Amazon, Facebook & Microsoft Just Told Their Employees to Work From Home. 3 Tips From a Company Successfully Working Remotely For A Decade

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The coronavirus continued to disrupt American life this week, as companies as large as Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook began instructing employees to work remotely as much as possible.

Remote work has been a hot topic in business for years. Many employees thrive when given the ability to work from home. Others fear they’ll miss the social connection of an office environment. But with new confirmed cases of the coronavirus increasing worldwide, employers are stepping up efforts to help with containment by asking employees to not come into the office and instead work from their homes.

This approach to work is not new to anyone at our company, Acceleration Partners. From day one, every team member within our organization has worked remotely. Today, 13 years later, our team of 175+ employees work from home, even as we’ve expanded globally to nine countries. We’ve even been recognized numerous times for our industry performance and company culture, which surprises many when they learn that we’re a 100% remote organization.

If asking your entire team to work remotely from home seems like a drastic step or worst-case scenario for your organization, it shouldn’t be. The reality is that remote work cultures are on the rise as more individuals and team leadership have come to understand the value and advantages of this work structure.

Speaking from over a decade of experience leading a remote company culture, here are three tips for supporting a thriving team of remote workers:

1. Keep your routine and schedule

One challenge people anticipate when working from home is the disruption to their office routine. Some worry they’ll be unable to ignore their TV, sofa or refrigerator while at home, whereas others fear their isolation will result in non-stop work and burn out.

The key is to replicate as many aspects of your office routine at home. This includes organizing your schedule and allocating blocks of time to working projects, meetings and even taking breaks. If you normally have an in-person check-in with your direct report each day, schedule a call at that same time. On the personal side, if you’re conditioned to take a 30-minute coffee break at 2pm each day, do that at home.  

Productively working from home is often as simple as establishing a routine that feels natural and effective for you. If you keep yourself on a schedule that allows time for breaks, you may be surprised how little you miss the distractions of an office environment.

2. Default to video

Phone meetings can often feel like a waste of time. It can lack the personal connection, non-verbal communication can get lost and it can be hard to tell if the other person is even paying full attention. This is especially true for team or company conference calls.

Fortunately, technology has largely addressed this challenge. While a video call can’t totally replicate an in-person meeting, it addresses several of these problems. Not only do video calls allow for better communication, but they can actually foster more connection in your teams. People want to see the people they work with, and if your employees can’t interact in an office, this is the next best thing.

At Acceleration Partners, we encourage video calls in every reasonable case. Even when it’s a 5-10 minute chat between colleagues, it’s worth taking a bit of extra time to set up a video call. Your team members will feel less isolated and more productive. And video isn’t just useful for work. Employees who take the time to simply catch up with their colleagues via video calls often feel less isolated.

3. Create boundaries

Another concern some have when transitioning to remote work is that the barrier between their work and home lives will become nonexistent. It’s natural for newly remote employees to worry that they’ll keep working late into the evening—or that they’ll be unable to detach from work even after their workday is over.

The key is to take intentional action to separate your work from your life. One way this can be done is by designating a space in your home that you only use during work hours. This may be a spare room in your home, a special corner for your desk, or even a specific chair at your kitchen table.

Other tactics include putting away your laptop at the end of each day to avoid checking email before bed and listening to music or a podcast to decompress before you get into your evening routine. This can be especially helpful to those who do this during their commute home.

For some, being asked to work remotely from home will feel like a significant disruption. However, others will find that they are far more productive, focused and efficient without the typical distractions of an office environment. By applying these tips to your organization, you can help bring some normalcy to a changing work routine. You may also find that by helping your team step outside of comfort zones, they arrive at new ways to collaborate, problem-solve and grow.

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Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, an award-winning partner marketing agency ranked #4 on Glassdoor’s best places to work. Robert was also named twice to Glassdoor’s list of Top CEO of Small and Medium Companies in the US, ranking #2 and was recently named one of Conscious Company’s top 22 conscious business leaders. He is a member of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches initiative.