How to Make Remote Teams Work
More and more people expect freedom in the way they work and want to get away from the limitations of a 9 to 5 job. They want to live a lifestyle that is better suited to them, their family circumstances and hobbies they are passionate about. Thus, remote teams, including freelancers, consultants, and even full-time employees, have become much more common, especially among the new generation of companies founded in the last decade or two.
Of course, a new style of working poses new challenges. Trust, culture, reporting lines and project ownership all have to be even clearer. New ways and tools to communicate effectively in these environments have to be cultivated.
The Case for Remote Work
While employee engagement is often cited as a reason to keep people in offices, the experience that remote-first companies have, interestingly enough, is that engagement – and as a result, productivity – is actually improved in well-run remote teams.
Some great examples of companies that work with remote (or distributed) teams across the globe are Basecamp, Zapier, and Buffer. These companies are regarded as some of the pioneers of the remote-first model, giving their team members the choice to work from wherever they are located, independent of a time zone.
In his TEDxMidwest talk, Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals (the company behind the productivity app Basecamp), made a very good point that work is like sleep: We have to go through several phases to get to deep work, just like we have to go through several phases to get to deep sleep. If we are interrupted during the early phases, we can’t just pick up where we left off. We have to go back to the beginning and start all over again in order to eventually reach a deeper level.
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That is why, he argues, office environments are not ideal for getting things done, because we are constantly interrupted. Tasks that are complex or creative in nature especially require us to have long stretches of uninterrupted work time, so we can enter into the fully focused deep work state.
Working remotely allows employees to turn off any potential distractions and just get deep into their work, to create and problem-solve in a way that isn't possible when constantly interrupted.
How to Make Remote Work Work
Since freedom and flexibility are becoming increasingly important to employees, companies that offer remote positions can make an offer that many can’t resist. Employees can work when and where they want to work. Working hours are often flexible, independent of time zones and office hours. In some companies, management goes as far as encouraging people to take time off. After all, healthy, balanced employees are more productive.
In the past, workers had to decide between living where they want to live or living where they could have a great career. Thanks to remote job opportunities, many now have the option to have their dream home in a quiet location and work in a dynamic and challenging environment at the same time.
Some companies even pay for standing desks and tech equipment for their employees’ home offices to ensure they have an ideal work environment.
The money companies save on real estate can even be used to cover travel expenses. Since remote-first companies look to hire employees with an entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic, their employees tend to be more adventurous. Hiring teams from around the globe adds another level to the diversity companies need. A wider range of needs and perspectives are taken into account.
Exchange and collaboration are facilitated by a multitude of tools that make it easy to work together across the globe and time zones. An added benefit of this is that someone is always working in any given time zone, so the company is always "on."
Of course, it is vital to clearly communicate what sort of response times are acceptable and how employees are supposed to communicate when working remotely.
On the one hand, employees should have uninterrupted work time as often as possible, which means asynchronous communication should be used often and effectively to keep everyone in the loop regardless of which time zone they are in.
On the other hand, more personal forms of communication are also important to build rapport with co-workers. This can be achieved by using more informal platforms like Slack as well as through personal connections via video conferencing. Especially when dealing with emotional subjects, written communication is very limited and limiting, as all the subtext that is so vital in human connection is missing. We need to hear the voice and see the facial expressions to get all the extra information that words alone won’t give us.
Similarly, it is vital for everyone to have a clearly assigned point person for human resources matters, a point person for each project they are working on, etc. While remote teams might not want to work within traditional hierarchies, it has to be clear to the individual employee how much ownership and decision-making power they have and whom to ask if they have questions or are in need of a decision that is outside of their area of responsibility.
In order to form deeper connections and open the channels for better communication, team retreats or away-days can really boost morale and motivation. Batchbook has a weekly all-company meeting, where remote employees join in via Skype. These events also help to deepen the connection to the company culture and values that guide decision-making. Even remote rapport is usually improved after a retreat, as people have a better sense of how to communicate with a colleague. Allow time in video conferences to do a little socializing, so people get to know each other on a more personal level as well.
This article was first published on Forbes.