Virtual Watercooler Breaks: The Value of Informal Communication in Remote Teams
Recently, I came across an interesting study by a well-known German university. It revealed that about 80% of successful ideas created in teams were born from informal conversations, both in co-located and virtual teams. It also stated that in R&D teams, almost 90% of conversations could be described as informal. So, informal communication doesn’t only have psychological value, but is an essential component of innovation. According to my own experience, conversations on informal topics are key for getting your team connected. Distributed teams don’t have the opportunity for casual watercooler talks, so they might have a deficit of this important component. If people work together on a regular basis, even if they are not located in the same office, they eventually get to know each other better. But the bigger the team is, the lower the natural tendency for bonding. One of the things we do at Wrike (where our distributed team counts for over 60 people today, and is growing) is that at our regular company meeting, apart from talking about plans and achievements, we also weave in some personal info into the mix. For example, some people may share photos from recent vacations, we introduce newcomers with some information about their hobbies and interests, etc. The team likes it, and it definitely gives additional topics for internal discussions. Also, we try to meet in person as frequently as possible. I’ve noticed that every face-to-face meeting improves collaboration, because team members get more open to communication and feel more comfortable when they need to put their minds together at work. These remote employee engagement activities contribute to forming a friendly and productive environment where people don’t just work, but enjoy to work. And it is no surprise that this, consequentially, makes a positive impact on employee retention. How important do you think informal communication is for work performance? Wrike's flexible work management platform empowers remote teams to do their best work, from anywhere. Find out more here.
5 Tips for Using A Remote Collaboration Tool
The way we work is rapidly evolving. Mobile technology and cloud services make distance meaningless — it’s easier than ever to connect with colleagues around the world and access work from any device, anywhere. But achieving fruitful collaboration with distributed teams is still fraught with challenges. Tips for using a Collaboration Tool for Remote Teams If you're using a collaboration tool to deal with remote teams, then we have five simple tips that can help optimize the situation and overcome the obstacles faced in remote work. Examples will be based on Wrike but can apply to any tool you use to collaborate with your remote workers. 1. Share Proactively Load everything into the tool, so your entire team has access to the latest files and complete visibility into project status. Get everyone into the habit of sharing data proactively so that all the groundwork is laid for efficient collaboration. No more "Where's the latest deck?" or "Which spreadsheet should I be filling up?" 2. Create a Fun Zone Keep workers engaged with regular, personalized communication, so your team can get connected in matters other than just work. Create a "watercooler" folder in the collaboration tool meant for sharing links, informal discussions, and unstructured team camaraderie. Make it a place where people can be free to post about anything they enjoy. 3. Bring People into Discussions Use Wrike’s @mention feature to grab the attention of subject matter experts from other departments and plug them into conversations regarding their area of expertise. It's a great way to get to know other people even as you solve problems together. 4. Share Small Wins Share achievements so everyone feels appreciated and can see how their individual work helps the team succeed. Comment on Wrike tasks that have had a positive outcome; @mention those responsible for the success and thank them directly. Celebrating every small win can only benefit the team. 5. Balance the Load Pay special attention to your team’s workload so you can redistribute excess work, give encouragement, and provide tools to increase productivity. In Wrike, you can see your team's responsibilities via the Workload feature. Simply drag-and-drop tasks to balance work distribution and keep your projects on track. Start using these tips today to use your collaboration tool to get your remote team collaborating productively, even across borders. And be sure to share your own advice and experiences in the comments below. Image Credits: Photo by RYAN MCGUIRE OF BELLS DESIGN
5 Principles for Managing Remote Employees
Tracking and managing accountability, productivity, and priorities can become extremely difficult when team members are remote, especially when that team is spread across various time zones. We've put together a list of tips to help you get a handle on the chaos of remote collaboration, while keeping your team productive and happy from the comfort of their own home.
