Working from home. QTeam best practices
As we all know by now, ‘social distancing’ remains a useful tool in combating the outbreak of Covid-19 since this virus can spread through person-to-person contact (P2P). More and more companies have teams working from home, but I am curious to see what impact it will have on businesses across the world.
A favorite quote of mine on resilience is by Robert Norman Ross, a well-known painter, and art instructor, who said that “Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.”
Over the past weeks, willingly or not, many of us started practicing working from home due to this outbreak (Europe and USA). Superstar employees and freelancers, trusted partners and service providers, we are all working from home!
Here is what we at QTeam compiled as being essential when WFH (working from home):
Flexibility > Rigidity
Output > Input
Autonomy > Administration
Communication
As an HR professional at the core, I have seen one to many times how communication can make or break a project. Keep in mind that excellent communication is about understanding instructions, acquiring new skills, making requests, asking questions and relaying information with ease. Strive to communicate regularly and stay in the loop with your colleagues and clients.
Make a routine and utilize the features in your calendar to the max
It is vital to have a remote work routine that your colleagues can quickly verify in your schedule. The events you have planned for your teams should be crystal clear. For example, we have organized the Virtual Morning Room, in which every colleague is invited to join and participate. We check-in and give ourselves time to discuss events and accomplishments from previous days.
Not because we work in building software that matters, but…reliable technology = productive environment
We have all been in situations where the setup for a conference doesn’t work ((Why?! WHY?!)). We’ve asked an important question but no one heard it. Someone is trying to share their screen but it doesn’t work. The video is not compatible with a program on your laptop. The list goes on and on.
Since 2016, we’ve used and encouraged others to use:
Video communication:
We ask our colleagues and partners, during a video call, to implement and support an environment where there is a high degree of involvement. Video is interactive, you shouldn’t feel as if you are disconnected.
Audio Settings:
At times we do Facetime, but hey, audio calls work too when only audiois at hand.
Everything around the virtual office:
Slack – we have specific channels for our biz.
Admin / Legal Affairs:
For valuable documents – if needed to upload and transfer, I choose WeTransfer. If not, Google Docs shared among us works just fine.
Considering your workspace
This one depends on how flexible you are when working from home. Is your couch or kitchen chair good enough or do you need a good office chair. Make sure that you are comfortable and that you feel excited by your surroundings & equipped to tackle whatever comes your way. Flowers are always present on my home desk and I have a desktop background with horses, considering I can’t ride these days.
Working style
In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
I have listened to more than my fair share of industry podcasts, but a lot of times, I found myself asking Alexa to play Chill Music. If you’re a sucker for this kind of music, like me, feel free to add your white noise, coffee sounds, great chill music lists in the comments – I’d be happy to try it out.
Off-time
All this technology aimed at increasing connectivity can be one of the biggest challenges for those who have little experience in working remotely or from home.
Through all the video calls, emails, and Slack notifications coming at you 24/7 (especially true when working in different time zones), it’s crucial to form the habit of setting time aside to relax. Not to mention “logging off” for the night.
A personal best practice that I encourage you to add to your calendar so your team can also see.
An extraordinary fact about remote working is that you have the flexibility to work when you are most productive, so you should be careful about setting the rule that you are accessible 24/7. Nevertheless, we should all keep practicing and continue to work from home.
Are you interested in developing a bespoke software solution? We can help you put your dreams into code.