How long does it take employees to adjust to remote work?

How long does it take employees to adjust to remote work? Why?

How long does it take employees to adjust to a new position? Or even to start a new job? These new circumstances make us think that we have never faced a crisis of these characteristics, yet, is this the first challenge employees are facing?

We could not fathom how employees would take to adapt to the new system, and be ready to get back to work. But we knew that the longer we did, the longer they would take.

As our team was already productive, our main challenges came from the top: what decisions to make? What adjustments to do? We could not help to feel fear, but we did know our team and our objectives, so all we had to do was redefine the strategy.

Do you think employees should be expected to match their in-person productivity by now? If not, when should they? 

Again this shouldn’t be the question, but : “What can we do to keep our team productive?” It is quite impractical to expect the same results when circumstances change.

This new scenario is just another change for companies to face. First thing to do is to stop and analyze the company’s situation, considering the team as one of the main pieces in the system; both as a resource and as people. Then establishing objectives in order to decide on a strategy, which path to follow.

After defining the strategy, analyzing in detail every department individually, dividing tasks, measuring results & testing performance, reorganizing what needs to be reorganized, correct failures, encourage productivity and participation.

In other words, keep working as before the change, only being more observant, recognizing what measures prove more efficient and making sure the staff knows you are present and committed. They will do the rest.

What are the factors that cause employees to work more/less efficiently remotely?

From our experience and point of view, radical changes and over-supervising have proven to increase and decrease quality and productivity. Both the Managing team and staff are already putting most of their efforts on maintaining balance and coping up with duties in challenging terms;  adding more changes will not only bring instability to every member, but will also stop the already weakened production line.