As A Remote Work Manager, Here's How My Team Works (Efficiently) From Home

In these uncertain and challenging times, many people are working from home (WFH) for the first time. As someone who has worked remotely for the past five years, I’ve learned a lot of dos and don’ts. Here are some of my best practices. 

I realize that, especially in today’s unique circumstances, not all of these strategies are possible. Thus, please pick and choose those that work for your individual situation.

More on my background: I’m the CMO of a leading blockchain technology company. My team is distributed over eight time zones, six countries, and multiple continents around the world (Asia, Europe and the Americas). All of us work from home. 

Create the right mindset

The only difference between WFH and working in an office is location. You are still working; you’re just doing it from home. All normal work standards apply. WFH is not a “free for all” to slack off. When done properly, WFH can achieve higher productivity rates, individually and as a team, because it saves, on average, one to three hours of commute per person per day. 

For maximum productivity, you’ll need a comfortable, ergonomic workstation, a quiet place to concentrate, and a strong, stable internet connection. 

1. Establish a dedicated workstation in a separate room

In most offices, people work from a desk. If this is the case for you, you should also work from a desk at home. Unless you have health issues that are ameliorated by alternative work stations (e.g. your bed or a sofa), you should work from a separate room that you have clearly established as your home office with a door you can shut. If your home office doesn’t have a door, use something (furniture, drapes, etc.) to designate the difference between “home” space and “work” space.

2. Set focused work time

Whatever you wouldn’t normally do during an office workday, you should also not do when WFH. For example, would you normally pick up a friend from the airport in the middle of an office workday? Chances are you wouldn’t, which means you also shouldn’t do it when working from home. WFH is not an excuse or a reason to do things you would not ordinarily do otherwise.

Master video conferencing

Video conferencing is one of the key pillars of working remotely. My team uses the Zoom video conferencing platform, which we find to be the most reliable and easy-to-use.

1. Always use video

Using video rather than voice-only for work calls is essential; for us video can speed up remote work meetings by 15%. With video, you don’t have as many instances of awkward, unproductive silence caused by multiple people jumping on the call at the same time. You’ll know if others hear and understand you by seeing their reactions. Video allows you to build more interpersonal connections through body and facial language. Furthermore, video calls also keep everyone focused. Who of us hasn’t been guilty of simultaneously cooking lunch, walking the dog or surfing the web on a voice-only call?

Note that you and your colleagues may initially be reluctant to go on video, saying that they don’t look good, are shy, etc. It is up to team leadership to set, maintain and exemplify this standard of always using video. Once video calls become the default, it’s easy for everyone on a team to see that video meetings are vastly superior to voice-only meetings. 

2. Phone dial-in if your internet is unreliable

If your internet connection is not very strong, join remote meetings by using video on your computer and dialing-in on your phone. This way, you will have a stable voice line as well as a video stream.

3. Mute and use other tools to reduce background noise

To maintain the flow and focus of a remote meeting, any team member who has a loud background should mute their sound when they’re not talking. Alternatively, tools like Krisp do a great job of reducing background noise using AI. 

4. Try fun virtual backgrounds

Zoom has a great feature that allows you to replace your real life background with a virtual background. If you’re concerned that your remote work environment appears messy, you can opt for either a fun virtual background, such as the moon or a peaceful seaside, or something resembling a more traditional office setting. 

Organize communication channels

The majority of my teams’ messaging is through Slack.

1. Use proper naming conventions for channels

Slack can become overwhelming. Thus, we use clear naming conventions for our channels. For example, “m_” channels are general marketing team channels, while “me_” channels could be designated for marketing events. Slack threads can quickly turn into topics that require a platform for more structured task management. For larger task management projects, we use Asana. 

2. Create a daily stand-up channel

A “stand-up” meeting is a common engineering practice where everyone gathers to share what they are working on each day. We’ve created a digital version of a stand-up with our “daily_am” Slack channel,Slack in which everyone updates what they are working on each day. At the individual level, a stand-up channel gives remote team members a chance to think through and prioritize tasks. At a group level, it lets people see what their colleagues are working on to accomplish a shared goal. Because we are spread across so many time zones, having an asynchronous channel works best. 

Things people highlight in daily_am include: “Meetings I have today,” “Tasks I’m working on,” “Travel I have planned,” “Topical books I’m reading,” “Productivity blockers I’m experiencing,” etc. Productivity blockers are particularly useful to share in digital stand-ups, because the team can then flag and address them by tagging and communicating with the appropriate people, in a very visible group location. 

3. Celebrate progress with Tacos and other digital tokens

We use a Slackbot called “HeyTaco!” to give virtual thanks to people on the team. We also keep track of digital appreciation with a weekly leaderboard. It’s a nice way to acknowledge people for helping each other, without the added calories. 

We also have a Slack channel dedicated to “celebrations.” This is a shared channel where people can give larger shoutouts and thanks to colleagues who have gone above and beyond what is required of them. 

4. Create clear escalation channels

In an office, you can simply walk over to someone’s desk to grab their attention. When working virtually, you need a comparable system for escalating communication. Set up a system that clearly prioritizes your means of communication. An organizational strategy from most critical to least critical can be phone call > text message > Slack or email message. This way, team members know the best way to contact each other in any situation.

Build a sense of community

1. Set virtual office hours

One strategy we’ve recently instituted is set “Office Hours.” A few times a week, I’ll schedule open office hours, during when I jump on my Zoom so that anyone on my team can join and talk to me. This allows people to address any issues or concerns with me one-on-one.

2. Create co-working sessions

Occasionally, team members want to set up a time to cowork together. In these instances, someone on the team can take the lead and designate a few hours during one day each week to open a Zoom room other team members can join. There, people work independently with the ability to ping each other as needed in a virtual “office” environment.

3. Plan happy hour and hangouts

Many remote teams designate a time slot every few weeks for virtual hangout sessions. Virtual hangouts are purely for socializing and unwinding. Each person can grab their drink of choice and go into a group Zoom room where teams can play virtual games online (e.g. Jackbox.tv games such as Drawful), conduct a book club, or just chat. 

Final Thoughts

While these strategies aren’t always possible, especially when your partner, pets and/or kids are at home, try as much as you can to separate your workspace from the space where you spend time with your family. Consider taking shifts with your partner, especially if both of you are working from home, in order to stagger work and household / childcare responsibilities. 

In addition to this post, I’m considering hosting a video chat to share best practices and answer questions about remote work. Let me know below if that would be of interest.

What other WFH tips do you have? Please share them in the comments so we can all help each other out.