How To Build a Remote Office Culture
Building a remote office culture is not an exact science. Much of it relies on your remote employees interacting with each other, communicating, and collaborating of their own accord; it's not something you can force. That's not to say there's nothing you can do, however: there are a few techniques that can give your team the best possible remote work culture to bring out their personality and make remote work both enjoyable and productive. At Process Street, we run a completely remote ship. With employees in America, England, Latvia, the Philippines and more, we’ve had to work around multiple time zones, potential communication barriers and (the killer) potential isolation that remote work can bring. Thankfully, with the right practices, tools, and ideology, we’re running a well-oiled, productive machine. It all starts with onboarding. Onboard Your Employees Thoroughly Building a remote office culture starts before your new team member ever logs in. You need to have a plan of action to ensure that they don't encounter roadblocks, such as login details and incorrect permissions. First impressions are everything! Not only do you need to have all of the correct resources ready for employee onboarding, you should also make sure that the employee is introduced to everyone else on the team their very first day. Make their new environment as supportive as possible by initiating introductions and encouraging your team to be welcoming. For example, one of the first steps in our employee onboarding process is to introduce new members on the general Slack chit-chat channel (our virtual water cooler, if you will) with a shower of funny gifs to put them at ease. Nothing says “welcome” like rolling the Giphy dice, after all. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix=""]“[When onboarding, you’re] setting the stage for a career’s worth of productivity and achievement” - Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack[/inlinetweet] Communicate and Collaborate Culture is created by the people who constitute it, so you need to encourage communication and collaboration as much as possible in a remote team. Part of this should have already been achieved by your onboarding introductions, but by keeping regular contact with your remote employees you can get to know them beyond their employee ID and ensure there are no gaps in your communication. This is vital: if they feel like nothing more than a cog in the corporate machine, there’s very little incentive to keep talking with their peers. We have various Slack channels for each team, such as content creation and customer support, along with a general channel where we all say “Hi” every day and talk about how things are going. We also have meetings (generally on Skype or Google Hangouts) twice a week with the rest of our teams and the CEO. This allows us to stay in contact, report on progress, and get help with anything that’s frustrating or blocking us. As with any meeting, however, the key is to keep it interesting. We generally chat casually for the first few minutes of each call, which allows everyone to relax before giving their progress reports and makes the rest of the team more approachable for day-to-day communication. Host a Friendly Competition Another great way we’ve found to inspire camaraderie and a little friendly banter is through gamification. Each week, we take turns recommending a hilariously bad movie for the rest of the team to enjoy. You’d be surprised at how many gems we’ve managed to dig up, and it’s a fantastic way to form stronger bonds with co-workers. Note: the last thing you should do is create a cutthroat contest. Nobody likes to lose when the same people win a sales race every month, for example. Alternatively, if you’re a little geeky like us, you could host a company Hearthstone match (or other online game). We’ve just completed our first round, limiting everyone to basic pre-made decks to ensure that the veteran players can’t engineer their own success. This gives employees a chance to directly interact and have some fun outside of work, which does wonders for morale. Get Everyone On Support With all of our success encouraging employees to interact with their teammates and managers on a personal level, we still had one problem to overcome: how to encourage different teams to collaborate with each other and strengthen ties even more? The answer is customer support. Although it may sound like a chore, we’ve taken to rotating our employees through customer support duties in order to encourage collaboration and help them learn our product inside out. As a result, our devs have a running conversation with the content team, the VAs can comfortably talk to sales and everyone understands what is happening with the product. As an added bonus, our varied time zones are now becoming a huge positive — we can have at least one employee on support duty almost 24 hours a day, and we have a huge number of backup technicians if one of our support team members isn't available. Building Culture on Your Remote Team Remote work can be difficult for both employees and managers. Communication isn’t as natural, and new hires are often more reluctant to voice their problems, as they can’t just stick their head into their neighbor's cubicle. If you can pull off creating the right remote office culture, however, those problems soon melt away in a sea of productivity and co-operation. If you've worked as part of a remote team, how did you go about building company culture? Share your experiences in the comments below. Author Bio Benjamin Brandall writes about SaaS, productivity, and technology at Process Street and Writerzone.net. Find him on Twitter here. Simplify Remote Collaboration for Your Team Help your team overcome the challenges of remote collaboration with Wrike's award-winning app. Start a free trial today.
