and technologies you will use, how you keep each other updated, and how frequently.
Engage in appropriate performance management. Remind your team about the big picture and how their work fits into it. Review goals regularly and ensure that desired work outcomes are clearly communicated. Talk about performance on a regular basis providing clear feedback.
Set expectations and trust your team. Be clear about mutual expectations and trust your team to get on without micromanaging. Focus on results and outcomes rather than activity and face-time.
Make sure team members have the support and equipment they need when working remotely. Keep your calendar visible and maintain a virtual open door – let people know when and how best to contact you.
Have a daily virtual huddle. This is essential for keeping connected as a team, to check in on each other’s wellbeing and keep workflow on track. It needn’t be long, but regularity is key. Communication should be regular and often.
Establish regular one-to-ones and team meetings. This maintains a sense of structure and continuity for all, and will help to foster relationships and support effective communication.
Share information and encourage your team to do the same. Without physical “water-cooler conversations”, opportunities to pick up information in passing are more limited. Share appropriate updates or learnings from other meetings and projects and invite your team to do the same.
Check in on wellbeing. When employees work remotely the signs and signals that someone might not be okay are weaker. Whilst some people thrive in a remote work environment, others find it more complex. Build a wellbeing check into your one-to-ones.
Develop your listening skills. Not being in the same room means you don't have extra information from body language or tone to get the sense of what people are thinking or feeling, particularly in more difficult conversations. Home in on what’s not being said and ask questions to clarify your interpretation.
Help foster team relationships. Make time for social conversations. This increases rapport and eases communication between people who may not meet often. It also reduces feelings of isolation. When people meet in person, focus on relationships and connection.

10 top tips on homeworking legal and contractual considerations

Document rules and requirements about remote working in your homeworking or flexible working policy. Make sure these (or associated guidance) address how remote employees will be supervised, how the organisation and managers will communicate with them and how performance and output will be monitored. The homeworking arrangement may be confirmed by a consent form, detailed homeworking arrangement or by amendments to the employee’s contract if necessary.
Confirm employee rights. Remote work may be set out in the contract of employment, and this may be reflected in the employee’s contractual location. Alternatively, it may be something that is provided on an informal or ad hoc basis, without obligation. Employers should be clear on how remote work is permitted.
Confirm in-person workplace attendance. Set out any expectations about in-person attendance, such as events or any requirement to attend the workplace such as a hybrid pattern of work in a policy, homeworker agreement or contract of employment.
Provide necessary equipment. There is no obligation in the UK for employers to provide equipment necessary for remote work, although employers permitting remote work should do what they can to ensure employees can work productively and safely. It is prudent to list the equipment that will been supplied in the homeworking agreement or policy. Remember that provision of equipment could be a reasonable adjustment for disabled employees.
IT and broadband. Employers should confirm in the contractual arrangements if the employee is expected to cover the broadband cost (plus heating and lighting) or if the employer will contribute towards these costs and, if so, to what extent. The employer should also confirm any responsibility for repair or replacement if the employee’s equipment is used.
Think about health and safety obligations. Employers in the UK are responsible for an employee’s health, safety and welfare, even when working from home. Employers need to make sure that homeworkers are knowledgeable about health and safety and that they comply with the organisation’s health and safety policy. Employers may remind staff that they should ensure a suitable and safe environment where they can focus on work. Remind employees that they should continue to comply with your sickness absence policy and report their sickness to their manager when they are sick and unable to work.
Carry out a homeworking risk assessment. Employers should usually conduct risk assessments of all the work activities carried out by employees those working from home. However, undertaking physical risk assessments of each employee’s home may not be feasible and so employers could use electronic risk assessment questions instead. It is the employee's responsibility to address any flaws in the home revealed by the assessment.
Set out any expectations regarding working time and length of period. Will employees need to be available for work during strict office hours or work a specified a set number of hours per day? There may be more flexibility over working hours in a work from home arrangement, but in the UK, working time regulations should still be complied with, including the working week and daily rest break. Instruct managers to look out for signs of overwork.
Clarify issues relating to expenses, benefits, insurance and tax. Usually, it is the employee’s responsibility to check that no issues arise with their mortgage provider, landlord, local authority, Revenue or their home insurer when homeworking. Employers also need to ensure that their insurance covers business equipment in the homeworker’s premises.
Data protection. Employers should make sure data protection obligations are maintained and employees should still process information in compliance with data protection principles. Employers should remind employees about home security, confidential information, passwords and document destruction.

