Mandy Brasser – Balancing Australia

Working from Home Tips

Leave a Comment / Employees / By Mandy Brasser

Working from home can either be a very productive location to work or can have the opposite effect. I was asked the other day on some tips regarding work from home and I have written several articles regarding Managing Personal Relationship Whilst Working from Home and How to Stay Focused Working from Home, however I wanted to highlight some critical ones that you really shouldn’t miss.

Tips to work from home:

Set a designed working area.

It may be convenient to sit on the lounge chair, or at your kitchen table to complete your work, but to minimise distractions and help to separate your personal life from your work life it is recommended if you can to create a designated space for working at home. If you work from home on a regular basis, this is critical to ensure that this clear physical separation is achieved to minimise the blur that regularly exists when working from home.

Get out of your Pyjamas!

I know it’s really tempting to stay in your comfy attire that you woke in and don’t get me wrong, I sometimes do it early in the morning when I have conference calls at 6am. I do want you to consider the impact of not getting dressed though. Your pyjamas symbolise a time to rest and recoup, and if you start working in your pyjamas, this clear distinction from a clothing perspective will soon become blurred. If you don’t think so, compare your professionalism from when you’re in your pyjamas to when you’re not. You may be surprised with your attitude, persona, and results by getting dressed like you would go into the office.

Know what you have to deliver.

Having clear expectations on what you need to deliver will allow you clarity on your time and delivery outcomes. Unfortunately, often Managers question working from home, mainly due to concerns around productivity when people cannot be seen. By working with your Manager to gain a shared understanding what needs to be achieved in what period of time will definitely help all parties to know whether the arrangement is working or not.

Flexible Working Arrangements

Leave a Comment / Employees / By Mandy Brasser

Flexible working arrangements describe when work is completed outside the normal business practice or outside the traditional organisation’s working agreement.

Flexible working arrangements may take a variety of forms and to help highlight some of the popular options, we have described and provide an example of these below-

Option	Description	Example
Flexible working hours	The same working hours are completed, however start, break or finish times are adjusted	An employee may start earlier, has a shorter lunch break to finish early to pick up the kids from school
Work from home	Occasionally, some or all of the job is completed from home	An employee may need to be home for a tradesperson to complete some work, this allows them the ability to be home and work remotely, without having to take a day’s leave
Part time	The position is available on a permanent basis generally working on average between 15 – 30 hours per week	An employee who is also studying at the same time, but is able to bring in a regular income through a permanent position
Casual	The position is on a temporary basis where hours vary	An individual may want to generate more income over the Christmas holidays working in retail
Job Sharing	One role performed by two people	Two employees that share the role of Receptionist, one is a recent mother who works 3 days per week and the other is a full time student working 2 days per week
Phased Retirement Options	Opportunity to work reduced hours / have time off	A senior Manager may reduce their hours to part time and play more of a mentor role in the organisation to ease their way into retirement but also help transfer knowledge before exiting the workforce

Managing Personal Relationships Whilst Working from Home

Leave a Comment / Employees / By Mandy Brasser

The perceptions of working from home do impact those who choose to conduct work in their same living space, particularly in relation to the people in our lives. Being able to honour our relationships and our work is a necessary skill to make these arrangements work for you professional and personally.

When is Your Most Productive Time of the Day?

Leave a Comment / Employees, Small Business Owners / By Mandy Brasser

One of the keys to being productive is knowing when you reach your peak productive time state during the day. Do you know when this is? Productivity can be described in a variety of ways, including when you are focused, energetic and driven to take actions and cause results. Everyone of course is different, so the time of day will vary when people reach this optimum state.

When are you most productive?
Consider your day was broken up into the following time segments. Which would be the time slot that you would be at your peak productive time state? If you are unsure when this is, consider your last week, when did you find it easy to take actions and produce results? When did you struggle to do any work at all? You may like to list the order in the table, with 1 being your most productive time segment. Although you may not work all time segments, list them all, as this will allow you to see whether you are also in an optimum state outside of work as well.
Knowing when you are in this most productive state, it is a terrific idea if you can, schedule your work around these times. Schedule important meetings, tasks or events in your life where possible when you are in this peak state, and the easier tasks when you are perhaps when you are least productive. For me, I am not an early morning person and I am fortunate to have control over when I work. My peak productive time state is 3 – 5pm, therefore I schedule my day to optimise this time and also to ensure that my two other most productive time segments are also being maximised.

Promote Your Work Life Balance Arrangements!

Leave a Comment / Employers / By Mandy Brasser

So you’ve identified the importance and benefits of supporting your staff to achieve work life balance, so how about promoting them?!?!

Unfortunately I see so many organisations miss great opportunities to capitalise on their work life balance commitment to attract and retain talent. Watch our latest video for suggestions on promoting your work life balance offer to ensure that you communicate pre, during and post employment.