The Post-Covid Work Habits to Make (and Break) as an Employer
Have you ever had a habit that you wish you could break? Biting your nails, scrolling on your phone at night, procrastinating — we all have our vices. Having our lives flipped upside down by the pandemic over the last year (and spending a lot more time cooped up) has forced us to reckon with the bad habits we’ve accumulated over the years, as well as the better habits we’d like to create for ourselves. But while many of us have done a great job of taking up yoga, cooking meals from scratch, or learning a new skill over lockdown, our work habits are still an area that may need some improvement. Working from home over the past year has allowed us to take stock of our life in employment — how our working style works (or doesn’t work) for us, and what we may want to change when things return to ‘normal.’ And now, as our ‘new normal’ begins to take shape and teams around the world begin to migrate back to the office, it’s a perfect time to make and break some work habits. Why good work habits are important to managing your team As an employer, you have a lot of responsibilities to your team. How you work every day sets an example to those around you — that’s why it’s vital for you always to be actively learning and trying to improve the careers of everyone on your team. The habits you invest in at work show your teammates what is expected of them and how you would like your team to operate. If you create good work habits, your team will be motivated to follow your lead and invest in their own positive habit-building. Now more than ever, it’s essential to motivate your team for success, as we all prepare for returning to work after COVID. Important factors in your return-to-work program To figure out which habits are most important for you to build as we return to the office, it’s essential to understand your employees’ mindsets. After working at home for over a year, many of us have reevaluated our work priorities and what we want from employers in the future. In a 2020 survey, the Adecco Group questioned 8000 workers across eight countries about what would be important to them in working post-COVID, with some interesting insights. A strong case was put forward for employer flexibility and favoring results over clocked hours, with 69% of employees suggesting that their contracts should be based on meeting the needs of the business rather than the hours they work. 74% of employees said they wanted their managers to demonstrate an empathetic and supportive leadership style post-pandemic, with 70% citing support for their mental wellbeing as an important factor in returning to the office. But while employees are stating emotionally available management as a top priority, employers need some help in that arena. More than half (54%) of the leaders surveyed said they need “support to be able to navigate these new expectations,” with just 12% “excelling” in holistic support of their employees during lockdown. So how can employers begin to support their teams in returning to the office post-pandemic? As with all great businesses, the example should come from the top. As a leader, the habits you invest in every day, both for your own working style and your employees’, set the example for how you want your business to succeed. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of essential habits to form as you prepare for RTO, as well as some to leave behind. The work habits you should make when returning to work after COVID Open communication The way you communicate with your employees has a direct correlation to your business’s success. Organizations with effective change and communication programs are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers. According to McKinsey, productivity can increase by up to 25% in organizations where employees are connected. As an employer, strive to create an environment of open communication and transparency. Employees appreciate being kept in the loop about important updates and changes, especially when much about the workplace is so uncertain. Practice regular updates and feedback sessions with your team, engaging with them on a personal level as well as on a corporate one. Use remote tools to your advantage and create a stream of consistent communication with your team, no matter where they're based. Your team should know that you are available to listen to their concerns and will communicate with them openly wherever possible. Active feedback Whether it’s to address an issue with their work or praise them for a job well done, it’s vital that your organization practices active and regular feedback for your employees. According to Officevibe, “four out of 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little or no feedback”, with 43% of highly engaged employees receiving feedback at least once a week. Liaise with your team leads and ensure that a feedback policy is put in place for your organization. Celebrate your employees’ wins, both big and small, and advocate for them when their work is not up to par — ensure that they feel supported and work with them, not against them, to find a solution. Mentorship A 2016 Gallup engagement poll showed that 82% of managers and executives are seen as lacking in leadership skills by their employees. Team leaders have many responsibilities, but being a reliable and consistent mentor to their employees is perhaps the most important. As an employer, investigate implementing a mentoring program in your organization. Pair new hires with more experienced executives and encourage open conversations around career advice and development in the office. As an individual leader, make it a habit to check in with your team individually on how their career goals are developing at your