The shift to remote work has not lost momentum. Employees now understand that they don’t have to be tethered to their workplace to do their jobs. In addition, employers are relishing the reduced costs that come with a virtual work environment.
A 2020 PwC survey found that 73% of employers consider their shift to remote work successful. However, the percentage rose to 83 in the 2021 version of the same study. According to a 2020 Prodoscore report, there was a 47% increase when most employees worked from home.
The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) reported an uptick in labor productivity during the pandemic. What’s more, Upwork’s 2019 Future of Workforce report predicts that more than 70% of all departments will have remote workers by 2028.
While these data show that employees enjoy working from home, it also points out the growing competition. With the remote work model, employers can now look at a larger talent pool. If your productivity decreases while you work from home, you could be dropped.
So, what are the top work from home competencies that a remote employee should have? We’ll cover them in this article.
Planning and Organizing
Working from home gives you autonomy over your schedule. While you may have deadlines, how you beat them is up to you. Since remote workers don’t have the friendly competitive environment of a physical workplace, they need self-management.
This makes planning and organizational skills an essential trait of a remote worker. Employees in a virtual workplace must know how to create to-do lists, schedule meetings, and arrange timetables. These resources should also be optimized for their specific roles and workloads.
How Do You Plan and Organize?
Create a personal work-from-home structure. This involves deciding when you start work, take your break, and close for the day.
Next, plan out the order of your tasks and arrange them by importance. So, you do the more urgent ones first and so on. Understanding a job’s difficulty should help you build a time estimate for execution. Try your best to stick to timetables, but leave room for unexpected things like urgent tasks, messages, and work calls.
You should also understand when to make adjustments when task priorities shift. Finally, have a contingency plan that you can turn to when emergencies come calling. This way, you can deal with issues without disrupting your workflow.
Discipline
Creating to-do lists and schedules is one thing; respecting them is another. As we mentioned, a virtual office has less oversight than a brick-and-mortar workplace. For some people, a remote work arrangement means more free time to binge-watch TV shows, play video games, and sleep.
You can often flout work without anyone on your case. However, it’ll end up showing in your time reports and performance metrics.
So, your level of self-discipline determines your level of productivity as a remote worker.
Discipline helps you to keep your work and personal lives separate. It also comes in handy when dealing with family interruptions, noisy neighbors, and the temptation to take a nap.
While self-discipline comes to most people naturally, you can nurture yours if you’re struggling.
How to Improve Your Self-Discipline
Dedicate a space in your home to work. Working in your pajamas, on your bed, and the kitchen table can be distracting. A dedicated workspace promotes laser-focus concentration.
Establishing and maintaining a work routine also helps. So, you can choose a 9-4 or 10-6 pattern and stick to it. You should also tell your family not to disrupt you or trespass your work area during these hours.
Integrity
Call check-ins and Slack DMs are not like physical supervision. It’s easy to give excuses over the phone since no one is looking over your shoulders. A person who lacks integrity will struggle while working from home. It will be challenging to fight off temptations to go off track.
When you have integrity, you’ll respect the rules, treat others with dignity, and stay committed to a task until you execute it. This is why employers trust responsible and reliable workers with remote roles.
How Do You Maintain Integrity in a Virtual Workplace?
The rewards of being honest and responsible should drive you. Your career growth, to a large extent, depends on your performance metrics and reliability.
Attention to Detail
Attention to detail is one of the most critical work from home competencies for remote employees. It’s vital across positions and industries. Detailed-oriented remote workers are more likely to identify and avoid mistakes, saving their company costs in the long run.
Examples of Attention to Detail in the Workplace
Strong attention to detail examples include:
- Minimizing the chance of being misunderstood by paying attention to the words you use;
- carefully listening to and understanding instructions;
- rigorously proofreading and editing emails, proposals, and newsletters; and
- creating and following strict time management protocols.
Finding out how to improve your attention to detail skills is critical if you want to be a competent remote worker. Reduce your screen time, engage in focus-training activities like puzzles and memory tasks, avoid multitasking, and keep an organized schedule. You should also eliminate distractions, take breaks to refresh, and practice self-care.
Teamwork and Collaboration
Communication gaps rank as one of the top downsides of remote work. Employees can end up working in silos, and the lack of collaboration can hurt team productivity.
The truth is, some projects require the team’s collective input.
This makes teamwork and collaboration invaluable competencies for remote workers. You should be able to connect with others, have sharp communication skills, and even bring the team together.
How Can You Be a Team Player?
Learn to listen to your colleagues and don’t hesitate to ask for help. If you notice a team member going off track, call them to order professionally and offer to collaborate with them. You want to make sure you’re doing things moderately as you don’t want to interrupt anyone’s work progress.
Final Words
The post-pandemic is shaping up to be fertile ground for remote workers. Hence, you should develop the right skill set to keep you competitive.
