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To contain the spread of the dreaded coronavirus, governments have ordered stay at home and lockdown measures. This has effectively made remote work the new standard.

Forced to adapt to this new trend, companies of all sizes reported to virtual work despite limited preparations. Gartner noted that 48% of employees expect to work remotely, either partly or completely, after COVID-19. Thanks to technology, this sudden paradigm shift is much easier.

But while the benefits of remote work continue to be recognized by both employees and employers, it also comes with some obstacles. Employee productivity is one.

Unlike in traditional work setup, remote working makes it impossible for the management to create an environment that promotes productivity. Employees can easily lose focus and fail to achieve targets. Working from home creates an invisible divide between professional and personal life, thus resulting in conflict on both fronts. This makes it crucial for managers to explore better ways to communicate and collaborate with their team, and initiate strategies that will keep employees focused.

Experts at remote staffing agency Allshore share eight tips that will boost the productivity of remote teams.

Ensure an appropriate home office

Numerous studies have emphasized the importance that the physical environment plays in work performance and productivity. Factors such as lighting, noise conditions, air quality, and temperature affect work concentration and outcome. Remote employees need a dedicated workstation that is away from distractions. Ideally, companies must help their team in creating this dedicated space. This can be in the form of a stipend, subsidies, or loan arrangements. By helping them set up a favorable environment, you can ensure that they can work better and deliver results.

Equip your team

Alongside adequate workspace, the management must equip their employees with the right equipment, technology, and productivity tools. They need to have a computer, stable network connection, software, and other necessary office stuff. These tools bring work straight to their homes and keep them connected with the entire team. It fosters collaboration despite the distance.

Maximize technology

Use technology to your advantage. Numerous software solutions can help boost the productivity of remote teams. Popular apps that facilitate remote work include project management technologies such as Basecamp, Airtable, Zoho Projects, and Asana; video conferencing apps such as Skype, Google Hangouts, and Zoom; and instant messaging apps such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Viber. You can also develop custom software that caters to your team’s unique needs.

Keep your team connected

Communication is the key to a productive virtual team. It is necessary to ensure that everyone is on the same page and prevents misunderstandings. Regular contact makes them constantly aware of what’s expected of them. Nowadays, technology has made it easier to connect with every team member. Instant messaging, video conferencing, and phone calls enable seamless connectivity.

Set mutually agreed expectations

Establishing expectations and guidelines in advance is vital to employee productivity. However, these objectives and rules should be mutually agreed and accepted by the management and the concerned employees. Laying out clear, specific, and measurable objectives makes it easier for you to evaluate their work. Meanwhile, employees are properly guided on their deliverables, thus they can complete tasks.

Track accomplishment

Slacking off, procrastinating, and losing focus is among the problems of remote workers. When no one is around checking on you, these can be easy and truly tempting. Consequently, the management needs to implement strategies that will monitor and track work accomplishments. Giving workers too much liberty can make them wander off and get lazy. You need to develop a system for checks their output, such as through daily reports, to-do lists, spreadsheets, etc. If you require close and constant supervision, you can use tracking software, such as Teamviewer, that checks real-time what each team member is up to.

Encourage collaboration

One unique advantage of working in an office environment is that it opens opportunities for collaboration. This creates a positive work culture. Meanwhile, remote work can be a bit isolating. As a result, employees who are more productive working with teams might feel demoralized. Encourage collaboration among team members by assigning them on projects together through file-sharing apps like Google Drive. This provides an opportunity for team building.

Two-way feedback

Boost your team’s productivity by listening to their feedback. Getting their insights and adapting them enables you to develop and fine-tune your processes. Making them part of the operations makes employees feel important and valued. Ensuring that their suggestions are carried out and addressing their concerns can greatly improve productivity.

Likewise, you should also give honest feedback on the performance of each employee.  Constructive criticism helps them grow and improve their performance. Feedback is also vital to your employee’s satisfaction, retention, and motivation. It is crucial in building a positive company culture that is geared towards success.

