Our experience with working remotely

Working remotely is no longer a new terminology that fascinates us the way it used to do because simply we’ve all drunk from the same glass now; we all lived through the pros and cons and most of us had great learning outcomes from such experience. 

robusta was simply one of these companies, among so many others, who suddenly found itself in a big transformation phase that we had no choice in, yet, the best thing about this experiment was how closely we were observing everything from the beginning, and like everyone, we made mistakes, we had successes and we will continue to experiment what the best methodologies are to make such experience as beneficial as it should be. 

Having the flexibility to work from anywhere is not considered a “benefit”anymore ; it’s a big part of organizations’ evolution, for this, there are many factors that might get affected negatively if not considered in this evolution and growth journey and out of our own experience, I will share what went well, what didn’t and what we’re currently experimenting with.

Culture & Engagement 

One of our biggest mistakes is that we wanted to imitate the offline experience with its dynamics, yet, people were not actually engaged nor satisfied with this, we tried having scheduled casual chats people were very engaged at first then it was not consistent, we were looking at things as if we need to copy what was happening at the office and then do it there, but it was never that way we actually got more insights through surveying our people about what they liked and disliked the most through working remotely and we started thinking on how to capitalize the pros and minimize the cons and through this we thought of it in the context of the online format rather than just how not to lose the offline format. For more illustrations here are the steps we took regarding our new hires and our existing robustians to keep them engaged and maintain a healthy culture: 

New robustians

Online on-boarding was one of the biggest challenges in itself, but we were not stuck in the “will we manage involving people in sessions or will they be engaged during their first day, week and months?” phase. We rather thought about how to make the best out of this experience. We asked our team to record videos for the different sessions we used to do offline and we sent it over to our new robustians with a time slot and the on-boarding live session itself was dedicated more to questions and answers so it became a more interactive experience, less consuming, more customized to people’s questions and less pressuring for our team members. 

We also assigned different meetings and people who will be involved in work-related and non-work related activities with the new hires, we developed a channel for each month’s new hires to be able to ask their questions and get prompt answer from our people’s team and we checked up on them and on their managers/colleagues to make sure they are active and that their needs are met. 

One of the good things that working remotely made us conscious about is to what extent we have a very well-structured documentation and processes to our new hires to be involved in and jump into their work seamlessly; it was beneficial for all parties what we already had and what we took steps in terms of what kind of onboarding task assigned to who from our existing team members, in what time frame and tools that need to be used. 

Giving the room and assurance to the new hires that they should speak up and ask questions whenever something is unclear without being judged is also very crucial because what they used to observe happening and get answers to by being present at the office on a daily basis is no longer an option so there is also work from their side on that aspect. 

Consistency of the activities/initiatives/communication is the key to the new hires high engagement success. 

Existing robustians 

Going into a full remote working setup, we realized that engaging our people will still be challenging in an online format but at least taking some steps and initiatives to make sure you are decreasing the risk of people feeling isolated is a good thing to start with. We know for a fact that people’s engagement doesn’t only come from the communication or social setups that existed offline (not belittling their importance though); however, it comes mainly from the sense of relating to what’s happening and what’s urgent, and having channels to communicate and listen to people about this is a key. We did that through our monthly meeting where the whole company meets online and through sending newsletter to our team of different updates and accomplishments they need to know about, making sure that teams still consistently meet online for learning purposes, for updates and alignment. 

As for the social activities and initiatives, when we were first trying to enforce things to happen, the outcomes were not really good, yet when we gave the room and encouragement for people to do things they enjoy and encourage people from within, the results were amazing We started encouraging people to create groups and engage them in whatever topic/purpose they are interested in to motivate healthy habits, encourage team bonding and ensure wellness culture. 

Encouraging and empowering people to take initiatives, to speak up, to communicate efficiently, to have more responsibilities inside and outside their work are the best approaches  to create and sustain a healthy culture. 

Productivity 

Productivity & engagement 

Ensuring people’s productivity is not a separate topic in it’s own, it’s highly connected to having people engaged, knowing why they are doing what they are doing and knowing what’s actually happening within the organization; they are not merely responsible for writing this line of code, or communicating to this partner, or interviewing this candidate, knowing that they are doing this for the business to grow, for the product to be successful, for the ecosystem to be impacted positively will make people much more motivated, have high sense of ownership and ultimately become more productive. 

Productivity & Learning cycle 

Because productivity is affected by lots of different things and is a result of several cycles, one of which is the room for people’s growth and learning, it’s very crucial when we expect people to produce to have the what and the room for expanding on the “know-how” and one of the greatest things about the remote setup is that it made us realize the treasure of resources online in terms of the number of webinars, podcasts, online courses that we utilized as much as we do now. 

Work setup & tools 

We understood that one of the main things that can hinder one’s productivity is their work setup, we sent out surveys to our people to better understand their needs/problems and took actions accordingly. You name it being hardwares problems, tools needed to be more efficient or communicate better. This provided us with more visibility and we promptly made some decisions in what’s critical. 

People’s wellbeing 

It’s normal to witness and expect people’s wellbeing to be affected especially in such a time of uncertainty and thus being aware about who is facing some troubles in terms of anxiety, stress, burn out is extremely crucial. What we used to feel and observe offline when we were casually moving about the office is no longer there and accordingly our HR function started doing random checkpoints with teams, and entrusted people in leadership positions to know how everything is going. It’s more of a casual setup to have people open up and then take the proper actions accordingly. This actually helped us a lot in knowing dynamics in certain teams and functions especially if the leader is not feeling ok or demotivated which definitely affected the whole team’s energy. 

Being supportive and understanding is not only an individual’s trait or a cliche word; we as a company deal with our people as human beings, we always understood that each person has certain circumstances, one person is a mom/dad, another living with their parents, others struggle with their space and so forth. Considering their non-work related aspects makes it visible to spot the light if there are any challenges this person is facing and, in turn, we’re able to provide the support on how to deal with this certain case to avoid any harmful consequences on their wellbeing. 

At last, capitalising on the experience of the remote setup is the key to have an efficient one, localizing what you moved through, what worked, what didn’t work is the thing that is going to make it a success story for you; reading about other companies and different initiatives taken is important but reflecting on what you’ve experienced and where you want to go is more important to answer your concerns. 

As for robusta, we are not there yet, we still have a lot to work on and companies/ people to learn from to make sure all the aspects considered in remote work are motivational, consistent and successful and do proper enhancements along the way. The one thing that is always considered as a success indicator and that we're moving on the right path is the mentality of giving room for experiments and thus for mistakes to happen so that we learn from them, never repeat them and proactively “ACT” on solutions.