Employers: Looking for an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)? Some Things to Consider…

Leave a Comment / Employers / By Mandy Brasser

Employers interested in implementing or looking to review their Employee Assistance Program (EAP), should consider a number of factors to select the best provider for their organisation. An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an independent and confidential counselling service for individuals to help them through any issues that they face in their life that they need some external support. This support can be invaluable and by partnering with the right external EAP provider, this will help your staff both professional and personally. Here are some factors employers should consider:

~ Is it accessible to your entire workforce?

All work locations?
Many organisations have their staff based at different locations within the same town, state and across the country. When selecting an EAP provider you should check with them how their service can cater for those employees located inside and outside of metropolitan areas. For example, for an employee working in a rural location, will they have access to the same or any services? Can they still have face-to-face counselling sessions or over the phone counselling?

Employer Concerns with Working from Home

Leave a Comment / Employers / By Mandy Brasser

Despite many employers embracing the concept of working from home, there are many others who still struggle to justify that the home environment can be a productive place to perform work. Not every role can be done from home, nor does this work well for all staff, but those that can and the employers are reluctant to make this happen, here are some common concerns as to why:

~ That work will not get done at all or as fast
~ That Managers won’t be able to keep a close eye on them
~ That they won’t be easily contactable by their colleagues
~ That once they are set up at home, these arrangements can’t change
~ That they will waste time due to the inability to access company software, hardware and files

The Pros and Cons of Casual Employment

Leave a Comment / Employees / By Mandy Brasser

I received a lovely gift recently to be pampered at a day spa and I was speaking with one of their casual workers. She shared how she hadn’t had a weekend off in 7 months…. Wow 7 months! I couldn’t even imagine. It has been many years since I’ve had to work in any industry that works on the weekend, that I have taken my weekends off for granted.

As she works in the beauty industry, the peak time for business is when the majority of workers are not at work, therefore evenings and weekends. This can be quite difficult particularly when your partner, family and friends are not on the same work schedule as you and the time that you do have off is when those closest to you are working. This worker also shared her desire to buy a house and that casual work meant that hours weren’t consistent from week to week, therefore not helping her to have a reliable guaranteed income to achieve this goal.

Unfortunately, for this casual staff member, there appears to be noticeable cons at the present time, however there are a lot of employees where casual work is the ideal situation for them. When I was at university, I had a casual job and it was terrific that I would be able cut my hours right back during assessment time, then increase my hours over the holiday period when I was not studying. This situation was ideal for me and so many other students as well.

Going on Leave? Improve your Leave Request Success

Leave a Comment / Employees / By Mandy Brasser

Requesting leave from your employer is an exciting time, as normally you have some fun, relaxing or challenging time away from work ahead of you (depending of course on how you like to spend your leisure time!). Depending on the relationships you have with your Manager and/or your employer’s leave policy, this can be daunting to ask as it may not be a sure yes and timing can be everything.

To help increase the chances of your leave being granted, here is some preparation you can do prior to asking:

Determine the leave dates and number of leave days you will be taking
Establish if you will have enough leave to cover the period of time (if not, how do you propose to go on leave? Use unpaid/flexible leave etc)
Identify any role/business clashes that may impact on your ability to be granted leave and determine possible solutions for these (whether it is completely tasks earlier, working extra hours before you go, renegotiating deadlines, organising extra resources etc)
Identify if any of your Manager and/or other team members have planned leave at the same time that may cause a problem (I was recently speaking to an employee who had their leave request refused as another member of their team had already planned leave at that time…. Therefore keep that in mind and get in early!)

How To Stay Focused When Working From Home

How to Stay Focused Working from Home

Leave a Comment / Employees / By Mandy Brasser

If you are fortunate enough to be able to work from home you may struggle to stay focused sometimes. The home environment is where most of us spend the majority of our leisure time. Therefore, working from home warrants some rules to help you to get the work done in the shortest amount of time without major interference on you or your families personal lives.

Here are some suggestions to stay focused when working from home:

Set Work Goals – determine what you need to get done within a set period of time. This allows you to prioritise and concentrate on delivering a task.
Create a Work Space – ensure that your work space meets health and safety standards and that you are creating an environment around you to concentrate and complete your work. Ideally, if you have a study/spare room occupy that, this will be easier for you to set up and close off from the rest of your home. Other considerations when selecting a work space include lighting, temperature, noise and other uses of that space.
Turn Off Distractions – it is very easy to slip into your normal routine of being at home and doing what you normally do, for example watching TV, listening to music, playing with the dog. A general rule I use, if I wouldn’t normally work with that distraction, then why start now? For example, I work better with no noise, but sometimes music is good for tasks that don’t require as much mental energy, then I will put music on. If possible, you should try minimise all of the common distractions if possible e.g. television, radio, washing machine, dryer, pets and other people interrupting. On that last point, it is critical to consider that you aren’t the only person that uses the space, therefore be conscious of the movements of others in your home and how you can work together to structure your work so that you can work from home effectively with inconveniencing others.