New Year’s Resolutions for a Successful Remote Workplace

January 18, 2022 by Nate Martin

Note: This post comes a bit late into the new year on account of our new website! When you’re done here, I encourage you to take a look around the place! On to the remote workplace resolutions!

Create a comfortable remote workspace

If you’ve been working from the kitchen table all this time, you’re definitely deserving of an upgraded & designated work station. Take the $3 you’ve saved daily from skipping a coffee drive through, add it all up, and get yourself a good office chair or standing desk converter. If you’ve been toughing it out from the living room couch because this will all be over soon, it’s time to settle in!

Invest in ongoing educational opportunities

As so much of the world goes remote, there are even more ways to take advantage of training opportunities — workshops, conferences and more that might have cost a lot to travel to previously are now available online. As an employee, look for opportunities to participate in ongoing training. As an employer, put aside a training budget for each employee or department to take advantage of!

Woman Sitting at Desk Writing in a Notebook

Create more communication opportunities

A new year is the perfect opportunity to jump into a new routine. As calendars reset, evaluate how much time your team is spending on meetings, their use of remote tools (our favorites here) and even an open analysis of how each team member prefers to be communicated with.

Team engagement

Of course we’re including team engagement on this list (after all, that’s what we do!), but beyond experiences such as Puzzle Break, engagement opportunities like weekly coffee chats, small group hangouts or Friday shout out emails can make all the difference in keeping your team connected.

Be flexible

Flexibility is key when it comes to remote and hybrid work. Whether that means flexibility with communication strategies or working hours — or even working locations — not only do employees and employers have to pivot again and again due to the COVID-19 pandemic and embrace flexibility there, they also have to continue to be flexible as the remote workplace expands.

Future-proof your remote work strategy

As a company, if you’ve been working remotely on an ad-hoc basis with an ever-changing deadline for “return to office” timelines, it’s time to future-proof your remote work plans. Newsflash: remote work is here to stay. Think about how you hire and onboard, how you do team building, how you handle vacations and office hours … What needs to change, and how? Start thinking about remote work as something that’s not going away.

Separate work from home more clearly

After almost two years of pandemic life and with so many plunged into working from home, it can be hard to know when to “clock off.” This means answering work emails during dinner or on the weekend has become commonplace. With remote or hybrid work, it’s vital to set clear expectations and boundaries, for everyone’s mental health and wellbeing.

-Nate

Nate Martin

Dubbed the "Founding Father of Escape Rooms," Nate Martin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Puzzle Break, the first American escape room company. Puzzle Break is headquartered in Seattle with locations in Long Island, Massachusetts and on Royal Caribbean ships. Prior to Puzzle Break, he was a senior executive at Microsoft and Electronic Arts. He has shipped software used by billions of users as well as some of the most beloved video games of a generation. @GuyFromTomorrow on Twitter.