Embrace the Growing Trend of Remote Work with Automated Workflows

Remote work is becoming more prevalent than ever before, and it’s essential that companies of all sizes learn to adapt to the new status quo.

While the global pandemic accelerated the trend towards working remotely, and even turned it into an urgent necessity for many, working and connecting through software won’t be going away any time soon.

The best talent will look for workplaces that let them spend some or all of their time working from home as they seek to cut down on commutes and achieve a better work/life balance. As you look to find ways to accommodate remote work at your business, you should consider how automation can help to support remote work.

Automation makes it easier to work asynchronously, gives your team convenient access to consistently saved resources, and enables everyone to be more productive. 

Promote Asynchronous Work with Automated Check-ins and Notifications

One of the main challenges of having a fully or partially remote team is making sure that everyone stays updated about each other’s progress even when they’re not meeting every day in the office. 

The challenge is compounded if your team is spread across several time zones, as one employee may be working while the rest of their team is clocking out - or about to turn in for the night.

With automation, you can create systems that immediately send Slack notifications, update a centralized database or send emails whenever a certain action is completed. You can configure your automations to send unobtrusive alerts that won’t bother your team when they’re off the clock, but will be immediately visible as soon as they’re online. 

When check-ins and updates are automated, everyone can stay apprised of each others’ progress without having to interrupt their coworkers when they’re focused on an important task, or taking a moment to recharge. 

In a remote workplace, employees will often be on different schedules, due to their time zone, their obligations, or their preference. This makes impromptu check-ins that much more of a hassle, as they might not be available when someone wants an update from them. 

Access and Resources

How many times a day do people on your team ask each other for files and data? 

Whenever someone makes a file, it’s easy for them to save it in the wrong place, or forget where they put it. While setting guidelines and creating a proper file structure will help a lot, human error will always be a factor - unless you automate your processes for saving and sharing files.

With the right automations, you can make it so every sales report, meeting agenda, project proposal and any other important file will be saved in the right spot every time. Links will also be sent right away to any individuals or teams who need access immediately.

These are great benefits for any workplace, but they’re especially helpful for remote and hybrid offices. The last thing your remote workers want is for their day to be filled with constant interruptions as they help co-workers find files, or reach out for help themselves.

With automated workflows, your team knows where to find everything and can focus more on their work. 

More Productive Work

When you automate your team’s robotic work, you enable them to work at the height of their productivity.

Automation removes human error from the equation, making it so your team spends less time doubling back and fixing mistakes. It also reduces the frequent interruptions that arise from sending or receiving simple progress updates, or updating data in multiple pieces of software.

When your team doesn’t have to focus on the tedious robotic work that can be automated, they can devote their full attention to more important tasks. Your sales team can focus on spending time nurturing leads and answering unique questions rather than updating their status in Hubspot or sending out identical emails. Your designers can focus on creating new illustrations and assets rather than uploading and sharing them.

In short, your team can spend more of their time doing what you hired them to do, rather than wasting a large chunk of their time on logistical tasks that don’t leverage their unique and valuable talents. 

Again, this is a benefit for any type of workplace, but remote offices will often find this to be especially helpful. A remote workplace works best when you don’t need to check in constantly with your team, and automated workflows will help them to be more productive without needing additional oversight. 

Hit the Ground Running with Automation and Remote Work

The continued growth of remote work is inevitable. Even when the current pandemic resolves, talented workers will still want the flexibility of working from home some or part of the time.

At XRay, we encourage every services company to embrace remote work, and to try using automation to support it.

If you’d like to learn more about how automation can help your business, or if you’d like to learn some helpful automation tips yourself, check out our blog or our YouTube channel. You can also follow XRay on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.