Work From Home Tips for Successful Project Managers

Work from home is a blessing in disguise if utilized the right way. Since the pandemic, the world is dealing with challenges with work from home routines. They’re no different for a Project Manager. Staying productive remotely is crucial, no matter which industry one belongs to.

But here’s good news!

We probably got the answer to this!

A recent Upwork survey cited that U.S. employees saved over $90 billion due to not commuting. Now this gives some relief from the stress of commuting from an employee’s daily routine.

While there’s an advantage, it still becomes difficult for Project Managers if they’re used to a face-to-face working space.

To lead a successful remote team, Project Managers need to handle remote project management challenges and ways to fix this.

Here are some ways that can ease your Project Management efforts and win the attention of your team!

Work From Home Tips for Project Managers –

1. Create a Project Management Set-up

(Source – nullvoxpopuli.com)

We understand that there could be hassles of background chaos while working remotely. That said, we often fall prey to domestic interruptions during work hours.

What you need to do is –

• Make some stern house rules so that if there are children, you’d save yourself from distraction.
• Set up a mini-office exclusively as your private workstation.
• Once the home office is set up, dress up to feel at office that exudes a professional vibe.
• Set up your agenda of stand-up meetings with the team.
• Send emails to team members considering the possible delays from their end.

Executing your Project Manager role requires planning especially with a transition like this. Setting up a private workspace always lets you stay ahead in your game.

2. Maintain Transparency with Teams

As a Project Manager, you work from home remotely assuming the same old cooperation from team members?

You could go wrong here!

Working from home online without timely reporting can lead to a lack of transparency and distrust among team members.

Remote working has set barriers to impromptu office conversations.

Distance in time and place brings about complexity to projects.

It’s natural for remote teams to go invisible with updating work progress and task completions. This can pose a great hassle for Project Managers, especially with remote team management.

(Source – sloanreview.mit.edu)

How to tackle the lack of Transparency?

• Clear and consistent communication is the key to beat the challenge of transparency.
• If you don’t plan your objectives correctly, you risk misunderstanding or insulting your teammates.
• Emails and instant messaging apps are great means to communicate with remote teams.
• Remote teams need a central space to interact and access all work-related data. Good remote project management software can come to your rescue to eliminate coordination challenges.

Orangescrum team collaboration software integrates platforms like Slack to enhance teamwork. These tools are apt for striking conversations, channeling into various topics, and helping teams reach goals.

3. Manage Incoming Work Requests

The chaos of incoming work requests can wreak havoc on project productivity and priorities. One of the work from home ideas also focuses on addressing issues on the spot. Remote work management becomes difficult for addressing, accepting, and turning down requests. To ease this challenge, it’s always better to hold periodic meetings.

When you receive an incoming request, understand the project goals and how their success is measured.

Tackling Incoming requests –

• New requests must be directed to one centralized location.
• Always demand a formal request submission procedure.
• Shave out work requests from your emails. This enhances internal collaborations.
• Map out the types of requests with relevant request forms.
• Cut down on reworking with a clear work intake process.
• Prioritize projects while accepting requests.
• Plan out requests to bigger goals.
• Have someone manage incoming requests.

4. Team Goals & Expectations

As a Project Manager, it becomes essential to set goals with the end in mind. However, managing a remote team can become cumbersome with unclear goals.

How to resolve the challenge of unclear goals?

• Document goal requirements and achievements with a neatly organized plan.
• Convey to the team about the larger picture with the end in mind.
• Break up time-consuming tasks into milestones as originally planned.
• Track the progress and time taken on each task with a time tracker tool to save time lag.
• Review your KPIs and plan the upcoming work.

5. Encourage Visibility

At least 37% of employees believe that work from home has taken a toll on the visibility levels. Less visibility calls for a lack of clarity in understanding procedures. This can even close communication channels. This is one of the roadblocks that were never faced in an office environment.

Fix:

Are you keeping a close eye on teams?

• Encourage real-time project reporting to mitigate project barriers. This also helps you and your team to stay ahead of your deadline.
• For clarity in tasks, get the rest of the team to regularly log timesheets.

Manage Work from Home Projects easily!

The future of remote working looks brighter than ever. It’s wise to keep a close tab on the factors that could influence a project’s productivity.

Orangescrum eases a Project Manager’s work from home efforts with an all-in-one collaboration integrated tool, task management, time tracking, and much more.

Let’s onboard to a free trial!