Post-Pandemic: 5 WFH Tips Nonprofits Should Implement

Throughout 2020, we heard over and over about how the pandemic was an unprecedented event and the safety tips we should all take to keep ourselves and others safe.

One widely accepted recommendation has been (and rightfully!) a simple message: “Stay home.” Organizations everywhere have taken that to heart, switching to the remote work model for the duration of the pandemic.

Now, we’re transitioning out of the quarantine necessities and tentatively working our way back to normal life. However, many organizations and individuals who have gotten a taste of the work-from-home lifestyle are making the decision to maintain this policy. They’ve found that working from home allows for additional flexibility and helps organizations save funds that would’ve otherwise been spent on occupying office space. In addition, 94% of companies found that employees are either as efficient or more efficient while working from home.

You may find yourself in a position where your organization is choosing to remain remote until further notice and reevaluate when the vaccines are rolled out to a greater extent. Others are switching completely to a remote or hybrid model as they devise nonprofit strategic plans extending past the pandemic. Either way, the age of remote work isn’t over.

That’s why it’s important to check back in on your work-from-home strategies. Policies should be updated and habits adjusted to account for your organization’s plans regarding remote work.

We’ve put together this guide to help optimize the work-from-home experience as we look to the future. We’ll cover the following five tips for nonprofit employees:

1. Create a Dedicated Workspace at Home
2. Leverage Software to its Fullest Potential
3. Communicate More Than You Think You Should
4. Emphasize Security Measures
5. Stick to a Steady Routine

Some people love working from home while others miss the companionship and accountability of office life. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, you should be sure that your remote work experience is as productive as possible.

1. Create a Dedicated Workspace at Home

When the world first started working remotely, we saw lots of advice emerge regarding the best way to deal with the stressors of the pandemic and how to effectively transition to working from home. However, with so much going on, many were scrambling to set everything up and continue working from the remote locations.

That’s why it’s important to start with the foundation of a healthy remote working environment—creating a dedicated workspace.

A dedicated workspace allows you to get into work mode, minimizes the distractions you’re likely to encounter, and helps create more work-life balance as you have some semblance of “going to the office” as you enter your office space. Then, when you leave the office space, it’ll be more like you’re returning home from work, allowing you to focus your attention on your home life.

Here are some tips for you to set up your office space to encourage productivity:

• Choose a well-lit location. One mood-enhancing quality of an effective office space is the inclusion of natural light. It’s best if you’re able to set up near a window in your home. If not, be sure to choose a space where there are plenty of lamps and lights. You might even switch out your light bulbs for LEDs to mimic sunlight as much as possible in your space.

• • Ask to borrow office equipment. Nonprofits should allow their employees to take home equipment that will help increase productivity. If you’re a manager at your organization, consider what materials will help people make the most of their at-home experiences and allow them to borrow the equipment necessary for that. For instance, monitors, printers, and keyboard/mouse can help increase productivity at home.

• Test the strength of your wireless network. It goes without saying that in order to work from home, you need to have a strong internet connection. Test the speed of your network to make sure it will be fast enough to support your workload and any video conferences you might attend.

While finding office space is easiest for those who have a separate room in their home, it’s important to acknowledge that not everyone has this luxury. For those creating an office in a smaller space, consider how you can separate your home life from your office in other creative ways. For instance, could a room separator be used to block off the office area? Could furniture be rearranged to create more space for a desk?

Get creative with your space to make the most of it. You might try researching some minimalist tips to see how you can make the office feel larger and more spacious.

2. Leverage Your Software to its Fullest Potential

When you’re not working in person, your organization’s software becomes your lifeline to complete various projects, connect with other staff members, and accomplish daily tasks for your organization. This means you should have a thorough understanding of the functionality of each of your software solutions and how they are used to drive your organization forward.

Bloomerang’s nonprofit software guide provides an overview of the types of solutions that nonprofits often use to drive their operations. Your donor database is generally the central hub for your software solutions; then other solutions are used in conjunction with your database to manage specific aspects of your strategy. This may include platforms to manage fundraising events, time tracking information, donation pages, and email marketing. These are often integrated with your database either natively or using a tool like Zapier to ensure your data is centralized.

As a nonprofit employee, you should take two steps to make sure you’re making the most of your software:

• Consider the tools you currently use for your position. Think about your day-to-day job and the tools you use regularly. If you work in fundraising, you might use your donor database to check out the profiles for your various supporters, event tools to plan your upcoming fundraising activities, and communication tools to reach out to various donor segments. Think about your use of these systems. Do you know them like the back of your hand? Try looking into some educational resources that you can use to learn more about the tools already in your software ecosystem.