Everyone desires to have a great and beautiful smile. This, however, can only be achieved by observing proper oral hygiene. Poor oral hygiene causes a number of oral and medical issues, like gum infection and disease, heart disease, bone loss, and stroke, among others. 

However, observing good dental hygiene can ensure that you have healthy teeth, and that smile you always dream of. The following are the top 10 tips for good oral hygiene. 

Brush your teeth every day

Always brush your teeth at least twice a day. Preferably, you should do it in the morning, and in the evening. In addition to this, ensure that you observe the proper brushing techniques. Professional dentists recommend that you hold your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle to the gums when brushing your teeth for maximum effectiveness. 

Don’t forget to floss your teeth

Flossing your teeth daily helps in removing any food particles that your toothbrush couldn’t remove. Most people don’t consider flossing to be necessary, but it’s essential for good dental hygiene. If you brush your teeth, but you don’t floss, tiny food particles can lead to tooth decay. This shows the importance of flossing your teeth. Make sure that you concentrate on the tiny spaces when flossing since it’s hard for your toothbrush to reach these spaces. 

Replace your toothbrush regularly

Most dentists recommend that you replace your toothbrush every 3 months. Frayed or damaged toothbrushes cannot clean your teeth effectively. Moreover, they can easily cause bruising to your gums. You should also note that replacing your toothbrush regularly helps in keeping it clean—thus preventing bacteria growth. 

Eat a healthy diet

According to the expert at the dental clinic, Bajars&Bajars, you should avoid sugary foods, like sports drinks, cakes, and candy, as well as foods with high calcium levels. This ensures that your teeth remain strong and healthy. Rather, you should take foodstuffs that will strengthen your teeth. Such foodstuffs include cheese, yogurt, leafy greens, and almond. Always ask your dentist to recommend the best foods that will assist in keeping your teeth healthy and strong. 

Rinse your teeth with mouthwash

Mouthwash helps in getting rid of food particles that toothbrush or dental floss couldn’t. Moreover, it helps in eliminating any other bacteria in your mouth, as well as maintaining fresh breath. Therefore, you should include this in your daily oral care routine. 

Clean your toothbrush

Failure to clean your toothbrush can lead to the breeding of bacteria, which can be introduced to your mouth easily. Moreover, you should never cover your toothbrush in an attempt to keep it clean. The best way to clean your toothbrush is to rinse it after every use, and then let it air dry. Lastly, never share your toothbrush with anyone. 

Drink a lot of water

Drinking water is not only best for your general health, but it also assists you to have a healthy flow of saliva. If you didn’t know, saliva is essential for your dental health. It helps in the movement of food particles in your mouth. This prevents the particles from accumulating on your teeth, which can lead to bacteria growth. Besides, it helps in keeping your mouth moist and comfortable. 

Clean your tongue

You should take this seriously—just like brushing your teeth. Today, we have professional tongue cleaners, which allow people to get rid of bacteria that are found on the rough part of their tongues. This bacteria mostly leads to halitosis (bad breath), which can have detrimental effects on their overall dental health. 

Quit smoking

Smoking leads to dental problems like staining, as well as periodontal disease which affects the gums. When left unchecked, periodontal disease can lead to other serious problems like oral cancer and tooth loss, among other issues. Therefore, the best thing to do for your oral health is to stop smoking immediately if you are an active smoker. You should also avoid using any other tobacco-related product. 

Schedule regular appointments with your dentist

Observing the above tips without visiting your dentist for a periodic dental check up will be in vain. Therefore, you should always schedule regular dental appointments for a thorough oral checkup, as well as a dental cleaning.

At times, there are some dental issues that you cannot detect on your own. Besides, other issues can start to develop, despite observing these tips. However, visiting a dentist for a dental checkup can help them to identify these issues, and come up with the necessary course of action. While you might not see the benefits of this now, you’ll enjoy them when you grow old. 

