Understanding the Most Effective Practices of Remote Working

Intertec has been delivering services by working remotely for clients in multiple business domains for almost 10 years. By using the latest remote-first methodologies we have helped companies either grow their tech teams or turn their ideas into reality.

In recent times, remote working has become a reality for many companies, whether by choice or because of extraordinary circumstances such as the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Having experience in building individualized remote setups for our clients, we want to share the best practices we’ve found to be most effective for business owners, who are looking to scale or work with a remote team:

1. Get your leadership team ready for remote work

The leadership team needs to fully support the remote transformation within your organization. They should start by adapting all documents and processes to digital formats and standards, which can be easily accessed by employees at any time. All whiteboards with important information should be replaced with digital whiteboards such as Google Docs, LucidCharts, Invision etc. so they can easily share or modify any document.

2. Set clear expectations

If your employees have never worked remotely, then you’ll need to make it clear from the very beginning what you expect them to do. For instance, think of the employees’ objectives for the next week, the number of tasks that they’re expected to do every week, and which person they can contact if any issues arise.  When they know what is expected of them daily, it will help them focus on getting their work done. You should also consider implementing a task management platform such as Jira, Asana, or Trello to keep track of your projects, KPI‘s and their progress.

3. Create effective communication

Effective communication plays an integral role in any working environment – whether this is the people in your in-house office or the ones that are working remotely in other locations across the world. For that reason, frequent communication with your remote employees is essential. To set up a solid base for good internal communication you can use Slack. Furthermore, you should hold regular online meetings using Zoom or Google Hangouts, for instance. This will help your remote employees get familiar with what their colleagues are working on and also maintain team spirit.

4. Develop a core toolkit you can rely on

Having effective collaboration tools in place is an important aspect of establishing the processes in your company and will drive productivity and efficiency in your (remote) teams. To work together, provide your employees with cloud-based tools such as Microsoft Teams or Facebook Workplace. Google Drive or Dropbox can be used for document sharing, but if you don’t have such tools in place, you should initially research and analyze the needs of your team. Based on these findings, you can then implement tools that satisfy the established demand.

5. Support the power of different schedules

Flexibility is without a doubt the biggest benefit of working remotely. However, even though your employees are not working from the same office, you need to establish guidelines about availability and schedules. You should be proactive in listening to your employees’ needs and discussing how you can support them in their work, whether it’s rescheduling your meetings or letting them work outside regular business hours.

6. Provide regular feedback

You might think that once your employees know what is expected from them and are equipped with the right tools to successfully complete their job, this is where your remote team management ends. In fact, if you want your employees to move forward and improve their performance, you would need to include and provide regular and meaningful feedback. You can start by setting up a process of providing feedback, whether it is a weekly or monthly one-on-one online meeting or just a simple feedback app. Once you’ve done that, you should encourage your team members to give feedback to each other, as well as to you as their manager.

While remote work can be solely viewed as an emerging trend, the results from Buffer’s The 2020 State of Work report, show that in fact, this way of working is here to stay.

If you’re on the path of scaling your business, hiring a remote team is something you should definitely consider. Contact us and our consultants will help you understand how remote setup can be beneficial for your business.