Effective remote working: advice for employees

Tips for effective remote working habits

Set up a designated workspace. Wherever possible create separate space for yourself to work in, somewhere you can focus on tasks without being distracted - also think about making sure your workspace and any furniture you use supports ergonomic health. Light and fresh air will also support productivity.
Reflect on your workstyle. Everyone has different needs and preferences in terms of how they organise their work and what helps them to be productive. Be aware of what works for you when working remotely, and where necessary, engage in discussions with your manager about effective ways of working.
Make sure you have all the tech you need and you know how to use it. This includes a reliable and secure internet connection, any necessary files, hardware and software, remote access to your company network and you are able to use all relevant remote collaboration technologies effectively.
Write a daily to-do list. Set out a list of realistic, achievable tasks to keep you focused and manage any distractions that might be present in your remote working environment.
Know when to step away from your desk. Take regular breaks to refresh. It’s easy to let yourself be “always on” when your home and office are the same place. When work is over, be sure you switch off. Think about having some personal “core hours” which people you work with are around for.
Be an effective communicator. Contribute regularly to team chats so that you maintain your visibility. Be intentional about your communication – and use the most appropriate tool for your message.
Foster relationships. Make time for non-work chats as you would in the workplace and use your camera in virtual meetings to maintain face-to-face contact. When you meet up with colleague in-person, prioritise relationship building over transactional work.
Establish personal boundaries. Consider what you need to maintain effective work-life balance – this might be personal rules about switching off, specific start and end times and regular breaks to segment work and non-work activity. Be clear about when your working day begins and ends.
Ask for support when needed. Speak out when you need assistance, further training or support, especially if you experience any remote work challenges.
Make remote working work for you. Change where you sit, put on music, whatever helps you work. And enjoy the perks – no commute or uncomfortable shoes, and all your home comforts!

10 top tips for healthy remote working

Set up a suitable workstation. Home workspaces should have safe and comfortable furniture that supports musculoskeletal health. Wherever possible avoid working on sofas, beds or kitchen tables. Light and fresh air will also help wellbeing and productivity.
Know when to step away from your desk. Be clear about when your working day begins and ends and take breaks to refresh. This can help to establish long term work life balance. Cultivate healthy habits such as taking exercise and fresh air every day.
Take regular eye breaks. Working remotely often involves a lot of screen time which can strain the eyes. The 20, 20, 20 rule suggests taking a screen break of at least 20 seconds, every 20 minutes and to look at least 20 feet away.
Build healthy digital habits. Working remotely typically means working through technology – and sometimes using multiple different systems and tools. To prevent technostress or digital overwhelm, build healthy digital habits such as meaningfully disconnecting, managing notifications and establishing personal boundaries to prevent work-life conflict.
Foster relationships with colleagues. Make time for non-work chats as you would in the workplace and use video calling to maintain face-to-face contact; when attending the office prioritise building working relationships
Avoid ‘work extensification’. This occurs when remote work leads to working longer days, a common issue associated with working at home, sometimes because people work what would typically be their commuting time. Establish a regular finish time and stick to it.
Move regularly. Remote work can be very sedentary which in turn can result a range of negative health outcomes. If you have room, consider a standing desk to vary your posture. Alternatively make sure to build in physical movement before and after periods of sitting.
Don’t engage in presenteeism. If you’re unwell, take leave and do your best to give an update or handover on urgent work. If you are a manager or team leader, encourage people to take time off if unwell and model the behaviour yourself.
Engage with wellbeing support and activities. Many organisations offer employees health and wellbeing benefits (such as employee assistance programmes or occupational health) – take the opportunity to use these benefits to help support your remote work wellbeing.
Ask for help is you need it. Some people find working remotely good for their health – others find it more problematic, especially in terms of isolation and work life balance. If you find experience any wellbeing difficulties when working remotely approach your manager or HR Department.

10 top tips for effective online meetings

Keep your camera on. Being present and seeing each other is an important part of keeping connected and effective communication.
Don’t multi-task during the meeting. Although we might think it is possible to multi-task, it negatively impacts our ability to focus and participate fully.
Speak clearly and steadily. This will help ensure everyone can understand you. Try to modulate your voice to keep people interested and engaged. When you are not speaking, use your mute button to avoid background noise.
Establish etiquette guidelines. Agree a system to give everyone a voice. Arrange ‘hands up’ signals to agree who speaks next and use chat functions to allow everyone to contribute.
Ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute. When speaking or presenting regularly, explicitly ask for comments and questions and signal the best way to do this. This can help to make meetings more inclusive.
Use names and give context. When responding to chat comments, repeat or reply directly to the relevant remarks and make clear who you’re responding to. Don’t just say “yes, Jane that’s right” because others may not have seen Jane’s comment and it won’t make sense to them.
Keep slides simple when presenting. Keep to a single thought per slide to help participants understand and focus on what’s being discussed. It’s better to have more slides with fewer things on them.
Keep slides visual. Your participants may be joining from various types of device and wordy slides will be tough to read. Anchor your presentation on relevant, image based slides.
Consider meeting length. It’s hard to simply listen for a long time – this is also a good reason to make sure that meetings are not over-long. If a meeting is going to take some time, build in regular breaks to aid focus. Reduce meeting length through effective agendas and pre-reading.
Be explicit about actions and summarise. Spell out clearly any actions that need to be taken and by whom. Summarise meeting takeaways and circulate notes promptly.