While trends show overwhelming support for teleworking, it can have challenges. Some teleworkers find it difficult to separate work from home life. One way to make this easier is to create a separate workspace in your home, set boundaries, have a routine, and take care of your mental and physical wellbeing. Understandably, this can be especially challenging for those with caregiving obligations and/or sharing a living space with others. The recommendations below are certainly not a one-size-fits-all but may make the transition easier.

Inc.com has 23 tips on how to work remotely, emphasizing the importance of self-care, communication and keeping up morale. Being kind to your body and mind, engaging with co-workers, and keeping a professional presence will help overall productivity. 

Telework.govops.ca.gov has best practices for setting up an effective working environment, communicating with others, teleworking etiquette, and more.  

Create a designated workspace you are comfortable in 

• Limit distractions in your workspace 
• Set up in a spot with natural or low lighting 
• Have a white noise machine  
• Have a platform to work while standing up 
• Have good equipment - such as noise cancelling headphones 

Set boundaries for work and home 

• Try to use the same work space everyday 
• Set up a room divider if you do not have a separate room for working 
• Set up a sign that notifies others when you do not want to be interrupted   
• Create a "shut down" routine once you are done with work, and then stay done 

Define a routine and stick to it 

• Put activities into your routine that either allow you to prepare for the working day or unwind from it (take a walk outside when you would usually commute to/from work)  
• Block your calendar to allow yourself time to finish projects without distractions 
• Do the hardest task on your to-do list first thing every morning. 
• Get up at the same time, eat breakfast, get dressed professionally for the day 
• Try not to fill up commute time with work unless it's to provide more flexibility in your overall schedule
• Go to bed at a decent hour  

Take breaks during the day 

• To be more focused and relaxed, you must take breaks (schedule them if you must) 
• If you talked with others in the office, make time to talk with others while teleworking 
• Take a lunch break and eat away from your work area 
• Get up and walk around every 30-60 minutes 

Take care of your mind and body 

• Meditate  
• Exercise 
• Eat Healthy 
• Set goals 
• Be social and attend events with your family and friends (outside of COVID) 

Communicate with your colleagues and managers 

• Host regular live meetings using video conferencing, but be mindful to not overuse these meetings in order to minimize virtual fatigue
• Schedule virtual coffee meetings and/or happy hours to stay connected with colleagues. 
• Stay connected with colleagues on a personal level 

Tips for Productivity  

• CotswoldCo.com created a comprehensive guide to working from home which includes tips on creating a productive workspace and maintaining a work-life balance.  
• This Harvard Business Review article, How to Actually Save Time When You’re Working Remotely, highlights key strategies for structuring your work day to balance home and work activities.     
• Eliminate distractions. According to a study done on multitasking, it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to switch between tasks. To defeat this productivity killer, mute your notifications when you need to get work done by using tools such as Momentum (a Chrome extension), and only going to meetings where you are needed. 

Teleworking can provide many benefits to an organization or business, however, there are some liabilities to be aware of. Workplaceless highlights key considerations for employers when implementing a teleworking policy – privacy and security, health and safety, and insurance coverage. Colorado employment laws regarding hiring and interviewing,  accommodations for people with disabilities, payroll, and permit requirements should all be considered as well.  

Privacy and Security  

Employers should make sure employees know the privacy and security policies of the company to ensure sensitive information does not get into the wrong hands. Some examples: 

• Requiring teleworkers to use a virtual private network (VPN) 
• Enable 2-factor authorization (only if you use G-Suite by Google) 
• Protect data on personal computers by encrypting hard drives 

Health and Safety  

Employers still need to comply with health and safety regulations even if the worker is not physically present on-site. Employers should come up with any potential hazards that might surface with teleworking: 

• Provide health and safety training for remote workers 
• Have employees fill out a work-from-home safety survey or conduct an inspection yourself 
• Include safety assessments (ergonomics, ventilation, lighting, smoke detectors, and hazards such as cords) 
• Take a photo for your records and review the work space every 6 months 
• Ensure the employee’s homeowners policy is up to date and keep it on file 

Insurance Coverage 

• Employers may want extra insurance protection on top of your workers compensation insurance
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act and similar state occupational safety laws obligate employers to provide a workplace that is free from recognized hazards likely to cause harm, even when working from home 
• Set clear guidelines around the job duties and work hours of your remote employees so that you can more easily separate truly work-related claims 

Hiring and Interviews 

Job postings and interviews still can pose as a legal risk even for teleworkers. For example, be aware of topics such as compensation, religion, race, age, gender, disability, and marital status.  Make sure the hiring team knows about Colorado employment laws.  

Disability Accommodation 

Employers must provide accommodations for people with disabilities for employees working from home ex: ergonomic equipment.  

Payroll 

If you have remote workers in multiple states, be aware of each states pay requirements, such as minimum wage, pay frequency, overtime pay, and payroll tax calculations.  

