Work from Home or Return to the Office?

by Mark Bloom | May 19, 2020 | Agency Advice

Assessing Your Productivity vs. Your Health Risk

In many ways, your home office resembles your office at work. That is, the things you put in place to make you more productive are the same things no matter where you’re working, whether you’re working in a cubicle farm or whether you’re in a work from home arrangement on a porch with a long extension cord. And it works when you incorporate the most common productivity tips, such as:

• Create a space that’s your own, where interruptions are minimized
• Set up a comfortable environment that has a supportive chair, an ergonomic desk and proper lighting
• Keep your desk clean and clutter-free to help your mind focus
• Maintain your schedule, which includes specific break times
• Review what you want to get done every day before you start

Is It Safe to Return to the Office?

Every state seems to be on a different schedule for opening up. Some states have implemented strict containment orders, while others have thrown open the doors and invited workers back. If you have the kind of job that allows you to work from home, you’ve likely been working the entire time during the shutdown, assuming your state had a stay-at-home order.

As society loosens up, it makes sense to ask when or even if you’ll be leaving the home to return to your normal place of business. A lot depends on your employer, but you should have some say in the matter, as your health may be in danger if the pandemic is still raging. You can still work from home and be productive, as you’ve demonstrated over the past eight weeks.

A health assessment should be your first step. How are the infection numbers in your area? Is your local media still reporting deaths? How safe do feel leaving the house? If you return to work, you can expect — you should expect — to wear a mask and perhaps even gloves. Your office should be arranged to leave six feet of space between desks too. These new social norms will still be with us for months to come.

The Benefits of Working from Home

This is a popular topic that we’ve written about in our blog. But that was in March 2019. If you read that article, you can add to the list of benefits that “small” thing about staying healthy. There are many benefits you get when you work from home.

Maybe your employer will see the benefits as well. Why pay for office space when the team can work from home and still be productive? When communications technology is so advanced, team meetings are still easy to pull together, and you don’t need a conference room when you all can be in the same Zoom room.

Will the Future Embrace Work from Home?

No one knows for sure what the future of work will look like. Will cubicle farms go extinct? Will companies ever need a central, open-floor-plan office ever again? Can we all be productive without being in proximity to each other? The quarantine bubble may turn out to have positive consequences, as companies learn to trust their employees and working from home gains mainstream acceptance.

At Ray Access, we’ve embraced working from home since the beginning. While the principals used to meet in person every week, all the work gets done at home. Even when we added writers, we didn’t need a central office. In fact, our writers are separated by hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.

Your company’s needs may differ from our needs, but it’s time to really consider whether you need an office, especially if you’re not producing a physical object. Web developers, web designers, project managers, content producers and SEO firms can all work from home. For now and into the future.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

How to Motivate At-Home Workers

by Elle Ray | Apr 28, 2020 | Agency Advice

Everyone Reacts Differently to Isolation

As most managers, contractors and partners know, everyone responds to different motivators. For some, it’s money. Others thrive on praise. Still other workers prefer to be left alone and successfully thrive in their independence.

Juggling all the various motivational styles is a major task in the best of times, but when you’re trying to keep at-home workers on task, your skills demand a little more creativity and a bigger toolbox of tricks. Keeping at-home workers productive is both an art and a science.

Learn the Wiles of Their Ways

The first step in effectively managing at-home workers is to learn:

• How they first react to a new work environment
• Whether they adjust appropriately
• How quickly they adapt to changes
• What motivates them to stay on task

The worker who is vigilant with deadlines and always on time for meetings may in fact turn into an entirely different creature when away from the office. Some people need a time clock and a place to go before they can don their working caps. Some require an overseer who’ll notice if they slack off. While these employees may perform admirably during working hours in the office, they may flounder without the schedules and supervision.

Then you have those staff members who turn into hyper-vigilant workers when they lose the safety net of the office. These people may really shine as at-home workers, as they draw on their well-honed self-discipline. When they are given the freedom to create their own schedules and working environments, their creativity and productivity flourish.

You’ll quickly learn how each of your partners and employees reacts when placed in a work-at-home situation. To get a handle on the new arrangement, give your entire staff a project with a one-day turnaround time and see how they respond. Then, keep communications open and check in to find out how they’re doing with the project.

Tips for Motivating At-Home Workers

Once you’ve deduced the various styles of at-home workers you have to manage, you can devise ways to keep them motivated for however long the situation lasts. You may even discover that for those who excel as at-home workers, continuing to allow them to work from home may be best for them and for you in the long run.