organization. What can you do to lead and encourage them? Embracing hybrid working It’s no secret that COVID-19 has completely changed the game in terms of remote and hybrid working. The pandemic has accelerated the burgeoning trend of hybrid working worldwide, and, according to countless reports, the method is here to stay. While it can be difficult to pivot your leadership style to mesh with a hybrid working model, endeavor to make it a priority for you and your team. Ensure your remote workers are supported, both holistically and technically, with the right equipment and software to collaborate seamlessly. Investing in technology Over the past 18 months, innovations in technology have made it possible for teams to collaborate and communicate in unprecedented conditions. As we transition back to ‘normal,’ adopting a technologically forward mindset is just as important. Technology can be utilized in myriad ways at your organization — whether that’s in work management software to streamline projects, scaling AI to prevent failures and defects in your products, or creating a safe, post-COVID environment for your employees. While building your new work habits, remember that some of your well-practiced habits may not be serving you like they used to. Here are some that you should consider leaving at home as you return to the workplace. The work habits you should break in your post-COVID office Overdrawnpointless meetings We’ve all thought to ourselves, “couldn’t this have been an email?” in a Zoom meeting at some point this past year. As we return to the office, employees are less likely to politely accept unnecessary time-wasting. While regular meetings and updates are necessary for smooth project management, it’s worth keeping them to a tight schedule and only herding everyone into the boardroom when completely necessary. Make use of your newfound technology innovations and explore more efficient ways to communicate with your team. Multitasking You may pride yourself on being a fantastic multitasker, but is this skill beneficial to your work? Studies have shown that when our brain tries to switch back and forth between two tasks, especially if those tasks are complex and require active attention to complete, we become less efficient. Similarly, if you work on your tasks with your email or chat software constantly pinging you about other tasks, it’s difficult to complete anything to a good standard. When you return to the office, cut your multitasking, focus on one task at a time, and encourage your team to do the same. You may start to notice a marked improvement in productivity. Favoring time over output As your employees have gotten used to more flexible working hours, you should reevaluate how you measure their performance as they return to the office. Are you more interested in them staying late every evening or turning in a fantastic finished product? As we return to ‘normal,’ your employees will be just as motivated to do their jobs well, but time spent online should not be a marker for success. As a leader, set an example of not micromanaging your teams’ schedules, especially outside working hours. Research has shown that an ‘always on’ culture can be harmful to productivity and employees’ mental wellbeing. Scrap clockwatching and see how your team can get creative with their workloads. Disorganization A 2017 Staples survey of small business owners saw 1 in 3 say that workplace disorganization leads to less productivity. What’s more, 75% of struggling or failing business owners believed that workplace disorganization had contributed to their lack of success. Workplace disorganization means lost opportunities, lost productivity, and lost revenue for your workplace. As an employer, it’s imperative that you are organized and coordinated in your day-to-day work. Workers rely on you for guidance and assistance, and if you’re scrambling to locate a certain file, contact, or project deliverable, this can eat away at their confidence in your leadership. Invest in organizational tools, such as a flexible all-in-one work management system like Wrike that can keep everything in one place and give you more time to lead. Ignoring work-life balance According to Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey, employers that support employees with their life experience see a 23% increase in the number of employees reporting better mental health. This is of a huge benefit to employers, who see a 21% increase in the number of high performers compared to organizations that don’t provide the same degree of support to their employees. Over the pandemic, workers have experienced higher stress levels than ever before. As we transition back to the workplace, you must invest in their mental wellbeing, which starts with encouraging a healthy work-life balance. How Wrike can help your team form better work habits as you return to the office Using a work management system like Wrike can encourage your teams to do their best work. Here are just some of the ways that using Wrike can help to build positive work habits: Collaboration-focused software, including chat and email integrations and real-time feedback and editing, will allow your team to work together from anywhere and communicate seamlessly, cutting back on wasted time waiting on emails or bad connections. Resource management tools will take the stress out of organizing your return to work program. Create tasks and subtasks for all your RTO needs, and organize deliverables seamlessly. Our all-in-one software means that your hybrid and remote workers don’t have to worry about technology troubles or lack of access. Everything is right at your fingertips with Wrike. Interested in how we can help your teams to thrive post-pandemic? Try Wrike with a two-week free trial.
