Culture and productivity of work-from-home sales jobs are top of mind as non-essential businesses lock their doors due to the global pandemic COVID-19.
Entire workforces from small businesses to big corporations are working from home. Entry-level sales jobs to top-level executives now find themselves adjusting to the new norm of doing business from the four walls of their own homes. No office. Just a laptop and a brain. Distraction knocks and motivation wains as everyday routines are flipped upside down.
Are you ready to roll out of bed and somehow manage to get the same amount of work done within a new setting?
Students stand as some of the best prepared for work-from-home sales jobs during these unprecedented times.
As we take a look at history, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Steven Page (Google), and Steve Jobs (Apple) all started in a garage or college dorm room. Remote work culture is deeply intertwined with entrepreneurs and students alike.
It’s no question that building a remote work culture is hard to do. However, students are primed for this environment. They possess skills that allow them to succeed in the work from the home environment we’ve all been thrown into, especially for entry-level sales jobs.
How Tech Can Support Work from Home Employees
With work from home companies the standard, people have realized one of the most important elements of productivity and success: technology.
Most college students today are known as Generation Z. They are considered to have come out of the womb with smartphones in their hands and a laptop in sight. Most hybrid, online college course classes and in-person classes require a majority of the work, lectures, and exams to be completed online. This experience provides a lot of opportunities to practice effective digital communication with professors and students while adapting to varying software at the same time.
An Entrepreneur article states this about communication within a workplace:
“Effective communication strengthens the connections between a company and all of its stakeholders and benefits businesses in numerous ways: Stronger decision making and faster problem solving; earlier warning of potential problems; increased productivity and steadier workflow; stronger business relationships; clearer and more persuasive marketing messages; enhanced professional images for both employers and companies; lower employee turnover and higher employee satisfaction; and better financial results and higher return for investors.” (Wits Language School)
Students are the most prepared to use their skills in technology to enhance entry-level sales jobs communication and workflows through Slack, Zoom, Google Drive, and other software commonly used among businesses.
What Makes Recent College Graduates Best for Remote Work
No soundproof walls in a home office. No dual monitors. No comfy office chair. No sleep pods in the break room. No office bodega stacked to the rim.
With work-from-home sales jobs, many are finding themselves in the same position that a majority of college students are in throughout the year; themselves and their laptops.
Students are known to be oddly productive in a time of their life that is the most disorganized. Often, students don’t have a set study spot and have distractions ranging from pestering roommates to friends hitting their phone to hang outhang out.
Productive remote work culture is all about finding order in the chaos, making the most of the situation, and learning how to block out distractions.
Tips to Measure Effort When Working at Home
Students are given grades based on their efforts in every course. Professors often provide rubrics for each assignment that acts as the “measuring stick” for the work. Students don’t have professors watching over their shoulder, but instead turn in a completed assignment for review and grading.
Work from home sales jobs, like a student working on assignments, involves no direct supervision. The boss isn’t walking by every 20 minutes to check up on you and knock you out of your daydream. With that in mind, you can learn how to create your own “rubric.” Established goals and expectations are a great start to having an A+ finished product.
Students have this method of working practically built-in, which allows them to thrive from home and be ready to tackle entry-level sales jobs.
Final Thoughts
Although currently, enrolled students have more recent experience practicing and implementing these skills in an academic setting, every person has been a student at some level and can apply these very same skills to their work-from-home sales experience. You might have to go a little further back in your memory to reconnect with the student within!
As we embrace work from home and encourage one another, we can learn, grow, and thrive together in this ever-evolving remote work culture.
Sources:
“Effective Communication Means Business Success,” Wits Language School, August 1, 2017, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/330960.