For those who need a little extra push and too easily give in to the distractions of home, try giving them a little push with motivational techniques geared toward their specific needs. Make sure, however, that you give those great at-home workers the same (or even better) benefits and rewards that you offer the needier workers. A few ideas that might work for your staff:

• Recognize their efforts regularly. Send short emails and texts of gratitude and praise. Tell them how important they are to the continuing success of the company.
• Make it very clear that your virtual door is open. Respond to questions as soon as possible. Answer your phone when they call. Let them know when you’ll be available.
• Offer bonuses or gifts for beating deadlines.
• Arrange for video meetings. Talking while looking at people makes the work seem more real. Too much isolation encourages minds to drift and lose focus.
• Ask for suggestions for making the at-home workers more productive. Take their feedback seriously and incorporate their ideas whenever possible.
• Walk your talk. An effective leader doesn’t ask her staff to do anything she wouldn’t do. Whether you’re quarantined for health reasons, moving your company to a permanent virtual workspace or just trying out different ways to save your business money, you need to find your own motivations and put them to use. And let others see your progress too.

When All Else Fails

While threats are not the most positive form of motivation, there are those at-home workers who respond to nothing less. Fear can be a great motivator for some people. And fear of losing their jobs may be just the final straw that gets them moving.

The problem with that style of motivation is that once the threat has passed, slackers tend to revert back to their former work habits and you often find yourself back in the same quandary about how to get your project completed on time and how to keep justifying the relationship. When positive motivations, warnings and threats land you in the same dilemma over and over, it may just be time to cut your losses and part ways.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Managing a Remote Team

by Mark Bloom | Apr 21, 2020 | Agency Advice

What You Need to Know to Get Work Done

With all the changes in the world, more and more people are finding themselves having to work from home. It’s one thing if you’re a freelancer — you’re already used to the work-from-home routine. But if you’re a manager accustomed to directing your team within the same building, well, things have changed quite a bit, and you may suddenly be adrift in a sea of Zoom video conferences.

Managing a remote team isn’t the same as managing a team in the next office. Even face-to-face, managing people presents challenges that require all your intellect and intuition. When you have a remote team, new problems seem to pop up every day, leaving you searching for answers or guidance.

Ray Access Is Here to Help

A small business focused on providing the best content to its clients, Ray Access was founded by two partners in Asheville, NC, but it employs contract writers from across the country. Even before the pandemic caused almost every business to lock down and self-isolate, the content writing industry didn’t require proximity. As long as a writer produced well-researched, well-written copy, it didn’t matter where that writer was located.

As a result, the partners have learned a thing or two about managing a remote team. If you’re looking for help with your own team, you may benefit from our experience. First, some background:

• We rely on email for communication. While we make it work for us, your experience may require a more sophisticated tool. There are a number of web-based project management tools, such as Basecamp and Trello (which does not constitute an endorsement). Each has its pros and cons.
• We pay our writers per project, not per hour If you pay by the hour, it presents different issues when managing a remote team. But you have to be willing to trust your team to work when they say they’re working while tracking how long it takes them to complete tasks.

Tips for Managing a Remote Team

The first thing you need to do is to set expectations. While we always look for exemplary work, we value communication with our team. We feel it’s better to have too much than too little. We therefore encourage our writers to ask questions regarding their assignments to get clarification when necessary. There are no such things as stupid questions.

When we hire a new writer, we send a contract, a W9 form and a document that establishes our non-negotiable guidelines, which include:

• Requiring our writers to respond to email requests and assignments within 24 hours. That sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed how often this becomes an issue. By establishing this expectation up front, we feel empowered to enforce it.
• Setting and honoring deadlines. We’re a deadline-driven business, so we set deadlines for every assignment. We used to provide just the date, but we discovered that writers sometimes waited until 6:00 AM the next day to deliver an assignment. Now our deadlines are at 5:00 PM Eastern time on the date provided. Lesson learned.
• Establishing reasons for dismissal. Missing deadlines, being incommunicado or turning in shoddy work are all included in this section. Setting these expectations up front establishes a baseline for remote working behavior.

Team-Building Tips

When managing a remote team that’s house-bound for the first time, you face additional challenges. Ensure your team members have an appropriate space, the necessary equipment and a powerful enough internet connection to do the work. Provide any training they may need, whether for your project management tool or the video conferencing technology. Then give them the time to get accustomed to the new way of working. Don’t expect every team member to adapt at the same speed.

