2017 Should be Remotely Interesting
Why working remotely should be considered by every company.
Hello 2017! Now that 2016 is officially over, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on an initiative that has really worked well for our team over the past year — working remotely.
This subject has been talked to death in the community. Some companies have staff that work remotely by necessity, others do it just to try this “remote” thing out, and many more adopt remote teams simply because it makes sense in this day and age. Whatever rhyme or reason, remote teams are cropping up all over the world.
Working remotely has always been a tradition at Reamaze. We don’t have a large team to keep track of and we’re blessed with an awesome group of noggins any company would kill to have. Over the past few years we’ve calibrated our team size carefully to find a number that balances productivity, quality, accountability, engagement, happiness, inspiration, and leadership. This is no easy task for any company. There’s obviously no magic number but constant curation over time and hiring the right people is our most valued advice.
Having remote teammates also factors into our ongoing calibration greatly.
A fresh perspective all the time
Our remote teammates constantly offer up fresh perspectives about how things should work and could work. These are not “in-the-moment” epiphanies or random guesses but solid thoughts and directions grounded in experiences none of us can imagine. Working remotely allows them to travel, to eavesdrop in coffee shops, to focus while jet-setting, to work in the company of others, etc. These different experiences are essentially opportunities for them to learn and experience something different, something that inspires. Working among ourselves can really generate so much inspiration. Even when calibrated for maximum inspiration out of X number employees, there are things only working remotely can teach you.
Highly engaging to know what’s new locally
We start off all our meetings or huddles with remote teammates by asking them what’s new there. They never fail to interest us. A new startup hub that popped up around the corner is now a great place to meet new friends, founders, and potentially partners. A new local startup could mean a new trend in an adjacent industry we have yet to explore. A new bar could mean a new place to take a local client. The first 10 minutes of all our huddles now start this way.
It’s “fun” to adapt old processes to new changes
A good example of this is described above. Our meeting structures have changed due to the addition of remote teammates. The same can be said for a lot of our other internal workflows in order to take advantage of the fact that they’re remote. Take customer service as an example, we’ve established new automated workflows to funnel the right customers and their questions to the most relevant remote teammate for better timezone management. If we receive a message at 6pm in the evening and the conversation is likely to last a few hours, it makes more sense for a remote teammate in the 2pm timezone to take over. The same goes for managing technical workflows. Reviewing code changes and pull requests are now more efficient due to the addition of remote teammates, not the other way around as most people would anticipate. Better coverage and cadence + different perspectives + fresh eyes = win.
Fewer meetings but higher knowledge-transfer quality
One thing we’ve noticed more recently is a decline in the number of meetings we’re having. Having everyone in the office at the same time creates more excuses to just chit chat away and huddling for the sake of huddling. With remote teammates, we’re finding more value in sharing information only when it makes the most impact. Fewer meetings also mean that we need to communicate effectively whenever we get the chance to come together. Result? Higher quality gossip, more embarrassing stories, and super concise communication on the stuff that matters.
Great coverage for customers
Customers might not always know this but adding remote teammates have allowed us to expand our coverage and availability significantly over the past year. We’ve had to rely on office hours less and less. Autoresponders are firing less frequently and customers are getting happier. Some are amazed at how fast we respond and how available we are. Remote teams give you access to otherwise inaccessible resources. Think of a machine that is now constantly running instead of having to shut down in the middle of the night to save power!
A remote rotation maintains happiness levels
Working remotely is somewhat of a balance in and of itself. Unlike other companies where remote employees are permanently remote, we try to encourage everyone on the team to take turns at working remotely (circumstances permitting of course). Marvin had a great time in Vancouver? David can try out Vancouver next time. Teammates working remotely have the freedom to choose where they want to work out of and expenses are partially paid. Co-working spaces are 100% paid for just like travel expenses.
Learning to work remotely is training unlike anything else
Being able to work remotely usually means being a special breed of human. You need to be able to self regulate, you need to know how to over communicate, you need to understand how to work effectively when guidance isn’t always available. We don’t believe those are innate skills. Like knowing how to bake a good pie, it can be learned and perfected. Combined with a remote rotation, we’ve been able to fine tune these skills for every member of the Reamaze family. We all know how to work remotely and how to be a better teammate as a result of working remotely. Be self-reliant, be self-governing, know when to shut up and get to work, know when to complain like there’s no tomorrow. Communicate efficiently, get shit done, and be happy.
There are few caveats to working remotely and we’ll be the first to admit we haven’t really nailed down every detail. We’re still trying to calibrate the following and we’d appreciate it if any of you have experiences about them:
Length of time
What’s a good amount of remote time? 2 weeks? 3 weeks? 1.2 months? Our original assumption is that everyone is different and can handle remote time on a limited spectrum. However, it feels that there is indeed a length of time that works for 80% of the population.
Access
A lack of access is a great until it’s not. Working remotely can present its own set of challenges such as finding reliable wifi, working through VPNs, and not having teammates for specific roles can be limiting at times. While having less access to resources can be a good thing sometimes, the prolonged lack of access to certain workflows can be difficult to calibrate.
Expectations
We have different expectations for different people. When those expectations are filtered through a remote lens, things can get a bit strange. Are they getting sidetracked? Are they not getting their work done? How come this and how come that. The truth is, people’s work habits change in different environments and it’s all part of the adaption process for remote teams.
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