How to Set your Remote Team up To Do Great Work at Home

The remote work genie is out of the bottle; it will be impossible to put it back in.

Remote work has accelerated 10 years in 10 days and workers will now expect it.

The future of work’s already here, companies must catch up.

Those who move quickly will dominate this decade.

Remote-first companies will attract and retain the best talent while becoming far more diverse at the same time.

Remote-first companies will steal their competitors most talented people who fail to adapt quickly and give their workers what they want.

Setting a remote team up for success is hard.

It's time consuming, expensive, and using the wrong tools can have a massive cost on your efficiency. Having operated remotely for the last 3 years we have tested almost every tool available, learned from our mistakes, and understand what you need to use to be successful.

There are two halves of remote work:

1. Software: collaboration, communication, documentation.
2. Infrastructure: the experience, culture and human elements of work.

For companies to do great work remotely they need to get both halves right.

Most companies only get number 1 right and ignore what we call 'the missing half' of remote work. Everyone knows that to do great work you need great tools but in the rush to go remote, and seeing it as a perk, we ignored the thing that is table stakes. A great platform to do your best work on top of.

Software

The right virtual tools are the ones your team already understands. Empower people to do great work and they will deliver. Trust them to perform and they will excel. That starts with the things they expect and want to use to do the best work they ever have.

?? Communication — Slack

Slack is the right tool for this. It is the product people are most familiar with and it is the one they want to use. We have tested every single available product for instant messaging and Slack is the most intuitive.

Slack enables your team to stay on the same page while maintaining a system of record for all communication relating to any product, team or issue.

?? Collaboration – GSuite

Docs, Sheets, and Slides, editable by anyone, fully available to collaborate and work together on at any time, all available in the cloud from anywhere in the world, while maintaining a historical record of all alteration made and by who.

GSuite is the all-in-one productivity suite you need to keep everyone working on the same page.

??? Meetings – Zoom

Zoom is the best video conferencing software on the market. It will enable your team to have the highest fidelity calls virtually which is critical for understanding and ensuring every message is communicated and received clearly.

If in-person meetings are the optimum form of communication, Zoom is the software product that lets you get closest to that.

Infrastructure

While the virtual tools that have enabled high quality, frictionless remote work were critical to enable remote work at scale there is a growing realization that there is a missing half of remote work. This is characterized by products and services which focus on the experience, culture and human connection of being a remote worker.

???Equipment — Firstbase

We built Firtsbase because when we discovered how expensive ($3-5,000 of upfront cost), time-consuming (8 hours+) and frustrating (the materials never turn up on time) getting a remote team setup was. We wanted our team to have all the physical tools they needed to do their best work at home and have a great experience while working remotely.

Firstbase ensures your workers are safer, more comfortable and productive at home than they would be in an office – at the touch of a button.

Any of the 255m Desk jobs globally Could be Remote

First-movers have a huge advantage in this space. Companies that move quickly and focus on providing a great experience will have a key differentiation from their biggest competitors. Those who provide a great experience will be able to attract the most talented people who will share that with their friends who will want similar.

How Do I Develop a Great Experience Easily?

We're building an Operating System for Remote Work that lets you develop your remote working strategy instantly.

Firstbase takes care of everything as a monthly subscription per worker, including delivery, upgrades, maintenance, repairs, and collections when a worker leaves. We help you:

Sign up for a demo of our platform here