• Pay taxes to the state in which the work is performed , however there are exceptions.    
• Nonexempt employees must be paid for all time worked when working from home, including overtime, the same as if they were working at the office. 
• An employer may restrict at-home employees from working overtime

Permits 

Check with your employee’s local city or county zoning laws to see if a home occupation permit is required. 

Working from home naturally leads to virtual meetings. It is important to treat virtual meetings as you would in-person meetings. This means having your camera on, appropriate clothing, and being present. In this section we will show you the etiquette for virtual meetings, virtual team building exercises, and how to go about a problem- solving meeting.   

Movability provides a set of resources ranging from how to manage and set-up remote meetings, to maintaining interpersonal connections and resources you can provide employees. Examples include how to use virtual whiteboard tools, scheduling meetings with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and more.  

Etiquette for Virtual Meetings  

Harvard Business Review has a comprehensive list of some simple do’s and don’ts to help get the most out of your next virtual meeting. A list of other etiquette is below: 

Have your camera on 

• First impressions and professionalism are always important 
• Look presentable and alert during video calls 
• Dress appropriately top to bottom.  

Do not multitask 

• Avoid answering emails, chatting with a coworker in a side conversation, eating, etc. 
• Do not do anything you would not do in person  
• Having the leader of the meeting call on people to share their ideas 
• Assign roles for the meeting (facilitator, time keeper, note taker, technical support) 

Be cognizant of your speech 

• Be mindful of your body language and facial expressions 
• Keep body movements natural 
• Try to look into the camera when you speak  
• Speak clearly and a little slower than usual 
• Use the mute button to prevent transmitting background noise 

Start with the agenda 

• Send out a simple agenda in advance  
• Give each person time on the agenda   

Engage  

• Show empathy for people by including everyone in the meeting, not just at role call at the beginning 
• Ask about problems they might be encountering 
• Set up a time limit for each topic discussed, and value people’s time 
• Personally engage by asking questions, seeking clarifications, and making suggestions 

Fun Virtual Team Building Exercises  

What’s Behind Me: Each week have a team member share what’s in the backdrop of their home—this will let you get to know them better and possibly hear some fun stories. 

Bingo: Create an editable bingo sheet PDF relating to your organization’s brand, mission or internal initiatives. Have team members fill out the bingo sheet to get a full line (Bingo) or complete all the squares (blackout). Offer up prizes for the winners.  

Meeting Warm Up: Start off smaller meetings by having each participant state a recent highlight—one personal and one business related. 

Getting-To-Know-You Polls: Create a poll sheet and have people submit their answers to help team members learn more about each other. (i.e dream vacation destination, favorite movie genre, etc.) 

Sometimes it is refreshing to listen to a webinar instead of reading. We’ve provided a list of video resources covering topics such as skills needed to practice while teleworking, how to combat distractions, as well as manage in a remote work environment. A “highlights” section of each video shows different segments in case you would like to skip ahead to certain topics.  

These TED talks are given by professionals who freely give advice to help you stay productive, achieve work-life balance and gain professional confidence as a remote employee.  

Some talks include: 

• How to Make Work-Life Balance Work 
• How to turn off work thoughts during your free time 
• How to build your creative confidence  

Flexjobs.com offers resources and coaching webinars to support new and seasoned teleworkers. One example: The keys to being a good remote worker -  covers the skills you need to practice and hone, why communication is important and how to do it well, how to set up a dedicated and comfortable workspace, and best practices for working remotely.   

Video Highlights:  

• Skills you need to practice (6 minute mark) 
• Importance of Communication (10 minute mark) 
• Setting up a dedicated work space (14:20 minute mark) 
• Best Practices for Working Remotely  (17:10 minute mark) 
• Action Steps (22 minute mark) 
• Q&A (25 minute mark) 

Gallup offers resources and webinars on strategies for working from home and managing remote workers. Gallup research suggests that managers need to set clear expectations, and give frequent and meaningful feedback in order to increase employee engagement, which in turn increases productivity. 

Innosphere Ventures hosted a Harvard Business Review webinar titled the Work from Anywhere Age which talks about the benefits of teleworking and the key steps of how to make it work:  

Video Highlights (starting at 9:00 minute mark): 

• Working from anywhere is not just working from home (11:50 minute mark) 
• How Gitlab (an all remote company) combats teleworking challenges (28:16 minute mark) 
• Teleworking will be more successful if it is based on trust, asynchronous communication, and virtual water cooler chats (33:50 minute mark) 
• Q&A (47 minute mark) 

Paylocity and Employers Council partnered together to host a webinar talking about how to manage performance remotely.  

Highlights: 

• What is performance management and what is its value? (2:30 minute mark) 
• What do employees need to know? (3:50 minute mark)   
• Performance Feedback Process (7:05 minute mark)  
• Why is performance management so important now? (8:30 minute mark)  
• Communication fosters engagement, accountability is equal to expectations, and work to your employees strengths (9:05 minute mark)  
• CNBC conducted a poll showing that half the workforce might be working from home post-COVID - remote work is here to stay! (13:00 minute mark) 
• What does good performance management look like? (16 minute mark) 
• How to Leverage Technology (26 minute mark)  
• Q & A (39:15 minute mark) 

Managing teleworkers can be a difficult task. Managers will need to use new strategies for measuring worker productivity and leading teams. Using new technologies, updating a telework policy, and keeping up with employees both personally and professionally will help managers in this transition to teleworking.  

