Best Practices For Working Remotely from Home
Due to the current situation related to coronavirus, on 5th of March, as one of the first companies in Poland, we have decided to arrange remote work for all employees. We believe in the effectiveness and social responsibility of this change but it’s not a radical departure from our previous day-to-day activities. Lots of Synerise People work remotely every day since we cooperate in various offices all over the world. However, we know that working from home, especially at the scale of the whole company, can be a real challenge. That’s why we’ve decided to share our knowledge about good remote work practices.
At Synerise we've mastered remote work as we've always been open to it and more than 10% of our staff is 100% remote on a daily basis, reaching us from different parts of the world through Microsoft Teams, Slack and other platforms.
What's more, the team employed on site (in the offices in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan) has always had the possibility of unlimited remote work. All employees had to do was tell their team leader in advance and let the rest of the team know before that they were planning a home office on a given day. In this way, each of our employees has experience in working from outside the office.
However, even though we all know how to handle remote work, the current scenario is brand new to us. More than 220 of us are working from homes right now, and we have to make sure we’re doing it the best way possible.
See what we do to keep motivation up!
How do we deal with remote work in Synerise?
We have decided to organize mandatory updates from each department daily to keep our employees informed and motivated. We present use cases, new implementations, client stories and inspirations that everyone can follow. This solution not only affects greater team visibility, but also helps us all to stay in sync - and helps us to learn something new about the company and Synerise capabilities.
Each day from Monday to Friday, we meet virtually on Teams to discuss the most important things and to listen to each other. For 30 minutes, every member of the team has a chance to participate in the most exciting things we do as a company each day.
Such summaries are extremely valuable since we often tend to focus on the work of our own department. Thanks to these calls, we have the opportunity to look at the work of others, share ideas, be up to date and eventually even work out new things.
In addition, each business team (in IT we do it always!), has implemented daily scrum sessions. We gather online at 11:00 to talk about current tasks and prioritization.
But what, apart from group online meetings, can we do to mobilize ourselves to be even more productive?
Ways to Defeat a Lack of Motivation
Have you ever wondered which job levels work remotely the most frequently?
According to data from Owl Labs’ 2019 State of Remote Work report, jobs with the greatest percentage of remote workers are people hired at C-Level.
Our current situation is giving everyone a chance to see what it’s like to be a senior manager.
However, data gathered in this report also shows some doubts about “home offices”. It shows that managers whose employees work remotely usually face the following concerns:
Let's consider how to facilitate your daily work from home and be our own “remote manager”, encouraging us to not be distracted:
1. Set a place to work - Of course, this does not have to be an office or separate work room; all you need is a neat desk or table without too much clutter. Most people prefer not to work on the couch to avoid the temptation to be too lazy.
However, if this is your favorite place, allowing you to relax and focus, feel free to work here too. Whatever works, right? 😊
2. Work out your daily routine - Do not work non-stop, for 24 hours, on weekends. We know that the laptop is tempting and so is working "after hours" instead of when you should be available to the rest of the team.
Divide your day into working hours and non-working hours that you will devote to your family or hobby (of course, a hobby realized in this case from home). Try to start and finish work at the same hours every day; also avoid eating dinner in front of the computer.
Also, try to dress as for work. Your morning should be like going to the office: eat breakfast, shower, get dressed normally, change position at work as you normally would. You can start at your desk, move to the kitchen and back again. The bedroom is never a good option. Take breaks for family talks — after all, in the office you also have time for small talk with your colleagues.
3. Focus on clear communication – During our everyday work it's much easier for us to make contact with a colleague sitting at the desk next to us and talk about whatever’s keeping you busy at the time. Even if you can’t do it right away, there’s always a coffee break not too far away.
At the moment, however, we do not have such an opportunity, so let's make sure that the emails we send and other forms of discussing projects are clear and specific.
Tips and Tricks from Synerise Collegues
These tips are just the basics. If you are interested in some more clever hacks for improving your working comfort and efficiency, check what our coworkers say:
Summing Up
Take care of yourself but pay attention to the quality of your work. Remote work is the future standard so let's all try to learn something from our current situation.
We hope that our advice will prove to be helpful and the transition to remote work, even for long periods, will be trouble-free and rewarding.