The recent Covid-19 Pandemic has forced schools and other organizations across the world to work remotely from their homes with online App or software. While this may sound exciting initially, for those who are navigating the remote work from home terrain for the first time, things can be very confusing and challenging especially schools that are adopting school management software newly.
This is also true for staff from educational institutes who are attempting to work from home for the first time. Here educational institute employees not only refer to teachers but also include are referring to institute employees such as teachers, admins, and other staff members who are attempting to manage all their tasks remotely.
However, just like every challenge has its solutions, we bring you a few solutions that will help ease the pressures and challenges of working from home:
Challenge 1 – Unmotivated Staff Members
This is one of the first challenges of working remotely from home. For many of us, our homes are our places of rest, relaxation and recreation and hence working from home can be especially challenging as it is difficult to develop a focused mindset.
Read: How to Engage Students on Online Class with your School Software
Solution
One of the best ways to overcome this is to create a routine in your daily life, just as you would in your daily working routine. This would include dressing up for work every single day, instead of attempting to work in your comfy pyjamas.
Another potential solution to motivate employees is to encourage them to create designated work-space in their homes. This could be as elaborate as a work room or a simple spot on the dining table, but it will ensure that the staff members feel motivated to complete their tasks while at the desk.
Challenge 2 – Managing Team Communication, Meetings and Collaboration
For a school to work efficiently, it is essential that all staff members from teachers to the administration team be updated and communicate with each other on all matters. However, very often working from home, staff members do not have easy access to each other and this can greatly impact team communication. It is therefore imperative that the school arrange for an official medium of communication for all the staff members and employees.
Solution
This can be effortlessly done with the help of a school management software that will help the team members to stay connected, be updated on various tasks and work together in a seamless manner. The discussion boards, email and chat option in School Software Pro mobile app make team collaboration and communication effortless and easy
Challenge 3 – Tracking Tasks and Managing Productivity
When working remotely low productivity is an obvious challenge that employers have to deal with. In a remote working situation without day-to-day oversight, some team members may not use their time wisely, while on the other hand, certain employees may risk burnout due to a lack of boundaries.
Solution
It is there important for the school or educational institute to track the hours of their staff members using various tools such as the report center of the school management system. The report center allows the staff members to create a detail report of their working hours
Additionally, the school can also encourage the teachers and other staff members to track their hours using popular online tools. Tracking hours promotes transparency and serves to boost the productivity of the staff members.
Read: How to choose School Management Software
Challenge 4 – Connecting with Students & Parents
Many schools and educational institutes are looking for ways to continue classes for their students. This is not only to ensure that the student’s academic progress stays on track during while at home but also to ensure that they students stay motivated in their academic pursuits. Hence, for teachers, students and parents it is vital to have a digital home that the teachers can use for teaching and communicating with the students. This is especially important since many schools are continuing to offer online classes and lessons for the students.
While there are many online options available, schools can also use the learning management platforms to set up online classrooms for the students. The teachers can use these digital classrooms to post lessons for the students, to give them online assignments or to conduct online tests for the students.
Additionally, these school management systems also allow the students to communicate with the teachers and clear their doubts when needed.
This same school management software can also be used to communicate with the parents on a regular basis.
Challenge 5 – Managing Administrative Tasks Like New Admissions and Fee Collection
When working remotely, one of the biggest challenges for the school administration staff is managing tasks that require face-to-face interaction with the students or parents. This includes tasks like new admissions, fee collection, receipt generation etc.
Solution
The most convenient ways to deal with this is to create a single digital platform that your students and parents can visit to take care of these tasks. A school management software with its array of online features such as fees management module and admission module allows these tasks to be taken care of from any offline site including one home. Managing these tasks offline help to cultivate stability and ensures that they schools continue to function without any administrative interruptions.
Read: Enquiry Module in Online Admission System
Challenge 6 – Managing Work Life Balance
When working remotely with online software, it is often very difficult for the staff members to maintain a strict work-life balance. It is easy for employees to overwork themselves, especially for employees working from home, it may seem like they just never leave work.
One of the best solutions to deal with this is to ensure that employees create and adhere to a strict deadline for ceasing work at a particular hour every day. Additionally, it is a good practice to take periodic breaks, go for a small stroll around the house, do a quick round of exercise. This not only helps the staff members focus better but it allows them to take a break from 12 hours of working from the same spot at home.
There are numerous benefits of working remotely and with the advances in technology working from one’s home or a remote location has never been easier. However, it is essential for the staff members to achieve a level of productivity and discipline that will help them to enjoy the work from home process.
Conclusion:
Working from home with an online class or management software can be interesting but it comes with extra cost for those institutions that have not deploy the infrastructure. For example, schools that does not have a school management software need to pay for one and possibly make data available for staff/ teachers while they work from home.