Remote working is here to stay, and we’re on board. Since our merger with Pragmatic in 2020, we’ve been a remote-first company, which has come with many challenges. As a company, we value a healthy work environment and want to bring our team closer together despite being spread across the world. Now that we are not feeling the pandemic in the same way, many companies are faced with the choice of whether to return to office work, continue with remote or perhaps run a hybrid solution. As a remote-first company, we have a lot of tips and advice to make your business work in the long term, both for you as a decision-maker and for you as an employee.
Remote programmes come with many benefits for organisations that do not need to be location-bound. For example, remote working is a great way to attract the best people in the field and keep them happy. If they are not already planning to move, the idea of relocation will be a big factor in their decision to join your team. And with high satisfaction rates and the ability to work more flexibly, it’s no surprise that remote workers are more likely to stay with their company in the long run.
Communication is key
Communication is key in a good remote programme and should be the first item on everyone’s checklist. When you have remote employees, it’s important to keep them included in the vision and direction of the business. Keeping remote employees informed reminds them that they are part of the larger organisation and also that the organisation values them. A Harvard Business Review study found that employees in the modern workplace now spend around 80 per cent of their time on activities that require collaboration with other workers. In today’s business world, digital communication and the tools used are key to maximising these interactions.
While it is important to keep remote workers included in the direction of the business, encouraging team spirit and nurturing cohesion is also a crucial part. A great way to do this is through a communication platform. Angry Creative has employees all over the world and the majority work remotely, making a functioning communication platform one of the most important tools in our daily work. From face-to-face meetings, group discussions, file sharing and video conferencing, there are plenty of productive tools out there that make team collaboration easier than ever. We at Angry Creative use Slack, where we can easily create internal and even external channels, making it easier to work with our clients. Slack also comes with a bunch of great integrations that make our everyday communication both easier and more fun.
Keep your spirits up and show appreciation for a great job
We’re constantly working to encourage and recognise great work, our integration between our HR tool HiBob and Slack allows us to easily send kudos and shoutouts to our colleagues, which is something we work to do often. Make the recognition highly visible so that the rest of the organisation is aware of the valuable contribution remote workers make. We’ve mentioned the importance of communication tools before and this is a great way to achieve this. Highlight big ‘wins’ or just good work and empower the rest of your team to do the same.
SWAG packs and other care packages are also a very easy way to make your employees feel appreciated but tend to be quite underrated.
To keep your employees, whether remote or on-site happy, it’s important to ask what they need and be responsive, creating a sense of inclusion. It can be as simple as updated hardware, additional training or new procedures that contribute to improved performance.
This is also one of the topics they addressed at WordFest Live 2022. Angry Creative was there and listened, among other things, to Tammie Lister’s speech on designing remotely. We got a lot of inspiration and tips on how to build a healthy remote environment for the more creative members of the team. If you want to know more about Tammie Lister’s thoughts on designing remotely, you can watch the full session HERE.
Have regularly scheduled online meetings
When working on a project in a team, it’s important to have regular meetings that create opportunities to talk to team members about things that might not otherwise come up. A remote team needs to constantly work on the process of team building, building relationships and maintaining these. When you are not together in person, the important elements of good communication, support, common goals and, of course, having fun can easily be lost. Living in a digital world, technology is evolving rapidly and we have made sure to use it to our advantage. There are many plugins, websites and apps that allow you to connect with your team remotely. For example, by integrating gather.town into Slack, our employees get a ping once a day where they can easily jump in and socialise with their colleagues, in a more human way.
Time management
One of the biggest challenges of remote working is the daily distractions that can occur such as housework, doctor’s appointments and taking the kids to school which can become a hindrance when given the freedom to work remotely. We have flexible working hours which makes it easier for both those working in the office but of course for those working remotely. It is important to us that our colleagues find a healthy balance between work and private life. Generally speaking, those who work remotely find it easier to work a little too much because it’s easy to do so, but to overcome this we have developed tools, tips and training to help us manage time which benefits both the organisation and the employees.
Last but not least, have fun!
Something we have focused more and more on is activities, both during and after working hours. ‘Monthly Socials’ is something we have implemented where we have different activities, it can be anything from a regular hangout to running an escape room, remotely of course. It gives us the opportunity to get to know each other better and build stronger collaborations between the different professional roles.
Here are some examples of activities for a remote team:
- Create a virtual break room
- Hold virtual company events
- Send “daily snapshots”
- Connect team members who don’t usually work together
- Host remote workshops and courses
- Play online games together
- Try live remote coworking
Remote working may not be for everyone, it all depends on how you are as a person, it’s a matter of taste. But we really want to emphasise that just because you work remotely doesn’t mean you have to be alone. There are many challenges but it is also very beneficial for both employers and employees. Remote working is the new reality in a modern business landscape. You can either focus on building an effective and strong remote programme or miss out on great resources. Hopefully, we’ve given you some good ideas and a head start on building and/or improving your remote programme!