Regarding video conferencing, set the protocol early. That means showing up to meetings on time, sticking to the agenda, and reporting progress efficiently. You’ll experience some glitches early on as your team gets used to the technology, but that’s all part of managing a remote team. Another part is keeping your team motivated, which you can accomplish by:

• Providing work-from-home tips, such as using noise-cancelling headphones
• Making sure everyone gets a chance to contribute at meetings
• Letting team members share their challenges and successes while working from home
• Having food delivered to their homes on meeting day (or any day!)

Trust in Allah, But Tie Up Your Camel

At Ray Access, we give our writers the space they need to complete their assignments. We don’t check in unless there’s a problem. Our writers are pros; we trust them to do the work. We do coach new writers until they’ve gained our trust, and we do sometimes send an assignment back with notes for a revision, but we’ve hired our team because we know what they’re capable of.

When you’re managing a remote team, cross your T’s and dot your I’s. Be as clear as you can be in your communication, whether by email, phone or video chat. Realize that it’s not going to be the same as managing in-person. But give your team the space they need to perform. If they’re motivated, they’ll likely succeed — and may actually thrive — in this new environment.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or talk about your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

The Power of Live Streaming

by Elle Ray | Apr 14, 2020 | Agency Advice

Take Advantage of Streaming Technology

Some trends in business come in hot and soon after flop like a 10-pound river trout on the end of a hook. Remember keyword-stuffing and auto-blogging? Everyone thought they’d cracked the Google code for good. How about the Tide pod and ice bucket challenges? They seemed like a good idea at the time.

One idea whose time has come isn’t going anywhere — live streaming. First employed in 1993 by a group of Xerox employees trying out a new use for the internet, the technology was grabbed by Microsoft in 1995, which then started RealNetwork and the advent of RealPlayer live videos. YouTube didn’t run its first live streaming show until 2008.

Not only is live streaming getting more play than ever, it’s picking up steam as the whole world relies on the streaming technology to maintain connections during the coronavirus pandemic. By the time you read this, everyone from your local Realtor to your grandmother has been introduced to live streaming and has begun using the technology for commercial and social interactions.

Take Advantage of the Surge

Now that live streaming has gone mainstream, small business owners and corporate conglomerates alike can take advantage of its benefits to:

• Connect with customers and employees in real time
• Promote new and existing products and services
• Disseminate company news and announcements
• Build trust, as business leaders can enter the conversation directly
• Develop loyalty among employees who appreciate your efforts to communicate directly
• Save valuable resources by using Wi-Fi infrastructure that you already have in operation
• Use the existing technology in smartphones and computers that most of your target audience already owns

Millions of people have learned to successfully access live streaming platforms to talk directly with friends, families and customers. They’ve realize the ease with which the technology works. Once the social distancing rules that dominate the lives of populations all over the world ease, it’s a given that live stream users will be open to continuing to use video streaming for more and more communications and commercial interactions.

Ways to Use Live Streaming for Your Business

Anyone can create a live streaming program with just a smartphone and an internet connection. There’s a multitude of easy-to-use platforms available online, many of which are free. At the same time, expect a surge of live streaming companies, freelancers and marketing companies featuring live stream options to ramp up and appear on your radar.

Depending on your intended audience and your professional reputation, you can benefit by hiring professionals to run your live streaming programs. They can set up the coding necessary to provide safe and secure connections on the back end while filming your event with a polished presentation on the front end. Common events ripe for live streaming in business include:

• Board meetings
• Stakeholder and shareholder events
• Grand openings
• New product or service rollouts
• Staff training
• Employee and company-wide announcements

Benefits of Live Streaming

The biggest benefit of live streamed meetings and training sessions is the savings in costs for travel, food and lodging for participants who have to come in from other locations. Additionally, everyone involved saves time by avoiding travel, which reduces the time off of work. Participants appreciate the extra time they have to be with their families, too.

Whether you announce your live stream publicly or send invitations to a select few, you control the message and its delivery. A live streaming production can be as minimal or creative as you want. And if you’re a photographer or videographer with top-of-the-line equipment, this might be your chance to expand your business by offering:

• Corporate meetings and training sessions
• Destination weddings
• Amateur sporting events
• Church services and events
• Concerts and live performances
• Marketing promotions

No matter how you employ live streaming technology, be assured that this is not a trend that’s going to fade any time soon. While Ray Access doesn’t offer these services, we can recommend businesses that do. Contact us for a referral. We do this for our clients not because we make anything, but because we want our clients to succeed.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or talk about your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.