How to implement home office in your company: 5 tips for transitioning from in-person work to working from home

Remember that implementing a home office in your organization is a process that requires careful planning in order for teleworking—as it is defined—to boost worker productivity and cut expenses.

Additionally, it's likely that you've heard a lot of individuals discuss working from home. In actuality, a growing number of businesses are choosing this structure in an effort to lower operational expenses and enhance employee satisfaction.

We will explain what home office work is and its main benefits. Continue reading to also check out selected videos and some essential tips on how to implement home office in your company and not lose productivity during this period of social distancing.

In this post you will learn the 5 steps on how to implement home office in your company:

• Develop a transition plan
• Have well-established schedules
• Monitor employee performance
• Hold frequent alignment meetings

What is home office work?

We can define home office work as a model in which the employee performs their duties at home or in some other space that is not within the company, such as coworking spaces.

This modality is a way to make work routines more flexible and give employees more autonomy to carry out their tasks.

Main advantages of work from home

Working from home can offer a number of advantages to companies that choose to adopt this model. Among the main ones, it is worth highlighting:

• Reduction of operating costs;
• Improvement in the quality of life and satisfaction of employees;
• Increased productivity;
• Increased talent retention.

How to implement home office in your company in 5 steps

Now that you know what home office is and the main benefits, see below 5 tips on how to implement home office in your company.

1 – Develop a transition plan

The transition that your company will make from in-person work to remote work needs to be very well thought out. To do this, planning can be very useful and will allow you to enjoy the advantages of home office work for your company.

It is important that you write down on paper (or in collaborative software) how the tasks will be distributed , who will be responsible for them, how deliveries should be made, what the communication channels will be and how often this communication will be made.

The intention is for this planning to serve as a guide so that employees and managers do not feel lost with this change in routine.

2 – Pay attention to the necessary equipment and tools

Within your company, you may have a good structure of equipment and tools for your employees to perform their duties. However, how can you ensure that the quality of work is not compromised when working from home, considering that they may not have the same structure in their respective homes?

In this sense, there is no way to implement home office in the company if you do not pay attention to the equipment and tools that will be used by employees when they are working from home.

Starting with the computer; do all employees who will work from home have a computer at home with internet access?

Depending on the nature of the work to be performed, other equipment may be necessary, such as webcams, headsets, printers, etc.

3 – Have well-established schedules

The fact that an employee does not need to “clock in” every day at the company does not exempt him from the need to comply with his working hours.

Therefore, it is important to establish a work schedule for employees who will work from home, with times for “coming in”, “going out” and breaks for lunch and rest. This will help to avoid delays in deliveries and drops in productivity.

4 – Monitor employee performance

In order for you to implement the “home office” model in your company and have access to the benefits of home office, it is extremely important to monitor the work and results of your employees .

Therefore, be sure to use performance indicators to ensure that the established goals are achieved.

5 – Hold frequent alignment meetings

Even from a distance, it is essential to meet with managers and employees. These meetings will serve to communicate results and align efforts and expectations.

This feedback is important so that everyone can be on the same page, which is sometimes difficult at this time of transition.

These were our 5 tips on how to implement home office in your company. Put them into practice and maintain your teams’ productivity, even remotely.