Productive in the home office ? Working from home is often not that easy. With our advice, you and your colleagues will be able to stay efficient for a long time.
Telework, remote work, home office – what is what
What used to be, for example in the 1980s and 1990s , Telework is now called remote work. As the name suggests, the work is done remotely – that is, over an Internet connection. If teleworking or remote work is done from home, one speaks of the home office.
What to be clarified in the home office
A home office has become an important topic at least since the Corona crisis. But the modern form of homework still poses major challenges for many companies and their employees. This way of working seems unusual and new. This creates uncertainty and raises many questions.
To make the home office easier for you and your colleagues, we have summarized the important points that should be considered here.
Specifications that companies should make
If employees work from their home office, every company should make announcements about how the – perhaps new – way of working should be done. Among other things, the following should be clarified:
- What are the working hours? Are these firmly prescribed or will they be replaced by a flexible working time model?
- How flexible is the working time model? That means:
- Are there core working hours?
- Does the availability have to be good?
- Can you work in the evenings, at night or on weekends?
- How do you deal with break times?
- How about overtime?
- What does the home office look like? Which legal requirements, for example, the Workplace Ordinance, have to be observed?
The IT managers must ensure that employees can work from home. Not only technical requirements are important, but also compliance and data protection requirements.
For example:
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- What should you watch out for when the company notebook logs into a private WLAN?
- Like is access to the company network via a VPN tunnel?
- To what extent Can private devices (e.g. private computers) or social networks be used to work?
- How should customer data be handled in a private environment?
Financial, tax and insurance matters must also be clarified.
For example:
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- What if your employees need special hardware, for example, and have to procure it themselves?
- Are there any tax advantages and disadvantages of working from home?
- How are you insured in the home office?
Strengthening interpersonal relationships
When employees no longer see each other in the office every day, the interpersonal level also changes. The superiors are particularly challenged here. If you are in this position, you should act in a leading and moderating manner.
- Remote work enables employees and their services worse than controlled in the office. A good togetherness based on honesty and trust are aspects that are now more important than ever.
Nevertheless, you should continue to make clear statements and guidelines. Your employees also have to complete tasks and pursue goals from home.
- It may be necessary to adapt business structures and processes. A good chance for you to shed ballast and try out new concepts for leaner, more efficient ways of working. For example by strengthening the personal responsibility of the individual employees and introducing agile project management methods.
- Communication is the most important thing. More than ever, you should exchange ideas with your employees, clarify questions and also reduce resistance (e.g. to new working methods).
Pull yourself by the belt
Home office tempts you to distract you. In contrast, fixed structures and processes will help you.
- Home office is not a vacation! You should make that clear to yourself every day. Successful remote work begins with the right mindset.
- Get up early in the morning, take regular breaks, turn off your computer in the late afternoon: your home office needs fixed times like a working day in the office. Avoid interruptions like “I could do the laundry for a moment”.
- Many experts advise that you should prepare yourself in the home office as if you were going to work. That means: Get out of your sleeping clothes, into normal clothes (jeans instead of sweatpants, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a suit), brush your teeth, shower, shave, do your hair, apply make-up …
- If you have to look after your children because, for example, holidays or daycare are closed, you still have to balance work and family. For example, by closing the door of the home office room and educating your children to follow certain rules.
Creating the right home office
The couch, a table in the dining area or the balcony chair are not a place where you should work permanently. Place your notebook on a neat table with a proper chair. Pay attention to the ergonomic alignment: you should be able to work for several hours without neck or back pain!
It is just as important that your desk has enough space to work. Magazines, vacation reminders, toys, tablets, and other distracting items should be removed. And as in the office: The line between creative chaos and real disorder is narrow.
Another point that is essential in the home office: rest. Ask your partner and children to be quiet, turn off the social notification tones, and close the windows. Besides working Netflix, Youtube and other video streams are a no-go. For radios, MP3 players or music streams, turn the volume down or leave it off completely. These measures ensure that you can concentrate on your work and hold video conferences undisturbed.
Finally, you should make sure that your workplace is bright enough. Light lifts your mood, increases work motivation and counteracts the “warehouse fever”. If you have a balcony, terrace or garden, a few minutes in the sun can be a relief. But don’t overdo it! Don’t turn your home office into an “open office” – that would be too much of a distracting holiday mood.
The technical infrastructure must be running
Remote work requires an important basic requirement: a fast, stable internet connection. If this is not the case, it will be difficult to work for the company or for customers for several days.
Exchange a lot of data, hold video conferences or work via a secure line (VPN) , you should keep your internet line “free”. That means: Stop data-hungry services such as video streaming or online games in your household as much as possible.
To avoid neck, back and eye problems, you should connect at least one large monitor to your business notebook. Also use an external keyboard and a sufficiently large mouse. Pay attention to the requirements of the ArbStättV (e.g. §6, “Setting up the computer workstation”). and you can also get tips from the Internet.
In addition to the hardware, the required software must also run properly. The best thing to do is to coordinate closely with your IT manager. And also see how you can or may experiment with new tools in order to make your work more efficient. If you’ve been in remote work mode for a long time, you’ll appreciate the benefits of online programs. Project management, communication, data exchange, video conferencing, bookkeeping, concept creation – there are numerous cloud solutions for all of this and much more.
Conclusion: Home office is ” in “
Home office may seem strange to many his. “Telework” brings new challenges for companies and employees. But familiarization and conversion are worthwhile. In times of digitization and the shortage of skilled workers, remote work and flexible working models are simply part of many industries and professions – for example with IT specialists who work as SAP consultants.