Hayley Clarke Working From Home Interview

Interview with Hayley Clarke, Recycling Expert & Managing Director of Onya

Question: How we can stay engaged and motivated whilst working from home?

Hayley Clarke: There are several things we can do to stay engaged and motivated whilst working from home. The most important is having a dedicated workspace to ensure you can keep your home space separate from your work space. It can help with shifting your state of mind when you go from one area to another. It's also important to prioritise your tasks, stay connected with colleagues and ensure you still take a break away from your computer, such as at lunch time.


Question: What is the best way to make the transition from working in an office to working from home?

Hayley Clarke: Preparing the necessary remote work tools is important to setup prior to transitioning. Tools that offer video conferencing, calls or instant messaging can smooth the transition from in-person to online communication. Along with management tools like a cloud-based system that allows team members to save and share work to others. It is also useful to set work by project or task, so they can be completed to a pre-agreed expectation and allow teams to work as individuals.


Question: What are the biggest difficulties most Australians will need to overcome whilst working from home, during this Pandemic?

Hayley Clarke: It's likely a few technical issues will happen at the start of getting everything setup. Particularly, with internet bandwidth and getting connected into the company's IT systems. But, you can reduce your bandwidth if necessary by not using video and picking up a phone and there are always some good local IT people that can be called to help set you up, this is also a good way to support other businesses.


Question: Can you share your top working from home productivity tips?

Hayley Clarke: From my experience with running Onya, my biggest piece of advice is that life outside the workplace doesn't need to feel isolating. Working from home doesn't mean you have less communication, you can still talk with people over Zoom, Teams, Skype or on the phone. It might not be the same kind of chitchat that you get when someone drops into the office, but it will keep you and your team engaged.

A great tip for parents is a 'traffic light' system. Print a traffic light poster for your workspace and set it to green when it's okay for your kids to approach you and change it to red when you're very busy and need to focus. Really, it's all about minimising disruptions as much as possible.


Question: How can businesses and teams stay connected whilst everyone works, from home?

Hayley Clarke: Teams can stay connected by starting new rituals like daily coffee meeting or weekly Friday catchups. Bringing your pet along to a video meeting or playing a game is another great way to keep your team connected, happy and engaged with work.


Question: Can you tell us about how Onya operates a 'satellite workforce'?

Hayley Clarke: Onya prides itself on being sustainable and it is very important to us that we apply the principles of sustainability to every aspect of our business. We operate a 'satellite workforce' with employees from across the world who all work from home, to reduce Onya's carbon footprint. Through regular skype meetings, phone calls and emails, we are able to work cooperatively to ensure we remain socially and environmentally responsible.


Question: How has having the entire teamwork from home meant your business thrived?

Hayley Clarke: Everyone in my team is just as passionate as me to live in an environmentally friendly world. Having our team work from home maintains Onya's ethos and keeps everyone happy. When you have a happy team, your workplace thrives. Working from home is just one of the many ways that we continually try to ensure we are being environmentally friendly.

Check out Onya online for more information about their products: https://www.onyalife.com/


Interview by Brooke Hunter