What does it feel like to work from home with confidence? How does your confidence level gets impacted when working professionally from home? How is your relationship with your colleagues affected when working from home? According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), about 40% of employees feel stressed when they are at their workplaces.
The study also shows that about 75% of people believe that they must work from home to lead a healthy lifestyle. Workplace stress often results in causing massive amounts of losses for employers. As per researches, companies tend to lose about $300 billion every year because of workplace stress.
Hence, working from home is turning out to be the best option for employees as well as employers.
What is the Service Level Agreement for Developers?
When you are a freelance software developer, you have the option to choose your flexible working hours. However, you will be obligated to meet the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that you have agreed to. What is an SLA? An SLA or Service Level Agreement is an agreement between you and your employer that outlines what services you are going to offer and the deadlines for each of them. In other words, it can be called “Terms of Service.”
Also Read: How to Choose the Best Agency to Work With?
What are the components included in SLAs?
Many things are taken into consideration when you are offering software development services. Here are certain things that an SLA for a freelance software developer will cover:
Client Support Policies
In an SLA, you will include the supporting hours, response times, and mode of communication. The supporting hours, response times, and mode of communications might vary based on your location. Once you provide the required details, you will have to discuss your terms with your employer.
Development Process
If you are a freelance developer, then you will have to follow specific patterns of the development flow. For example, if a scheduled meeting is a part of your development process, it must be included in your SLA terms.
Agile is one of the development methodologies that you can use. It is a set of development processes that software developers follow to offer quality service. Although the services they offer are flexible as per their convenience, the clients can request for new features.
Also Read: Free Tools for Employers to Build Own Technical Team
Other components that you can include in your SLA are goals, objectives, stakeholders, periodic reviews, and service management.
How can freelancers be productive and communicate effectively when working from home?
Freelancers have the flexibility to work from home as per their convenience and comfort. Keeping their health in mind, all the freelancers need to meet their demands and goals effectively. To be more productive, freelancers can follow specific methods that are listed below:
Knowing the basic ground rules
When you are working from home, it is important to have some ground rules in place. These would have to be agreed upon beforehand by you and your employer. For instance, you might have to be available during certain hours if the whole team has daily stood up calls. Similarly, if you need any support in terms of equipment, passcodes, access details, it is best to have it sorted before the project begins to avoid any delays to the work.
Setting up an appropriate workplace
If you are a freelancer, you must have your working space at home. It is essential to have your private space that is quiet enough to avoid distractions. Remember, working from home might sound easy but it can be quite challenging.
Also Read: Five Qualities Every Employer Look for While Hiring a Techie
Boost your internet speed
Working from home needs effective communication with your employer through the internet. You must opt for the best connection available in your area that provides an excellent network speed and a low internet downtime. Most of the time, you will be communicating through mediums like Skype, Hangout, Zoom, etc which work best on a stable internet connection. Therefore, it is important to have a good internet connection.
Maintaining Work-Life Balance when working from home
It can be challenging to maintain a proper work-life balance when working from home initially. Here are some specific tips that will help you in maintaining a healthy work-life balance:
- Setting up a schedule and sticking to it.
- Using efficient communication tools and setting up your online hours.
- Making pre-work and post-work plans in advance
- Working in a quiet environment.
- Taking small breaks and adequate meals on-time to avoid burnout.
- Attending meetings without skipping or delaying them.
Conclusion
Freelancing is gaining a lot of attention from people across the world for various reasons. Professionals are tired of spending their time engaging in avoidable activities such as commuting to the office or even dressing up for it.
The numerous benefits that come with freelancing make it a fast and affordable way to earn income while working from home. The Service Level Agreement will help ensure that you are able to maximize your productivity while maintaining a proper work-life balance.
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