Working Remotely from Home

Working remotely from home also known as Working from home or abbreviated as (WFH) has become a very common phrase in today’s world.

Although working from home is often used interchangeably with working remotely, there’s a subtle difference between the two. 

In this article, we will share insights on what it means to be working from home, what working remotely from home entails, advantages and disadvantages of working from home, difference between working remotely and working from home, as well as tips to help you maximize your productivity if you have adopted the work from home lifestyle.

Working Remotely from Home

Working remotely from home is a variant of remote work where an employee chooses to work from their home rather than any other location such as a co-working space or adopting a digital nomad’s lifestyle. 

An employee who is given the option to work remotely can choose to work remotely from home and have a setup just for this purpose to help them be productive and attain an efficient work-life balance. 

Working from Home Meaning

Working from home (WFH) means an employee is working from where they reside. This could be their family house, or their personal apartment. The bottom line is that it is their place of residence which means they sleep, wake up, and call where they work home as well.

What working from home entails

Working from home requires a high level of trust between the employer and the employee.

For this work model to be effective and successful, employers need to be able to trust that their employees would execute their tasks when they should and also commit to meeting and exceeding their targets. 

On the other hand, employees need to be well organized and responsible enough to deliver exceptionally on their targets. 

Recruiting individuals with the right attitude and values are essential for making a work from home model successful.

Work from home Advantages and Disadvantages

Working from home has advantages and disadvantages for both the employer and employees. Overall, choosing to work from home should be hinged on what is beneficial to both the employee and employer such that it ensures better productivity and a happy work-life balance.

Advantages of working from home

Advantages of working from home include;

1. Saves employees cost of transportation – One of the immerse benefits of working from home is cost savings on transportation. Since you live where you work, you do not need to pay for gas, a taxi, uber or public transport to get to work.
   
   Money saved is equivalent to the cost you would ordinarily spend to and fro daily. So do the math and find better needs to channel the money you’ve saved up monthly from the cost of transporting yourself to work daily.

 

1. Saves employees commute time –  Apart from saving you the cost it takes you to get to work and return daily, working from home saves you commute time as well.
   
   In these times when time is of great value, you find out that every minute counts, especially if you need to commute a long distance to get to your office. Working remotely from home eliminates the time needed to get to the office. Imagine if it takes you 90 mins to and from work, You have the extra 1 hour + to do something more productive.

 

1. Gives employers more access to talent – Depending on the remote job type your organization chooses to adopt, you have unlimited access to skill and talent that would deliver on every expectation that you have for the role. You no longer need to be restricted to a certain geographical location to fill that job role because working remotely from home has removed the boundaries that exist in the traditional workplace.

 

1. Saves employers cost – The work from home model allows for employers to save money on property rent, overhead cost, Internet and any other cost that is required for employees to show up and operate from the traditional office space. According to Global Workplace Analytics, a typical company can save around $11,000 per year for every employee who works from home at least some of the time.

 

1. Improves employee loyalty – Knowing that their employers trust their employees completely by giving them the liberty to work from the comfort of their homes, employees put in all the passion and energy required to get their tasks done in such a way that they exceed their expectations in order to maintain that level of trust.
   
   They are also better advocates for the company as they would always want to protect their source of sustenance knowing that it offers them an option of working in their own style.

 

1. Convenience –  The fact that you are in your own personal space, you can act the way you desire as long as you get the job done! That is all that matters. Not to discourage you from having your bath or a proper grooming, but look at it this way, if you need to run a marathon just to ensure you meet your task expectations, you can spend all the time you need without worrying so much about how you look, or things you have to do that might inconvenience your colleagues.

 

1. Improves Inclusivity and Diversity – Working from home allows for employers to access people from different races and situations. It doesn’t matter if one has a disability or is from a different continent. So long as an employee has the skill and values that fit your work culture, working from home empowers employers to be more diverse and inclusive in their hires.

 

1. Reduces Carbon Footprint – Obviously, the less people have to commute to work, the better for the environment. Over time, more people will adopt the work from home lifestyle and there will be fewer people on the road just because they need to get to their workplace. This will reduce the emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere and help to save mother earth.

 

1. Freedom for employees to Customize Workspace – Employees get to choose the ambiance of their work space and set up their space in a more personal way. This way you have just the right setups that give you all the inspiration and creativity you require to execute your tasks.

 

1. Freedom for employees to choose Outfit – Except during days when you would be having online meetings, you have the freedom to dress in what would be comfortable enough for you to work. You no longer need to follow a dress code. Nevertheless, it is appropriate that you choose an outfit that improves your energy for the day’s work.

 

1. Increased Productivity and Performance: With money and time savings as well as an improved work-life balance, employees are found to be more productive. According to a research, work from home employees have been found to be 13 % more productive than their counterparts.

Disadvantages of working from home

Disadvantages of working from home include

1. Distractions There could be a lot of distractions especially if you are not living alone, you have kids and you are not able to find a private space in your home where you are able to work from.

 

1. Reduced face to face interactions: Humans thrive on interaction. Face to face interaction is the best form of interaction because all the full senses are in use. There’s so much you can get from interacting physically with your colleagues and working from home takes away physical interactions between you and your colleagues.

 

1. High Tendency to Over Work: It is very easy switching into work mode when you adopt the work from home model of remote work. All you need to do is pick up your laptop and work! Since there’s little or no effort for you to “get to work”, it is sometimes difficult to stop.

 

1. Achieving work-life balance is harder than you think: You require a lot of discipline to be able to put work away and do other activities that are important to your well being. This makes achieving work-life balance difficult to attain especially if you just started working from home. Scheduling a time for all activities is essential if you want to achieve work-life balance.
2. Network Disruptions: Unlike the traditional workspace where high end internet service is utilised, you might be faced with connectivity issues some of the time. It is essential that you have an alternative in the event that this occurs.