• Consider one small way you can use these tools to make your job easier. After you’ve learned about the various aspects of the software that you’re already using, consider if there is one small thing that you could do to make your use of the software even better. For example, you might find that you learn about your next tasks more quickly by setting up email notifications when your colleagues tag you in a task on your project management system. If it’s something that can be rolled out across the team, share the opportunity to improve your tech processes.

Why do we recommend one simple, small way to improve your job with technology? While it’s tempting to think about the big tech overhauls that will make jobs easier, small improvements can be made quickly and easily to already built-out systems. When enough people come up with small improvements, those small bits of time add up and create a more efficient organization.

3. Communicate More Than You Think You Should

The core feature that makes remote work possible is communication. Without open and frequent communication, it’s impossible to know what your colleagues or team members are accomplishing daily. Communication is what helps you continue working as a team even when you’re in different locations.

If you manage a team, implement communication policies that err on the side of more communication rather than less. For instance, you might schedule a daily team meeting for every morning so that everyone can share what they’ve been working on. Or, you might simply ask for a daily email update to keep up with everyone’s work progress.

If you’re a team member, go above and beyond the expectations for effective communication so that your manager and other team members always know what’s going on for your own workload. For example, you might forward emails from constituents to your manager when conversations go well or poorly. Or, you might create a list of questions that come up during the day to ask in an upcoming meeting, making the most of your time with other colleagues.

Poor communication leads to ineffective team structures and frustration. By erring on the side of over communicating, you can avoid this issue. Then, if you find that less communication is necessary, you can start backing off a bit.

4. Emphasize Cybersecurity Measures

When everyone works from home, they’re naturally online a lot more than usual. This has increased concerns about cybersecurity, and for good reason! The FBI is receiving an average of  3,000 to 4,000 cybersecurity complaints daily, up from 1,000 prior to the pandemic.

To keep your donor data and nonprofit information secure, take specific cybersecurity measures, especially in remote working environments. This guide provides some actionable tips that nonprofits can use to further secure their systems and prevent attacks, including:

• Reviewing password protocols. Many individuals use the same passwords for all of their logins, usually containing spouse names, important dates, pet names, and other easily-hackable words. Make sure you and your team use different passwords for each account, containing random strings of letters and numbers that are difficult to crack.

• Updating your software ASAP. Make sure you know who on your team is responsible for updating your software when the time comes around to do so. These updates often contain security patches and bug fixes that can help keep your information safe. All software should be updated as soon as possible after a new update becomes available.

• Managing user permissions. If you’re a manager, you probably have options to limit the user permissions on certain software solutions so that team members only access the data they need. Limiting information accessibility doesn’t mean you don’t trust your team. Rather, it means that you’re limiting the potential for secure information to be accessed by unauthorized or potentially dangerous users and infiltrators.

• Learning about cybersecurity. Managers at nonprofits have the opportunity to encourage team members to learn about cybersecurity and to even test their employees regularly with frequent phishing email recognition tests. Even if you’re not a manager, take it upon yourself to learn more about cybersecurity. This will help you keep the nonprofit’s data safe as well as your own.

When nonprofits encounter a security breach, they don’t only lose their information. They also run the risk of losing supporters’ trust. This trust is vital for supporters to continue contributing to the cause, so it’s always best to take a proactive approach to cybersecurity.

5. Stick to a Steady Routine

When you work from home, it’s easy to get distracted or sidetracked by various home activities. For instance, you might realize you forgot to run the dishes the previous night or still have laundry to fold. Usually, in an office setting, you would simply wait until you return home to do these chores. However, it can be tempting to get up and complete them when they’re just a room away.

This is just one reason it’s important to develop a steady routine when working from home. A routine will help make sure you stay on task during the workday, optimizing your workflow.

re:Charity’s work-from-home guide also explains how this routine can help you resist the temptation to sleep while you’re at home. When you create a routine as close as possible to your normal daily routine, you can avoid staying awake into the night and sleeping in too late.

When you create a routine, be sure you take the following steps:

• Consider the times when you’re most productive and leverage those times for your most challenging work activities.
• Make sure you have a dedicated “stop” time to cease working and take care of your home life.
• Try to keep your “working time” at your dedicated workspace to reduce distractions.

When it comes to time management and ensuring you are sticking to a regular schedule, it’s helpful to have effective time tracking software. This way, you’re actually “clocking in” and “clocking out” when working on your work activities. The leading software in the space, Clicktime, can make this transition easier for your organization and staff as you solidify your work-from-home strategy.

Routines are key to productivity. Try writing down your routine and putting it somewhere that you will see it often. This will help you stick to it as you move forward with your work.

Many organizations moved to the remote work model during the pandemic. Now that we’re a year in, many are seeing the advantages and disadvantages of such a system and are making decisions about how to move forward. If you’ll continue working from home in the future, make sure you create a system and a routine that works for you and helps you maintain stability and productivity.