If you previously worked in an office environment then there’s a good chance that you’ve switched to working from home in the past year or few months. For most people, this was initially a welcome change that allowed them to work in a more comfortable environment where they were more likely to be productive and maintain focus. Unfortunately, this wasn’t really the case and many people found that it was a struggle to work from home. This is especially true if they weren’t accustomed to remote working.

Sure, working from home has plenty of great advantages. For example, a lot of people found that it was a huge help to remove the commute from work each day. There were also many people that found it interesting to collaborate from home instead of speaking face to face. While there were many initial challenges of working from home, there have also been many lessons learned along the way.

Many of these lessons will likely be applied to our businesses in the future. So in this post, we’re going to talk about some of those things that we’ve learned and how they might change our workplace roles in the future.

Collaboration will take on a different meaning than before

We can’t deny that there are many collaborative workspace benefits to take advantage of. When an office is planned properly and the spaces are used effectively, it can greatly improve productivity because everyone is on the same page. However, we’re starting to see that collaborative work can also take place entirely online through digital means. When assisted by things such as video chat and remote desktops, we can effectively share our ideas without needing to be in person.

However, instead of completely replacing collaborative workspaces and meetings, working from home has taught us how to make better use of that time so that it doesn’t turn into a waste of time. Here are some examples of how we might transform collaborative work in the future:

To save time, many teams might start planning out their collaborative works and delegating tasks ahead of time to make things more efficient. This may take a bit of time to get used to for businesses that don’t have strong leadership, but it’ll certainly help with large projects in the future.

Screen sharing and remote desktop software will be more prominent even within the same office building since it makes it extremely easy to share ideas and progress.

Video chats within the office might become more common, especially if teams are located far away from each other or if people just need to relay a quick message.

Collaborating in person will likely require a reason in the future. If it can be done remotely, then there’s a good chance a meeting won’t be called. This can save a lot of time and will get rid of many formalities that are involved in setting up meetings, thus making our businesses more efficient.

Many of us have already realized that meetings can be a waste of time when it comes to collaborating. Instead of forcing everyone to physically meet, we can start focusing on using remote tools to collaborate. If we do need to collaborate in person with our team, then we’ll have very specific goals in mind to ensure we waste no time once we meet up.

Comfort can make a huge difference in your productivity

A unique thing that many of us have realized while working from home is that our comfort can make a huge difference in our productivity. A workplace that we’re familiar with and comfortable in will help improve our productivity. However, being too comfortable can often make us feel lazy and even encourage us to rest for a really long time.

For example, if you’ve ever tried to work from the bed then you’ll know just how difficult it can be to resist the temptation of dozing off. As such, it’s important to create the right amount of comfort and convenience so that employees are encouraged to work harder. There are a number of ways to achieve this, such as providing ergonomic office solutions to keep our staff comfortable and ensuring they get plenty of breaks to stretch their legs and go for a walk between long sessions.

In short, the more we focus on the comfort of our employees, the more productive they’ll be.

Focusing on wellbeing and physical health can improve your productivity

One of the unique things that many of us learned while working from home is that focusing on your wellbeing and physical health is extremely important for improving your productivity. There are two main points to focus on here:

Working from home can cause feelings of isolation, leading to a lack of social interaction which introduces mental health problems. This can reduce someone’s productivity and may lead to more troubling issues if left unchecked.

Many employees started to realize that their daily commute gave them enough exercise to stay healthy and potentially more fit than they currently are. A lack of commute means less physical exercise, thus resulting in an unhealthy lifestyle.

These two points are incredibly important and shouldn’t be ignored. Physical and mental health are both extremely crucial in improving one’s productivity, hence why businesses need to be more aware of these two points.

They’re both things that can be solved when employees return to their offices, but that doesn’t mean that mental and physical health issues will just disappear in the future. Instead, businesses need to take better care of the wellbeing of their employees. Being supportive of your employees and their troubles will help them feel wanted and that they’re an essential part of your team. It’s also important that you encourage physical and mental wellbeing by suggesting they take breaks now and then and give them time to relax each day.

Employers that focus on the wellbeing of their staff are far more likely to develop a productive team. If you don’t focus on these points, then your team will gradually fall apart.

Investing in digital solutions is a fantastic use of money

It should come as no surprise that digital solutions can help improve your business. However, there are many people that would never have guessed the impact it could have on working remotely. The past year of working from home has likely forced many businesses to upgrade their tech solutions to be compatible with remote workflows. As a result, this has improved the technological prowess of many employees, and it’s also created systems that are far more efficient and less prone to errors.

Whatever processes you’ve developed as a result of working from home can likely be further improved. By investing more money into these digital solutions, you’re guaranteed to get a fantastic return on your investment. It’ll provide a huge boost in productivity to your staff and you may see your team develop a stronger bond that can help grow your business.

Investing in digital solutions is important for growing any kind of business, but there are times where you might need to scale back on digital solutions if the option of meeting face-to-face is available again. With that said, there’s nothing wrong with giving your staff the flexibility of working from home or working in the office. If you’ve already established the technology needed to support it, then you should take advantage of it as much as possible.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.