 

1. Lowered Physical Activity: CDC recommends that most adults aim for 10,000 steps per day. Working from home makes this difficult. The only way around it is dedicating time for physical activities and intense exercise, to keep your body in good shape and condition.

 

1. Time Zone difference: If you adopt a distributed work from home model, getting all the team members to an all important meeting might prove a challenge because each employee has their own schedule.

 

1. Information Security Risks: Accessing company resources from different networks without VPN’s pose a security risk. Employees system’s are more prone to a hack because of the kind of networks they use in logging in to work systems.

Work from Home Essentials

Find the most basic work from home essentials required to get you up and running. 

1. A dedicated work space –  Preferably a private area from where you can do your work that is detached from every other part of your home and specifically made for all your work activities. 

 

1. A comfortable chair – You would be sitting down during your work hours, you require a great chair that enhances your posture and not one that makes you prone to back pain. 

 

1. An effective desk – A desk that compliments your chair to ensure that it enhances your posture as well. 

 

1. Reliable Internet Connection – An Internet connection that is stable and reliable to ensure you can deliver on your tasks as well has have meetings without time outs 

 

1. Computer Stand – At some point you would want to change your working posture. The computer stand assists you in adopting new posture during your work hours. From the desk, to the kitchen, bedroom and everywhere in between. 

 

1. White Board – Essential for visualization, sketching, creating mood boards and giving clarity to your activities. 

 

1. Notes and Stickers – This is important for reminders on what you need to get done, documenting important facts and activities. 

 

1. File Cabinet – Necessary for keeping important and confidential journals, notes and sensitive work materials. 

 

1. Printers and Scanners – This ensures that you are able to get all your paperwork done without needing to leave your home for anything. 

 

1. Headphones – For blocking external noise, meetings and having fun while working! 

Work from Home Apps

Every organisation has their tool stack for remote work. Regardless, you need to stay organised on your own as well. 

You need these essential work from home apps that will ensure you stay on top of your game, make your work from home life easier and ensure you are productive at all times, no compromise!

 

1. Calendar – You need a calendar that can sync your schedule for meetings and appointments from your computer to your work phone.
   
   Don’t feel you can handle this with your brain alone. Common, these tools were created for a reason and you do not need to sweat this out! There are amazing calendar apps out there you can use at no cost.
   
   You also need to check in with your team to ascertain if you are all going to be setting appointments together. If this is the case, it will be ideal to use the calendar app that everyone else on the team is using.
   
   We recommend GOOGLE CALENDAR because it has worked very well for us plus it’s FREE!

 

1. Communication – Of course communication is very important when you are working remotely from home, and you would want to be reachable at times when you are supposed to be reached.
   
   There are several communication apps but the one that is best suited for team communication is SLACK!
   
   With Slack communication is seamless, and all transcripts of your communication with team members is securely saved for you to retrieve if you ever need to make reference to a conversation.
   
   One of the awesome functionality of slack is that it integrates seamlessly with countless applications and gives a sort of administrative oversight function such that you can give permissions and revoke permissions on other applications.

 

1. Video Conferencing: The COVID 19 pandemic opened remote work to a lot of possibilities. Video conferencing brought us closer to each other and at some point, it was the only way we could have the most senses during meetings.
   
   You definitely need a video conferencing app installed on your PC, Macbook and probably your mobile phone, so you can have those meetings with clients and teams and still feel connected.
   
   There are several video conferencing softwares that will get the job done as required. Sometimes you might need to record meetings for reference purposes so it would be advisable to go with a video conferencing that can record. GOOGLE MEET and ZOOM are great softwares that give most of the features required in a video conferencing software.

 

1. Meeting Scheduling: Your role may need you scheduling meetings with your team members and clients alike.  
   
   A meeting scheduling software will seamlessly allow you schedule your meetings with all stakeholders, ensure none of the meetings clash and synchronize those meetings with your chosen calendar. Easy peasy!
   
   There are several meeting scheduling softwares but we recommend CALENDLY.

 

1. Organising, Tracking & Project Management: You don’t want to get overwhelmed with tasks that were assigned to you or the tasks you have assigned to others.
   
   An organisation, tracking and project management software keeps you from being overwhelmed because it priorities tasks for you and constantly reminds you about when such tasks should be delivered.
   
   You are able to list items in order of “To-do” “Doing” & “Done” Plus you can customise fields to suit your style of project management and tracking.
   
   If you want to add fire to your productivity, TRELLO is the tool for you!

 

1. Collaboration – You will need to work on projects with team members every now and then.
   
   Collaboration softwares enables all team members to work from a central place and have copies of contributions and modifications. Google Drive is a great tool for this purpose, Github is also another amazing tool. They both give you a cloud space where you can collaborate, track changes and deliver awesome work. 

Tips for working from home effectively

Tips for working from home effectively to maximize your chances of success include;

1. Ensure you have a dedicated work space – At best, a separate room where you call your work cave. If this isn’t possible, then create an area in either your bedroom, kitchen or living room that is condoned off for work only. 

 

1. Schedule your day –  It is very easy to get lost in the work you love doing. Though work-life balance was stated as an advantage of working remotely from home, you should understand that to achieve it you have to consciously and intentionally create it. 

 

1. Research and get the best ISP if possible and get an alternative to minimize down time. 

 

1. Take scheduled breaks from time to time. Get up from your seat, take short walks and get fresh air.

 

1. Have a separate computer and phone for work and personal use.

 

1. Use a VPN when accessing office resources.

 

1. Invest in exercise.

 

1. Be punctual during online meetings. 

 

1. Stay hydrated at all times.

 

1. Schedule your activities for the day.