Remote work isn’t new, but it is the new normal. Earlier this fall, nearly half of full-time U.S. employees reported they were still working from home entirely or part of the time, according to a recent Gallup poll, with few planning returns to the office.
That remote work has persisted through the ebbs and flows of public health guidelines during the pandemic speaks to the many advantages that employers have discovered, and that employees have affirmed, in maintaining entirely virtual or hybrid in-person/virtual workplaces. Time management is one main reason employees want to work remotely, as remote models eliminate the need to commute while allowing employees greater flexibility in balancing their work schedules with their personal lives. Simultaneously, remote work has broadened the talent pool available to employers, allowing many offices to expand their staff nationally or internationally. Even company culture doesn’t appear to have suffered, as employees continue to normalize video conferencing and Slack-style instant messaging throughout the work day.
Of course, working remotely comes with its fair share of challenges, but many companies have thrived through adapting to this environment, exploring new avenues for virtual collaboration and continuing to incorporate new tools, attitudes, and processes into their workflow. We spoke to three teams at different companies working remotely about the most effective and exciting discoveries they’ve made since adapting to a virtual workplace.
Whispir reimagines communications with automated workflows so that organizations can easily master connection and engagement with people.
What’s an important lesson your team has learned since first transitioning to remote work?
With work being remote, there could be a tendency to work even more or put more hours into projects, making burnout and work isolation two real concerns. Prioritizing quality over quantity with projects, and dedicating time for one-on-ones and Zoom hangouts, has helped us develop routines to manage our days better and remind us we can still have fun and be social virtually.
How are you collaborating differently today than you were a year and a half ago?
A year and a half ago, I was skipping lunch and breaks because I had a poor rhythm when it came to managing my remote days. Developing rituals for working remotely — which includes literally scheduling and blocking times on my calendar to make sure I take my lunch, factoring in a break, and allotting enough time for deep, focused work without meetings — allows me to recharge mentally, work productively, and communicate better with my team. Interactions that would normally happen in the office don’t happen at home. While I personally feel I get more done at home, it’s also easy to let the day fly by, full of meetings and project checklists, without working optimally.
Beyond Slack and Zoom, what tech tools have been particularly helpful in making remote collaboration easier?
Professional video messaging service Loom allows us to conduct asynchronous stand-up meetings and asynchronous feedback collaboration. To use Loom is to love Loom, in our experience.
Mercury Healthcare is a technology and data analytics company that empowers healthcare organizations to engage consumers and optimize provider relationships to accelerate growth.
What’s an important lesson your team has learned since first transitioning to remote work?
Communication and setting clear work boundaries for yourself and your team are both critical to successfully collaborating in a remote workplace. This communication includes understanding how larger projects need to get completed, as well as dedicating time during your day to address incoming emails, Slack updates, and post-meeting action items. Ensuring that process is defined, developing repeatable templates, and creating a usable shared documentation structure really helped our team to establish a more productive work environment.
How are you collaborating differently today than you were a year and a half ago?
I’ve fine-tuned my approach to collaboration in a few different ways. First off, I listen more. I practice active listening in everything I do to make sure I truly understand the points being made, and so that I can respond in the most appropriate manner possible. Also, as our team is still mainly working remotely, collaboration has shifted away from cubicle solutions and hallway conversations to organized working sessions with well-defined agendas. This has led to more productive and targeted working sessions. Creating specific Slack channels to align to work streams or resolve an individual issue has become an increasingly popular strategy as well. This allows responsible parties the opportunity to track updates and carve out ongoing conversations from the multitude of additional communications going on throughout the day.
Beyond Slack and Zoom, what tech tools have been particularly helpful in making remote collaboration easier?
Google Drive and Git have been essential tools in allowing our engineering teams to see real-time updates to shared documents; they also enable us to collaborate on projects without actively talking in real time. Also, without the ability to huddle up in a conference room to share screens and talk our way through issues, I’ve found that using tools such as Microsoft Xbox Game Bar or Snag-It to record my screen movements can easily reveal, for example, where an error is occurring. I can attach the recording or picture file to a Jira ticket, so our development team doesn’t lose anything in translation, compared to if I had to write a paragraph describing the issue. With that solid hardware and software tech foundation, I’ve found that most meetings and working sessions operate smoothly.
AMP is a pioneer and leader in artificial intelligence and robotics for the recycling industry, building and deploying cutting-edge technology solutions that solve many of recycling’s central challenges to make it more efficient, scalable, and sustainable.
What’s an important lesson your team has learned since first transitioning to remote work?
How to effectively collaborate asynchronously. Remote work tends to increase the number of meetings, because we’re used to being able to collaborate as needed when everyone is in an office together. While having face time in video meetings is still important to building and maintaining relationships within the team, too many meetings can hurt team productivity. We overcome the potential challenge of too many meetings by establishing guidelines that determine if we can accomplish agenda items separately, as individual schedules allow, instead of convening.
How are you collaborating differently today than you were a year and a half ago?
Fine-tuning my communication style is one of the ways that I collaborate differently today. The increase in remote work and fewer face-to-face interactions requires even more careful scrutiny around how I communicate both within and outside my team. I take extra time to ensure that my communication is intentional, clear, succinct, and friendly. I was surprised by how I needed to adjust my approach once body language and visible cues during collaboration were drastically reduced.
Beyond Slack and Zoom, what tech tools have been particularly helpful in making remote collaboration easier?
Having tools that allow for near-instantaneous or live asynchronous collaboration have been the most helpful for our team success. We regularly use live-edit tools such as Google Documents or Microsoft Teams to allow us to gather key sections of content into one document, either from multiple people at once or at each person’s convenience. We also use a live Task List to both assign work and understand when work gets done. This feature has really helped us manage the business without the need to be in a meeting or face-to-face.
