Remote work has a lot of benefits, but some downsides come with it. Statistics show that many professionals who work from home will experience burnout at some point, suggesting that more than three-quarters of your employees could be in the same position. Though not always a direct cause of burnout, having a manageable workload can make a massive difference.
But how do you identify whether people’s workloads are getting out of hand? And how do you effectively manage remote teams’ workload.
In this post, we will show you how to effectively identify employees close to burnout using Analytics 365 and run through some tips to manage their workload better.
How You Can Monitor Remote Employee Workload With Analytics 365
With Analytics 365, you can spot trends in your employee workload by monitoring their Microsoft Teams data. Here are some of the ways that you can use our tool to track your employee workload.
- Meetings Analytics: By analysing meeting data, you can gain insights into the frequency, duration, and attendance of virtual meetings. This information helps you understand the additional workload that is being imposed on remote employees with unnecessary Microsoft Teams Meetings.
- Usage Analytics: Tracking usage patterns can provide valuable insights into remote employee workload by examining their engagement with Microsoft Teams. If you spot that a number of employees are using the application outside of work hours, then it may be an indication that they are overworked and unable to complete their tasks within the day.
- Chat and Call Analytics: Similarly to meeting analytics, by analysing chat and call data within Microsoft Teams, you can get visibility into remote employee communication and collaboration patterns, offering insights into workload distribution.
Tips To Effectively Manage Your Remote Teams Workload
Set Clear Expectations and Deadlines
Expectations and deadlines are important. They let people know when things need to be done, the standard they need to be done to and, more importantly, the priority of the task. This is important for a number of reasons:
- Getting the job done right the first time saves a lot of time in the long run. If they’re repeatedly having to redo work because there’s no expectation on what they should deliver, then that will soon add up.
- Having a clear deadline with milestones and check-ins allows people to plan their workload. They can line the tasks up for when they need to be done, and by having milestone points and check-ins, you can make sure they are on track and course correct where needed.
- By knowing the priorities of each task, they can focus their efforts in the most important places. It also allows them to push back on some tasks where time and resources are tight.
All of the above gives more clarity to the team to be able to manage their workload more effectively.
Delegate Tasks
You can’t always do everything. Delegating tasks has always been essential for people to manage workloads. The only problem with working remotely is that it’s not as easy to do as when you are sitting next to someone, and you can ask them whether they’ve got a bit of spare time to look at this.
That doesn’t mean you should sack it off altogether, though. It just means that you need to formalise the way that you do these things a little more.
Adding in things like weekly prioritisation sessions and daily standups allows everyone to run through their projects and tasks and ask for help when necessary. Creating more visibility of what’s going on and making it easier to delegate tasks.
Encourage Regular Check-Ins and Communication
Remote work can often have employees feeling isolated from their team and the rest of the business. This can lead to reduced communication within the business, reducing productivity and collaboration within your business.
This issue can also create a communication barrier between employees and their managers. Some may find it more difficult to approach managers over difficulties in the workplace, and some issues may go unnoticed. This can lead to employees becoming frustrated and eventually leaving the business altogether.
Encouraging employees to speak up when they’re having difficulties is a must when it comes to preventing burnout and managing workload.
Promote Work-Life Balance
Working from home disrupts the clear boundary that office work would usually have. When you work from home, you don’t generally leave your workplace after finishing work, and it can create a difficult mindset.
Employers need to ensure that their employees are separating their work from their life whenever they’re not working.
Seeing how long your employees are working each day, how much time they spend in work calls and meetings, and so on will give you a good idea of where employees start work, when they take breaks, and when they finish. Having daily deadlines set to ensure that employees are not overworking themselves is important. While working from home does promote flexibility, this work-life balance is vital in preventing burnout.
Utilise Project Management and Collaboration Tools
The way you organise people in remote teams has to be a lot more structured than in the office. You can’t just bark orders out loud with your team sitting around you and then expect everyone to have visibility on what’s going on.
No, you need to formally organise projects and teams and the easiest way to do that is by using project management tools.
You should look to break down all projects into individual tasks, then you can assign them to relevant stakeholders or individuals, whilst also setting deadlines and attaching any relevant collateral. The real beauty though is that anyone who has access to the project will have an overview of where things are at all times which makes coordinating efforts a lot easier. And the more coordinated a team is, the less miscommunication and extra work is involved, reducing everyone’s workloads.
Provide Training and Skill Development
In an office, employees will often be able to speak with their managers whenever they have an issue with something or are not qualified or trained enough to take something on. Being given work when working remotely doesn’t offer that level of dependability. If you’re going to have your teams work from home, it would be beneficial to everyone to ensure that the correct training has been provided to employees.
Proper training equips remote employees with the necessary knowledge and skills to handle their tasks efficiently. When employees feel confident in their abilities, they are more likely to take on responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed or anxious. This leads to better time management and productivity.
By offering specific training courses, managers can set clear expectations for the skills and knowledge required for each employee’s role. This clarity helps employees understand their responsibilities and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings or wasted efforts.
Allow Team Members To Make Their Own Decisions
In a typical work environment, it’s easier for management to put their trust in employees, as they can see what they’re doing at all times and will learn to trust them to get on with things. In a remote work environment, managers don’t have that kind of access – and it can lead to employees not being able to get on with things independently. This can lead to employees feeling restricted by what they can and cannot do and will lead them to feeling like they need to sign off on every task and decision. This in turn will lead to longer turnaround times which will lead to a greater workload for remote teams.
Making sure that there is enough autonomy to make BAU decisions without checking in is a really easy way to help manage remote employees’ workloads.
Regularly Evaluate and Adjust Workload
Delegation is a major part of the management role within a workplace. Still, oftentimes employees will find themselves overwhelmed with what they have received – and in remote work environments, that’s not going to be as visible. Employees may take that as what’s expected of them and try their best to get it done – not knowing that they have received an amount of work that they’re not capable of.
Leadership should ensure that their work patterns are being evaluated to see where employees are getting overwhelmed and stressed so that they can adjust the workload of employees if they have too much or too little.
Conclusion
Managing remote and hybrid teams effectively is essential to prevent burnout and ensure the well-being and productivity of your employees. While remote work offers numerous benefits, such as flexibility and increased autonomy, it presents unique challenges that can lead to burnout if not addressed appropriately. By leveraging Analytics 365 and following our tips, you can create a supportive and efficient work environment for your remote teams.
Remote and hybrid managers should ensure that they:
- Set Clear Expectations and Deadlines
- Prioritise and Delegate Tasks
- Encourage Regular Check-Ins and Communication
- Promote Work-Life Balance
- Utilise Project Management and Collaboration Tools
- Provide Training and Skill Development
- Allow Team Members To Make Their Own Decisions
- Regularly Evaluate and Adjust Workload
Remember that proactive measures to prevent burnout not only improve employee satisfaction and retention but also enhance overall team performance and contribute to your organisation’s long-term success.
