Best Practices for Working From Home: Staying Successful at Your Home Office

We recently published a blog discussing how to keep employees feeling engaged and valued while working from home by prioritizing training. In addition to these engagement challenges, many are working from home for the first time ever and are struggling to stay focused and productive in such a different environment. For those who need extra guidance, there are resources that can help.

LinkedIn is now offering 16 free online courses covering topics related to working from home, managing stress and staying productive. These on-demand courses include:

• Time Management: Working from Home – Working from home is a wonderful opportunity, but time management can be a challenge. With so many demands on your time and attention, it's a tricky balancing act to stay productive. In this course, bestselling author and productivity expert Dave Crenshaw offers best practices for anyone who works full-time or occasionally from home.
• Productivity Tips: Finding Your Productive Mindset – Time management tools and programs can only go so far. If you want to boost your productivity in a lasting way, you need to change the way you look at your time and your tasks. In this installment of the Productivity Tips series, productive leadership author and speaker Dave Crenshaw explains how to boost your productivity by shifting your perspective. Dave shares bite-sized, actionable tips for finding room in your schedule to improve your productivity, developing flexibility, and avoiding lower-value activities.
• Thriving at Work: Leveraging the Connection Between Well-Being and Productivity – Live a life filled with less stress, greater well-being, and enhanced productivity by learning how to make transformational changes. In this course, Arianna Huffington and Joey Hubbard—the director of trainings at Thrive Global—discuss how well-being can contribute to your productivity and success at work.
• Managing Stress for Positive Change – In the workplace, stress is often viewed in purely negative terms. It's seen as a response that should simply be minimized or pushed aside; however, it's possible to use stress to fuel positive change. In this course, join instructor Heidi Hanna, PhD as she discusses what stress is; how you can train yourself to use stress in more effective ways; and what managers can do to reduce employee stress when an organization experiences difficult times. She covers how individuals can use stress for good by assessing and adjusting it, as well as what you-as a manager-can do to create an environment and communication style that helps connect employees to the bigger picture.
• Leading at a Distance – Technology has enabled many former office workers to work from home or anywhere remotely. As the overall job landscape shifts, the number of remote workers will likely continue to increase. For the managers and leaders spearheading these remote teams, as well as teams that consist of remote and in-person employees, making the jump from in-person to virtual leadership can be challenging. In this course, instructor Kevin Eikenberry lays out how to lead effectively from a distance. He dives into the basics of remote leadership, such as how working remotely changes interpersonal dynamics. Plus, he shares tips for getting results at a distance—including how to provide remote coaching and feedback—as well as how to build trust, set reasonable boundaries as a long-distance leader, and more.
• Leading Virtual Meetings – Leading virtual meetings is a critical competency for leaders who manage a remote or blended team. Join leadership and management expert Kevin Eikenberry as he identifies the challenges to holding a productive meeting online, and shares tactics for making these meetings successful. Learn about how to choose the right platform, set expectations for conduct, clarify roles, create a great agenda, and more.

For training focused specifically on manufacturing, The Center is now offering free Distance Learning webinars covering topics important to manufacturers, including Project Management Tips, Tricks & Tools, Quality Policy Deployment for Quality Management Systems, Risk Management for Food Processors and AIAG-VDA Process FMEA for Practitioners.

Learn more about how The Center can support your workers and company during the COVID-19 crisis here.

Since 1991, the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center has assisted Michigan’s small and medium-sized businesses to successfully compete and grow. Through personalized services designed to meet the needs of clients, we develop more effective business leaders, drive product and process innovation, promote company-wide operational excellence and foster creative strategies for business growth and greater profitability. Find us at www.the-center.org.