How Managers can Lead in a Virtual Environment 

Train Your Leaders 

Provide onboarding training, on-demand skills training, virtual workshops, in-person workshops and learning and development stipends or reimbursements related to remote work to managers or team leaders. Workplaceless, a remote work certification program, conducted surveys on the preparedness of managers and employees to telework. Leaders that were provided with a higher degree of virtual environment training reported a higher sense of remote work preparedness within their own roles, and saw elevated scores in communicating, collaborating, managing performance, and maintaining productivity.  

Training programs to consider: 

• Leading and Managing Virtual Teams Training 
• Resources for Managing Teleworkers  
• Sustainovation is a great resource that includes programs on strategic facilitation, leadership retreats, process improvement workshops and consulting. Nick Kittle, the founder, is a speaker, coach, and facilitator from Colorado offering organizational training programs on adapting to change.  

Address Teleworkers’ and Managers’ Fears and Challenges 

The General Service Administration published a report that addresses 4 key issues around teleworking and what steps managers can take to provide solutions: 

• Are “invisible” workers working? 
• How will my manager know what I’m doing? 
• Will my career suffer if I telework? 
• How will my positional status be obvious? 

Family and Work-Life Balance 

For employees with family responsibilities, Globenewswire.com suggests flex time, flex time around core hours, reduced hours, compressed work weeks, split shifts, and job-sharing are of importance (from most to least popular).  

Additionally, balancing caregiving responsibilities with teleworking may be a challenge for some employees. The pandemic has forced many caregivers to work from home while providing caregiving responsibilities. While this typically isn't an ideal scenario, it has allowed caregivers to continue working and not having to choose between their career and caregiving responsibilities. Teleworking policies in the future should be flexible, acknowledging that teleworking and caregiving don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Many organizations have created learning pods and cooperative childcare opportunities for parents working from home and managing remote learning for their children:    

• The Komae app for cooperative childcare provides flexible options allowing parents to arrange swap points with other families and essentially swap childcare duties within a trusted network.  
• NoCo Pods are 2 or more families that agree to share schooling/tutoring, childcare or socialization for their children. 

Stay Connected with Teleworkers 

The Society for Human Resource Management shares the following tools to help managers stay connected and assess organizational need:  

• Beaconforce nudges employees to a more productive, healthier mental state while providing leadership with intrinsic data on motivation and trust to make better workforce decisions.  
• Humaxa is an artificial intelligence assistant that has anonymous conversations with workers to identify what motivates them the most. It also integrates directly with the messaging platform Slack, and can compile reports and data quickly.  

• ChartHop is a workforce planning tool for employers that creates organizational charts to provide clarity about every employee. 

GSA Enterprise Transformation compiled a list of 10 tips for managers and employees to enhance communication, customer service, and performance while working in or out of the office. 

Check out our Technology section for more resources on using Technology to stay connected with employees. [link to Technology page] 

Advice 

Google shares several recommendations on how to keep things as consistent as possible for teams that are spread out with recommended practices founded on emotional intelligence--the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions.  

• Make team meetings a priority. 
• Show personal interest. 
• Be present. 
• Check in. 
• Recognize your teammates. 
• Invite colleagues' participation. 
• Set team norms. 

An Entrepreneur.com article highlights how managers can lead their virtual workers by mastering communication, creating team overlap times, and defining work systems. 

Encourage Self-Care for your Employees  

Becky Lauridsen, a local (northern Colorado) Licensed Professional Counselor, is a coach and facilitator specializing in team support, burn out, compassion, fatigue, resiliency, strengthening relationships, anxiety and depression, and coping skills and techniques. She works with local businesses to offer self-care services and/or products. An example of one webinars topic is: Coping with Stress in Stressful Times.   

Dr. Kristen Race, bestselling author, and founder of Mindful Life™, offers programs designed to build resilience to modern-day stress and focuses on making mindfulness practices accessible and easily incorporated into our daily lives, including the workplace. 

Meditation is extremely valuable because it reduces stress, and helps you focus, among other benefits.  

• Headspace.com offers mediations you can listen to anytime. 
• Mindful.org is a great resource for learning how to meditate.
• Insight Timer is a free mediation app 

 Ergonomics is important for both the employer to minimize costs, and for employee to stay healthy.  

• Change your posture often 
• Keep your torso and head in a straight line 
• Elevate your monitor to eye level  
• Take breaks 

See more at these sites:  

• Lifelime-Work From Home Ergonomics 
• Flex Jobs- Work From Home Ergonomics 
• Liberty Mutual- Work From Home Ergonomics