Working remotely is not just a trend but a necessity amid these rough times. Usually, before transitioning to remote work, companies formulate proper plans and implement systems to smooth out any wrinkles.
Systems help everyone from individual contributors to top-level executives to collaborate and work efficiently. You don’t want to be away from the office and have no way of getting hold of key people.
Situations change. Something eerie is happening all over the world: many traditional companies are forced to either go remote or to shut down their doors. This abrupt transition into remote work, with no plan in sight, is leaving a rather sour taste in mouth — and, rightfully so.
Benefits of running a remote company
There is no denial — remote jobs are the biggest paradigm shift in working. It’s undoubtedly the future of work. Here are some key benefits of running a remote company:
1.Overnight increase in productivity: Remote work leads to improved productivity in employees. According to a survey, telecommuters can generate more significant outputs since they can work smarter and get more done in less time.
2. Cost savings: Since you don’t need to lease an office anymore, you can get instant cost savings. Also, remote companies can get by spending fewer dollars per employee for setting up home offices as compared to an office building. Not to mention, logistics, stocking up pantry, and other umpteen things that come with an office.
3. Employee wellness: Remote work leads to a larger scale on the employee wellness side with promising mental health benefits. Remote workers take significantly fewer leaves, produce more as no commute is necessary and increased work/life balance.
4. Employee retention: The flexibility of remote work ensures employee doesn’t quit, which increases employee retention. Remote work also ensures your employees don’t leave due to personal reasons like — having kids, or spouse got relocated, etc.
5. Wider talent pool: Remote companies have no location restriction to hire candidates resulting in a wider and much deeper talent pool for hiring. You can easily hire software developers, product managers, and a sales team. Looking to hire remotely? List your job with us, and read this to learn how to hire remote candidates.
How to transition your team into remote work?
Despite all the good parts, the forced nature of remote work transition can cause logistical headaches, loss in productivity, and lack of synchronization and collaboration.
Shifting your team into remote work can seem a bit scary at first, but with the tips outlined below, we hope you can navigate these unchartered territories with only a few road bumps.
Dive in to learn how to transition to remote work and to keep your team productive while being safe and working from home.
Be Flexible
Cut your team some slack; everybody is going through tough times. Working from home, while the whole family including kids at home is a little new situation for employees when a company transitions to a remote company.
Be calm and flexible. Allow the team to adjust to new remote tools and remote working practices. Don’t impose hard deadlines; let them get used to this new environment first.
Being offline doesn’t indicate not working, understand that. Help design a daily routine for working, keeping aside all the in-house distractions. Focus on the essentials, adjust expectations, and lighten the load.
Focus on Results, Not Activities
Being online 24*7 doesn’t correspond to always working. Transitioning to a remote team, managers must realize, it is not feasible to track every move of the team members.
Instead of turning into a micro-manager, focus on the output. Don’t count the number of working hours, analyze the final output from your remote team. Connect with the team, analyze the work, and most importantly, learn and grow together.
Trust your Team
Remote working is all about trust and communication(especially async), and it is a two-way street. Trust your team and be transparent as a company in these tough times while remote transition.
Layout the project expectations, deadlines, weekly milestones, and team plan before jumping right into it. Assign tasks and provide regular feedbacks keeps the team on track and creates and trustworthy environment.
Encourage the team to meet deadlines and help them cope with these situations. Shift your focus to results because if the team objectives are met, there is no reason to doubt. Remote managers need to lead with trust.
Communicate More, Stress Less
Decide your communication channels, plan 1:1s with the manager, weekly team meetings, and virtual social meetups during the remote transition. Don’t let isolation and depression surround the team in these times of distress, interact, and talk more.
Daily check-ins are great to understand what everybody is working on, instead of stressing and micromanaging. Keep the whole team progressing towards the same goal, while keeping them away from looming in silos.
Many remote companies use tools such as Slack and Zoom for company-wide messaging and video conferencing with teams. The idea is to set the work schedule and provide feedback and resources that employees need.
Encourage a Work from Home Setup
Moving from an in-house team to a remote team, we encourage suggesting setting up a home office for everyone. It is essential to create a work environment and bring office vibes to get your employees brain in a ready-to-work state.
Provide reimbursement for office supplies such as laptop stands, standing desks, headphones etc. to help create a kick-ass work from home setup. Mimic the office environment and stick to a daily schedule to boost your productivity, blocking put distractions.
Working remotely means get “office-like” dressed, start working early, set time aside for breaks, and layout a jagged up daily schedule to feel energized and inclined towards work.
Investing in the right remote tools goes a long way for a remote team. Consider communication and collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Asana for project management.
Suggest team members to email or slack for small purposes, and video conference for essential meetings. Keep the team engaged using such remote working tools and resources.
Incorporate Virtual Social Interactions
Social distancing has completely ended in-person interactions, but why can’t you do it online? Shift your focus to employee’s mental health since they are working from home for the first time.
Setup fun slack channels for water-cooler chats and fun activities to ease the boredom of working alone at home. Video meetings such as cocktail parties, all hands, and fun games are also recommended every now and then.
This social interaction, even if virtual, will boost your employee’s morale and reduce their stress levels.
Also, it all comes down to understanding that things are not in regular routine for anyone. Everybody is trying their best to stay productive and not panic, figuring out a way to work. We also suggest creating a remote work policy to ease these transition into remote work.
Working remotely amid these times is not the same as it was before, companies should understand that. Be positive and try to find peace in chaos. It a learning process for everyone, be patient, and this remote working solution might be the best fit for you.
Hiring and Onboarding remote employees are also not the same, just put more effort. If you are a remote company and are looking to attract and retain top talent, post a job with us to reach thousands of highly skilled candidates today. And, if you’d like to promote your product in front of various remote workers and companies then reach out to partner with us.