A huge number of digital agencies have turned to remote work in 2020 and 2021. Mandatory lockdowns have catalyzed the shift towards working from home. This change has brought a serious challenge: how to achieve productivity as a remote agency.
For a lot of professionals, moving to a home office is a dream come true. No more commutes, no pesky colleagues popping by for a 30-minute chit-chat, no more suits and ties. It also means there’s no one around to supervise which can lead to unexpected mid-day naps, a loss of concentration, and distractions replacing productivity.
In this article, we’ve got 16 tips for increasing your agency’s productivity, getting those billable hours up and being a more effective team.
1. Ensure at least a few hours of timezone overlap
Going remote often means bringing in staff from different parts of the country or even overseas. If your team is scattered across different time zones, it’s critical to find at least a handful of hours each day where your work schedules overlap.
One of the biggest killers of productivity is hitting a roadblock that can’t be overcome without speaking to a colleague. It’s deflating and can put an end to even the most efficient day.
Aim to structure your team’s communication period either at the end or the start of a dedicated block of deep work.
Timezones can be a particularly sticky point for offshoring. Make sure you have a single point of contact and ensure they’re prepared to ensure good flowing communication.
2. Use Slack or Microsoft Teams
Slack and Microsoft teams are no longer fancy new tools. They’re a mandatory part of any remote team’s tooling.
Constant communication is at the core of any efficient team. You could argue that most communication should happen within a product management tool or task management system like Jira, Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, Notion, or one of the other thousand platforms.
It’s a fair point, but not all communication focuses specifically on tasks. Also, just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you can’t talk casually with your team.
3. Non-working time
On the note of talking casually with your team, it’s important to create a fun and enjoyable culture for your remote workplace. This means allocating some non-working time when you chat about football, games, or whatever common interests your team has.
Building comradery and really getting to know your team is harder in a digital landscape. That’s why you need to dedicate some time to make it happen.
One great suggestion we have is to send a few gifs each day. It’s a fun way to communicate and joke around with your team.
4. Pick a central suite of tools
Working with the right tools can bring an enormous amount of productivity. At a minimum, you should have cloud storage and a shared document suite.
We’re big fans of Google Suite and the efficiency that’s achieved from properly structuring Google Drive. You should be able to build a repeatable, consistent folder structure within your drive that helps your team easily find documents.
The Google Suite is also packed with word processors, spreadsheets, shared calendars, virtual meeting software, and a whole bunch of other great stuff.
5. Strategic, tactical, operational meetings
Working from home has the tendency to cut out a lot of unnecessary meetings. Instead of a colleague appearing at your door inviting you to a meeting starting in 5 minutes, they now have to send an invite and explain the purpose of the call.
This can lead to fewer meetings over time, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To remain productive, there is a minimum number of meetings your team should be running.
Every quarter your management team should gather to discuss the big picture strategic decisions. These are the kinds of decisions that affect your entire direction as a company. Each month, your management team and senior staff should talk through the tactics of how you’re implementing your strategy. Then every week your entire team should discuss day-to-day operations, project status, ongoing risks, and issues.
6. Policies and guides
Writing all your policies down is a good way for your team to understand what is expected of them. This can be particularly helpful for things like taking time off work, pay cycles, and expected working hours.
Getting these things wrong can cause some conflict in the workplace, so get them written down in a central spot and ask your team to look over them.
7. Task management systems
Task management systems are the champion of the productivity world. If you’re not already using one, then start here.
The two hardest parts of using a task management system are picking the right one for your needs, and committing to use it properly.
There are a million different options available these days. The best-known options are Asana, Jira, Trello, Wrike, UpClick, Notion, and Basecamp. At least one of these platforms should work for your team.
Once you’ve picked the platform you’re going to use, take a Udemy course to get skilled on the best way to set up and manage projects. Then all that’s left is ensuring everyone uses it every day. As soon as one team member stops using the system, it becomes much less effective.
8. Detail, detail, detail
Don’t leave your team guessing. It’s significantly harder for someone to guess what a task description or job requirement is trying to say than it is for the person writing it to do a good, comprehensive job.
Adding a comprehensive amount of detail accompanied by images, videos, or other aids is a great way to ensure your team knows exactly what they need to do.
Another tip here is figuring out your definition of “done”. It’s easy to slip into a habit of dumping excessive hours onto a task when it’s already as done as it needs to be.
9. Stick to a project management methodology
Project management methodologies are traditionally associated with software development, but they can be applied to a range of projects. The most popular methodologies are agile or waterfall, but sometimes picking a hybrid approach that combines the two will better suit your agency’s needs.
Adopting a project management methodology helps keep your team on task and provides visibility into potential issues.
10. Use video where possible
Explaining a concept with words is great. It’s a totally viable way of communicating, but as the saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words”… and video is millions of pictures!
Pick up a screencasting tool like screen-o-matic or Loom and get in the habit of recording brief 2-minute videos to explain concepts or decisions. It saves a lot of writing time and usually does a much better job of articulating your point.
11. Track everything
Track your hours worked. Track the hours you’re not working. Track the number of words your time is writing. Track how many bugs your team solved across the week. Track each and every metric that has any kind of impact on your performance as an agency.
When you’ve got enough data, take the time to review it every month or two to see which direction you’re heading in. You can’t know if you’re becoming more productive without evidence.
12. Training
It’s easy to overlook the training needs of your team. Working remotely already adds extra levels of complexity to managing a team. However, making sure your team has the latest skills and competencies is important for remaining reactive.
Coursera offers great team packages for university-level courses to keep your team’s skills up to date.
13. Reviews and constant feedback
Schedule a 6-month review with everyone on your team. These reviews should be accompanied by some kind of key performance indicators so you can discuss candidly whether your staff is hitting their goals.
Don’t forget to do these reviews yourself. If you’re operating solo, this can be tricky, but if you’re working with other senior staff or business partners, find a time to review each other’s performance so you have goals to strive for.
14. Put time into onboarding
Joining a new team can be an overwhelming time. New staff needs to learn who everyone is, what their roles are, and how they should achieve their goals. The best way to guide new team members through this period is to create comprehensive process documentation or videos.
Put yourself in their shoes and think through all the challenges they will face at the beginning of their journey, then create answers to the questions they’ll have.
15. Recognise hard work and achievements
Letting your team know when they’ve done a great job is a great way to keep everyone motivated and focused. This is important in the remote landscape where it’s easy to work long hours and feel disconnected socially.
Keep it positive and let your team know that they’re kicking goals!
Conclusion
These tips should help you answer the question of how to achieve productivity as a remote agency. It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of work. But if you keep your team happy and give them the tools they need to get through their tasks, then chances are you’ll see an uptick in billable hours, efficiency, and round productivity.
