Recent studies show that most people are very willing to work from home fulltime post-pandemic. A further 31% considered a hybrid system.
Remote working had actually been on the rise even before COVID-19 came, with freelancing taking up much of the remote work. But, what does it take to actually succeed in remote working? We take a look below.
Communication
Communication is a very important part of remote working, whether it be communicating with your boss, co-workers or clients. And communication from remote means being comfortable with asynchronous communication, which means communication that does not warrant real-time responses, for example emailing.
Virtual communication such as Zoom are also critical to understand as a remote worker.
Word processing
Remote working will often involve a lot of working on your computer, such as writing, editing, or drafting presentations and writing reports. As such, knowing how to use programs such as Microsoft Word and Google Docs is crucial.
The skills extend beyond simply knowing how to type and edit. You will need to know how to format documents, insert videos or images to files and create hyperlinks or any other features to make your document presentable.
Collaboration
While collaboration is a lot easier when you and your colleagues are together physically, doing this remotely is a lot more challenging. First, because you are going to need good connection to always stay in touch with them.
But technical parts aside, there also needs to be complete trust between colleagues to ensure all of you are on the same page. Thus, this means taking time to get to know your coworkers on a more personal level even when you all are not face to face.
Online security
Cybercrime is on the rise right now and remote working can become an easy target for online criminals. Thus, remote working needs you to be in the know about the best online security practices. This is critical because you will often be accessing work-related files and other data and you need to always keep them away from malware, phishing attack or viruses.
Important security skills such include not using public Wi-Fi for your work, backing up files often and using strong passwords for critical documents are important to know.
Remote working can become very fulfilling just as long you have the required basic skills to make the most of it to make the job much for streamlined.
