This is quite an unprecedented time we’ve been thrust into.
Over the last several weeks and months, a large subset of the global workforce has moved from the traditional office environment to the work-from-home remote environment. It’s happened quickly, and in many cases, without the company’s or the employee’s desire to do so.
But here you are.
One way to see this is that it’s a temporary state. You may be reading this article because you’re just trying to keep your company or your team going over the next few weeks and months until you can go back to normal.
Welcome, and thank you. The tips I offer here will help you do just that.
They apply to your remote workforce whether it is a temporary or permanent situation.
But I wonder. I wonder if when the COVID-19 crisis has passed, how much change to the standard office environment has become permanent.
I suspect a fair amount, at least in some industries. A remote workforce makes so much sense on so many levels, most notably to the bottom line.
I’ve been a successful remote worker, and have led successful teams of hybrid office/remote workers for several years now. It’s not always been easy, but I’ve learned quite a bit about how to make it work.
Here I offer you some of the most important things I’ve learned about keeping a remote team both happy and productive.
The Challenge and Benefit to Working From Home
The key to keeping your remote team productive and happy is to embrace differences between the home and office environments, enhance the benefits of working from home, and to equip your team to foster community and conversation.
There is an obvious fundamental difference between the office environment and the remote environment.
The difference is that home life and work-life are now integrated, by definition. This can be the single largest challenge for many workers. Going to the office provided a physical and mental transition into their work persona.
How do you embrace this difference, rather than fight it?
There are also great benefits, most notably time and expenses. There is no more commute. The home kitchen is steps away. Suddenly, the 3rd grade’s 20-minute presentation of Christopher Columbus’s arrival at the new world looks like something a parent should and can attend (once the kids are back in school).
How can you enhance this integrated work-home life?
One of the benefits of the office environment is the community and the conversation that is effortless. This environment, when healthy, leads to the focusing of the team’s purpose and energy.
Working from home can make you feel isolated and unmotivated. It can be mentally and emotionally draining. To combat this, you can purposefully design community and conversation into the workday through tools and behaviors.
How can you equip your team to best foster community and conversation, and hence productivity?
Do This
Use these a guide to create a happy and productive remote team.
Help Each Team Member Get Settled
The first and most important thing to do is help your team get settled at home. Help each member implement these 4 tips to help them love working from home:
- Create a space
- Find a routine
- Take breaks
- Work socially
Give Them the Tools and Use Them to Work Socially
Put a proper toolset in place that fosters community and conversation. Email ain’t it (for the love all things good and righteous, it’s NOT email). Install and use tools such as Slack, Zoom, and MS Teams. These tools make private and group conversations effortless and useful. Even “non-business” tools such as Google Hangouts and WhatsApp are better than email for community and conversation.
Be the leader of “working socially“. Set the standard and lead by example. Working socially helps fight the isolation and keeps the conversation going.
Always have your video on when in meetings. Having your video on helps others to be comfortable doing the same. When all or most have their video on, it helps foster community, conversation, and comfort.
Establish Daily Contact
Pick one time per day to have a quick video meeting for status or any other catch-up conversation. Start with every day, but find the weekly rhythm that works best. When people have wins to report, be sure to recognize them. Ditto with wins for the company and team.
Respect and Empower
Ensure each member knows what is expected of them and are empowered to control their own destiny. Empower through tools, responsibility, and trust.
Establishing a Set of Virtual Office Hours?
Maybe. However, don’t start there.
Instead, respect each team member’s schedule, and allow a large degree of flexibility. They’re getting used to the integration of home and work and that likely requires a schedule adjustment period.
Consider alternate times for meetings. Does 7 am work better than 10 am now that no one is commuting?
Encourage each team member to socialize their availability throughout the day. An easy method for this is status indicators in tools such as Slack, Zoom, and MS Teams. You can also use the calendar.
A productive work community does not require a commitment to a daily schedule, but it does require a commitment to one another. Encourage the commitment to one another.
In Summary
Developing and then keeping a productive and happy team is all about embracing the differences between the home and office environments, enhancing the benefits of working from home, and equipping your team to foster community and conversation.
The schedules are jumbled. The distractions are greater. The isolation can be real.
Acknowledge these challenges, rather than ignore them.
Success requires a new form of team community and conversation. Foster and build that community through the use of modern tools, and setting an example of working socially.
Whether this is a bump in the road or your new normal, you can do this.
Today’s world is better equipped than ever for developing happy and productive remote teams.