If you thought moving home is stressful, then try moving appliances. Most of these machines are big and heavy, which makes things more complicated. The biggest challenge is you cannot move appliances without help. Failing to seek the necessary help risks you damaging your appliances, and this can be very costly. 

In this post, we shall discuss how you can move appliances safely. 

Unplug everything from power

The first thing to do is to unplug all the appliances that you need to be moved from power. This should include your fridge and freezer too. Besides, ensure that you remove all the perishables from your freezer and fridge. You should do this at least 24 hours before your scheduled move. Also, you should unplug these appliances within the said time frame. 

This will allow you to clean the interior of the appliances. Besides, you’ll also need your freezer to have defrosted and drained completely before moving it. 

Use the proper equipment 

There is some equipment that you’ll definitely need when moving your appliances. This equipment will allow you to move the appliances safely and easily. However, you don’t have to worry, as you can substitute some of the equipment. 

Here are some of the things that you will need:

• Appliance dolly – you will need this wheeled equipment if you don’t want to struggle. You can purchase one from specific home improvement stores, or just rent one from a reputable moving company. 
• Furniture blankets – these are also known as moving blankets. They are protective clothes that protect your valuable appliances when moving them. While it can be a challenge to get hold of them—consider contacting your moving company. 
• Furniture straps – these assist you in securing your appliances to the moving dolly, as well as inside the moving truck. However, you don’t have to worry if you cannot find them. You can easily replace them with ordinary ropes or stretch tapes. 
• Sliders – also referred to as gliders or sliding pads, they make it possible to move your appliances safely on wooden floors, without damaging it. However, you can only use them for a short distance until you’ve loaded the appliance onto a moving dolly. Most moving companies do provide sliders—you can purchase or rent one from them. 

Hire professional movers

If you are not experienced in moving appliances, just hire professional movers to help you with the exercise. Yes, it might be costly to hire movers to help you with moving your appliances. However, the cost of repairing or replacing a damaged appliance is higher than the cost of hiring professional movers. 

One notable thing with professional movers is their skills and experience. That means, they will handle your appliances safely, without damaging them, as well as the surrounding areas. 

Protect your property

The last thing anyone wants to damage their property when moving their appliances, particularly the heavier ones. Tile, hardwood, carpeted, or vinyl floors are some of the areas susceptible to damage while moving furniture. Therefore, you should take the necessary precautions to protect these areas. 

Thick cardboards allow you to protect the exit paths when moving your appliances. Besides, you can lay some protective polyethylene sheets in areas with high traffic if you don’t want to start dealing with costly home repairs after you are done with your move. 

Apart from damaging your floors, the walls in your house are also prone to damage. Failing to observe the above safety measures when moving heavy or large appliances out of or into your home, scratches, dents, or chipped corners on walls can lead to unwanted and costly repairs. These are costs you don’t want to incur when moving. 

Secure the appliances

Use a bubble wrap or tape to secure your appliances. This should cut across all the appliances, including the smaller ones, like your microwave or toaster. The last thing you want is the doors to start popping open when moving the appliances. This can damage your items or injure the movers. Thus, ensure that you’ve secured all the oven doors, dishwasher doors, and fridge doors, among others. 

Bottom Line

According to Toronto movers from Torex Moving Company, every appliance in your home comes with different safety requirements when moving them. Thus, you will need to handle and move your dryer or washer differently from your stove or fridge. Besides, you might need to hire professionals to make the move safe. 

This is particularly essential when moving appliances connected to gas lines. Hiring a professional will make sure that the gas line is safely disconnected or reconnected when moving. Other appliances, like washers and dryers, are located upstairs—which makes it a challenge to move them. 

Thus, you will need to hire professional movers to help you in moving these appliances, together with any other heavy appliance in your home. Lastly, ensure that your freezer and fridge are handled properly to avoid damaging the interior of the appliance.