Wrike Remote Work Template Brings Teams Together & Keeps Projects On Track
To put an end to the disorganized virtual workspace, the lack of clarity on high-priority work, and disjointed employee communication, Wrike has created a Remote Work Template. Read how our pre-built configuration can help your remote teams thrive.
3 Video Conference Horror Stories & Tips for Avoiding Them
With the number of remote teams on the rise, video conferences are becoming a pretty regular occurrence. When you just need to quickly check in with your remote colleagues, a short video chat or group meeting can save time and effort, and offer an easy way to keep everyone in the loop no matter where they are. As with any new business practice or technology, awkward moments tend to pop up — and anything involving a bunch of live cameras and microphones only amplifies the possibility for blunders. Use our tips to avoid embarrassing gaffes in your virtual meeting room and keep all your video meetings running smoothly. 1. You thought your mic was muted. This one’s probably the most common video conference blunder. Whether you’re complaining under your breath to a co-worker sitting next to you, slurping your coffee, or your kid/spouse/roommate is singing Miley Cyrus off-key as they fix their breakfast, save yourself some embarrassment and pay attention to your mic settings. 2. You’re not prepared. If you’re supposed to lead the meeting or give a presentation, don’t just wing it. Just because you’re not all in the same room doesn’t mean a video conference isn't a professional setting. You still need a proper agenda with a list of key issues or questions to cover, and you need to lead the meeting with authority, exactly the same as you would if you were all gathered in the conference room. 3. You’re flustered by technical glitches. We’ve all been part of a video or conference call where sound cuts out, a video feed is choppy, or the presenter can’t figure out how to switch views or share his/her screen. The awkward fumbling isn’t only embarrassing, it wastes time and distracts your team. Make sure you understand exactly how your video conferencing app of choice works, and what to do if technical difficulties do pop up so you can immediately switch to Plan B and continue a productive meeting. Running a good video meeting often means choosing the right tool for your team, with reliable audio/video and the conferencing features you need for productive collaboration. Between live webinars and daily meetings with remote colleagues, we've tried just about every video conferencing tool out there here at Wrike. Check out our 5 favorite video meeting apps to see if one is the perfect fit for you. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Workplace Laughs! Catch up on previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, or subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter! Share this comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike
3 Ways to Ensure the Success of Your Remote Workers
How can you ensure the success of your remote workforce? Being in a software startup where remote work is part of daily life, we get asked how to successfully work from home a lot — by job applicants and peers alike. It's a situation that's near and dear to our heart as Wrike was created to solve collaboration issues among remote team members. So when people ask how they can ensure the success of their remote workers, we draw from our own experience. This is how we set up our virtual teams for success in Wrike. 1. Nurture a Communication Culture It’s important to have an office culture that makes it easy for an employee to communicate with everyone else whether they’re working in the office or working remotely. The remote worker should be able to communicate with the rest of the team in an easy way using the agreed-upon technology. Here at Wrike, we strongly believe that the three basic technologies for remote work are: A work management platform (such as Wrike) A file editing system (such as Google Docs/Drive), and A screensharing/voice chat software (such as Skype or Google Hangouts). It should be made clear to everyone in the company that “These are the main tools we use for communication.” And if it's not in these tools, it wasn't communicated properly. Get people used to using the tool and communicating when there's a roadblock. In the same vein, get everyone into the habit of sharing their small successes and victories. It serves as an awesome motivator. It’s easy for remote workers to feel like cogs in a machine being given orders. Communication helps maintain a good human relationship with them so that they know they are valuable members of the team. 2. Set Metrics How can you measure success for the remote worker? Metrics. Metrics can help you evaluate the success of your remote workers, but try to boil it down to the metric that really matters. Take our support team as an example: we measure the time it takes to respond to a ticket, how long it takes to resolve, how many tickets come at which time of day, and many more, the most important one for our support organization is our Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score. As long as our CSAT score is high, we can safely assume that all individual contributors are performing at a high level. But we have the data available to report on individuals or subgroups if needed. And by comparing metrics from week to week, we can monitor how well we're improving our customer support processes. 