The growth of the hybrid workplace model was already accelerating before a global pandemic made it necessary for most industries to embrace the idea, and it is here to stay as employers and employees alike have found benefits to a more flexible way of thinking about the office. Adapting to a part-time presence in the company’s physical space while maintaining full-time engagement can be tricky, though. Learning tricks like how to use virtual background in Teams to avoid showing off your personal space can be essential to building the right environment for productivity when you work remotely.
Tips for Adapting To Working at Home
In addition to using a background that sets a professional tone and maintains your personal privacy, there are a few other ways to make sure you keep yourself in a working mindset when you are participating from home.
- Maintain as many of the same psychological touchstones as possible with the office by maintaining your professional attire and language and setting up a consistent work area
- Set boundaries between work and personal time to minimize distractions that make it hard to mentally transition into work from home
- Use immersive view Zoom backgrounds download for a consistent backdrop so your team members and other meeting participants have no visual distractions from your information, whether it is auditory or visual
- Set up your VPN and other tools to duplicate the experience of working from the office so you can more easily integrate the virtual tools your workplace offers through its corporate intranet and other resources to avoid compatibility issues in your workflow
The challenge can be greater for managers and team leaders than for other workers because you have to both set an example and maintain discipline. That means being ready to productively address shortcomings in professionalism as your team transitions into this new way of working. Learn how to set a Google Meet background image early so you can be a teacher when it comes time to help your teammates with live presentations.
Can Your Team Be Just as Productive at Home?
Believe it or not, hybrid work can bring out more productivity than a standard office environment when it is approached the right way. Workers tend to arrive in the work space more refreshed when they do not have to commute, and that makes them more active and efficient throughout the day. The big challenge is maintaining that professional space on days one is working from home, and the more people there are in your house the more difficult that can be. Supporting team members with environmental challenges means both accommodating the ones who need to work from an office outside the house and training them to do better when that is not possible.
Remember to maintain an air of mentorship when addressing these issues. Hybrid work environments are new for almost everyone, after all, so it makes sense that there will be a learning curve before you reach an optimized workflow that reflects the kind of efficiency you expect from an office setting. This is where the hybrid model outshines remote-only work, though. By spending part of the work week in an office or interacting with team members who are on-site, remote workers maintain stronger links to the professional mindset the office instills.