Mastering the Art of Remote Work

Remote work isn’t just a temporary solution or a backup plan. When done right, it offers both employees and employers significant benefits in flexibility, productivity and overall company resilience. In this article we'll talk about the importance of asynchronous communication, trust, time protection and how to avoid the common pitfalls that many companies make when transitioning to remote work.

Balancing Office and Remote Work

Why Office Work Still Has Some Benefits

While Remote work has proven itself as a great model, there are still some advantages to traditional in-office work:

• Face-to-Face Interaction: Being in the same space allows for spontaneous conversations and better relationship building (people energy).
• Work-Life Separation: Going to an office helps create a clear boundary between work time and personal time (it can be challenging to manage distractions at home).

Hybrid Model: The Best of Both Worlds At EngineeRD, we've been using a hybrid model for years. Our Team Members spend some time in the office (e.g., All hands meetings, Design Sessions and Workshops) and the rest working from home (or at a local coffee shop). This affords us the benefits of both face-to-face collaboration and remote flexibility. A hybrid model also helps companies stay adaptable in times of crisis, like during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Avoiding Common Remote Work Mistakes

The Pitfalls of Too Many Meetings One of the most common mistakes companies make when moving to remote work is, replicating "Office Environment" online; leading to an overload of Zoom or Teams meetings (Note: In office or remote, strive to reduce the number of meetings). Sitting in front of a screen for hours is draining. Remote work demands a new approach that emphasizes flexibility and less real-time communication (focus more on Asynchronous communications).

Emphasizing Asynchronous Communication In remote work, communication thrives when it’s asynchronous—meaning people can update each other in writing and respond when they’re available. This reduces interruptions and allows employees to have uninterrupted time to focus on tasks, which boosts productivity tenfold.

Physical and Technological Separation To be successful as a remote worker, it’s essential to create boundaries between work and personal life. This could mean setting up a dedicated workspace or using separate devices for work and personal tasks.

Work-Life Balance Strategies Establishing a "Routine" is key for remote workers. Setting clear work hours and sticking to them helps prevent burnout and maintains a healthy work-life balance.

Our 2-cents on Meetings Fatigue

How & When to Hold a Meeting At EngineeRD, meetings (we like to call them anything else but meetings...e.g., meetups, tag ups, sync sessions, workshops, etc.) are a last resort. If an issue or topic for discussion can be resolved through written communication, we avoid holding a meeting. Now, if it becomes too complex to handle in written format, then we deem it as justified to have a meeting. When meetings are necessary, here's our SOP on how to Facilitate them the right way:

• Create an Agenda that must include the Title, Objective and desired Outcome(s)
• Make sure the "Right" people are invited

- Less is Better! No more than 3-5 max (you don't need the whole company joining every meeting)

- The Right people cannot attend then cancel and/or reschedule the meeting

• Keep it Short & Sweet (Remember: Meetings cost Time & Money)

Keeping Meetings Short and Effective Meetings should be limited to 2-4 people. This keeps the conversation focused and prevents unnecessary drag, saving time for everyone involved.

Managing Remote Teams Effectively

How Managers Can Overcome the Need for "Control" (aka micromanaging) Some managers feel uneasy when they can’t physically see their employees working. Good management isn’t about watching over people. Instead, it’s about focusing on "Results and evaluating the actual work being done". Managers will have to shift their mindset from tracking activity to evaluating outcomes (this is true for in office work as well).

Protecting Employees’ Time and Autonomy Good managers Respect their Team Members' time. This means giving them long, uninterrupted blocks of time to focus without constant check-ins. Autonomy leads to more productive and engaged employees. Another byproduct of this, is a happier workforce.

Keeping Remote Teams Engaged and Creative Remote teams can be just as creative as those working in-office. The key is to create an environment where ideas can be shared freely and frictionless using cloud based tools (e.g., Figma, Mural, Miro, Google Drive, SharePoint, etc.). This allows for effective and efficient collaboration without needing everyone to be in the same room. In some instances, we've discovered that remote work actually produced more great ideas than we could actually execute. This became a good problem to have; the problem being "Which ideas do we prioritize 1st...2nd...3rd....etc."

Building and Maintaining Culture (remotely)

We believe that culture is not built on office perks or values written on a wall. Instead, it’s created by how people consistently behave. Culture is the sum of our daily actions and how people treat each other.

It is possible possible to build strong social connections in a remote setting. At EngineeRD, we use "Automatic Check-Ins" to promote digital conversations amongst the Team. We have a curated set of questions that are automatically sent (day/time based intervals) to all our Team members. Some questions we might ask:

• What did you do over the weekend?
• What are you working on this week?
• Read any good books lately?
• What's our next Team Building Event gonna be?

These practices help maintain a sense of community even when people are working from different locations in different time zone.

Final Thoughts

Remote work brings a wide range of benefits for both employees and employers. However, it requires a different approach than traditional office work. By focusing on asynchronous communication, respecting employees’ time and fostering a supportive work culture; companies (big or small) can create a productive and resilient remote and/or hybrid environment. With thoughtful management and the right tools/systems/processes in place, remote work can be just as effective, if not more so, than working in a traditional office setting.