3. Ensure Face-to-Face Interaction Happens Here's a truth you need to face even when working with a virtual team: nothing can replace in-person interaction. So find a way to meet regularly. Or at the very least, be able to see each other's faces on a regular basis via webcams. Some suggestions: a) Make webcams a necessity for remote workers. Being able to talk to someone's face is essential to building camaraderie and reading non-verbal communication. b) Call instead of write. Remote workers tend to write a lot of emails, and this takes time. If you want to speed up the process, opt for voice communications and video calls over emailing or instant messaging. c) Schedule times throughout the year to actually meet in person. Being able to work side-by-side in the same office environment for 3 to 5 days at a time can provide a better understanding of your teammates' habits and personalities. How Do You Make Remote Teamwork A Success? Remote work will always be a challenging situation for both the company and the individual worker. But following these guidelines will help ensure that your remote workers are given the chance to succeed at their work — despite the distance. Using a work management tool like Wrike that supports seamless remote working can be a gamechanger for dispersed teams. Keep track of projects, streamline your workflow and improve teamwork, all on one platform. Image credits: Geekgrind on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
6 Ways to Make Sure Your Remote Workers are Productive and Happy
A major benefit of remote teams is the ability to hire the most talented people, regardless of location. Once you've assembled your A-team, the last thing you want is to lose them because they're isolated and disengaged from their colleagues. Distance doesn't have to be a barrier, especially given the tools and technologies available to facilitate communication and connectivity. Keep your remote workers engaged, productive, and happy with these six practical tips. 1. Support Professional Growth Understand what excites and motivates your remote team members by getting to know them on a personal level, beyond project expectations and due dates. Just as you do with on-site team members, check in with your remote workers to discover their goals, and help them learn new skills to advance their careers. Budget funds for tuition reimbursement, conference attendance, and certifications, so they're incentivized to expand their skills. 2. Create Connections Between Teammates As manager, you likely have regular calls scheduled with your remote team members to touch base, answer questions, and provide support. In addition, regular communication should be happening between the whole team, about both work and fun. Video hangouts, instant message chats, and other real-time communication channels provide important outlets for fun and friendship, not to mention collaboration. Connect colleagues who share hobbies or common interests, and partner someone who's new to a task or project with an experienced co-worker. 3. Prioritize Face Time & Prevent Isolation Even if your remote workers are connected to the rest of your team through instant messaging or video chat, they may still feel isolated. Combat loneliness and burnout by building a yearly, in-person company event into your annual budget, or provide some funds for remote employees to join a co-working space in their local area. Exposure to new people and ideas is still a key ingredient for creativity, and there's no substitute for face-to-face interaction. 4. Keep Work Fun To bridge the gap between annual in-person events, plan virtual events to build camaraderie among your team. For example, during March Madness, the Olympic Games, or the World Cup, schedule a 30-minute break to hop on a video call and watch or stream the event together. Other ideas here: Ultimate Guide to Team-Building Activities That Don't Suck 5. Recognize Accomplishments Remote workers may feel like many of their contributions go unnoticed, and local employees may wonder "what they do all day" if they aren't directly impacted by their colleague's work. Make it a point to highlight remote workers' achievements for the rest of the team. Start meetings by recognizing important projects or successful results for all members of your team, particularly if they're remote. 6. Support a Healthy Work-Life Balance When your home and office is the same place, it can be tough to avoid workaholic patterns or effectively "switch off" from work mode. Encourage flexible schedules and designated time off: pay attention to how often your remote employees request vacation time, gently remind them of the PTO they've accrued, and make sure they know they're encouraged to take it. More Tips for Keeping Remote Team Members Engaged Boosting remote team morale doesn't need to be complicated or expensive. Try out these easy ways to have fun with your virtual team: 5 Ways to Show Your Remote Workers Some Love.
