Enabling and empowering remote employees #HOU365

Editor's Notes

1. From the beginning, we have always been a remote first company. Consulting with customers remotely can be a challenge and was an important skill that we have been teaching to our teams. Though building trust with your team was harder than originally thought. We experimented and tried out a number of ways to be inclusive for our diverse team.Attend this session to learn about- Enabling every employee to have an impact- Supporting and encouraging work/life balance- Encouraging innovation through experimentation
2. Employees needed support. people were working too many hours People were on too many projects Research was not reflected
3. Tips on working from home Tips on improving employee connections Tips on improving employee happiness
4. Designate a location Separate from your living space Commute to work Set ground rules Configure your workspace Mimic office setup Secure devices Play music Validate internet and network connectivity Check your internet provider Confirm vpn with your help desk Limit non-work internet use Continue normal work routine Maintain standard working hours Dress for the office Take breaks
5. Build a network within your team Set up a team/channels for your team Make 1:1s a priority Establish/maintain weekly team meetings Encourage video, which includes blur background. Currently my office is an absolute mess - but with blur (In Microsoft Teams) is a great help there. Ensure to respect people that for any reason dont cant/want to go on video, but video should (in my opinion) be an opt-out not opt-in. Create structure for your meetings Minimize distractions with a formal agenda Encourage everyone to speak up Schedule breaks for long meetings/planning sessions Learn together Embrace the distractions (kids, dogs, doorbells, etc) Be open to flex time Encoruage your team to connect with one another
6. Employees with a strong ability to self-regulate can mitigate the stress of constant connectivity. Also known as “willpower,” self-regulation represents our ability to resist temptation. Anyone who has been expecting an update on Slack while eating dinner with the family knows that the “need” to check for that update is a very real temptation. The good news is that self-regulation is a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it. In other words, no one is cursed to live a life without willpower — it can be improved. Even better, self-regulation is universal; the willpower used to resist that second piece of cheesecake is the same willpower that can keep you from checking your phone for the 14th time this hour. To improve your willpower, we recommend starting with the basics. With your new work environment being the home, it is easy to grow lax when it comes to daily chores and following basic routines. Not making the bed anymore? Make your bed. Instead of slouching at your desk chair — sit up straight. Diet gone out the window after your third week in quarantine? Get back on the healthy eating wagon. All of these little, minor disciplines are small workouts that strengthen your overall willpower and will ultimately help you in separating your work life from your home life. Our recommendations for combatting this lack of willpower are twofold. First, don’t give your willpower a chance to falter. Set a hard cut-off for checking your messages from work and then physically enforce it — close Slack, log out of Teams, turn off your phone. At a minimum, turn off all notifications so that you don’t hear or see the “incoming” message alert. Remember, if you don’t have cheesecake in your refrigerator, you can’t eat it — similarly, if you can’t see the messages, you can’t check them. Note that this may mean you need to “manage your boss” to set realistic expectations as to how quickly you will be able to respond after certain hours. Second, as the pandemic continues to wear on, some people may begin to feel like they are struggling with a lack of willpower and an absence of motivation. This is a vicious cycle because willpower requires motivation. This makes intuitive sense; there is no reason to self-regulate your behavior if you have no motivation to do so. Thus, if you are feeling unmotivated right now, it is going to be incredibly difficult to self-regulate. No one is going to fault you for failing to stay motivated during this pandemic, especially when the vast majority of us have been labeled “unessential.” However, this is the time to take a moment and reflect on why your job is “essential” to you, to your clients, and to the greater community. Try not to forget that all of us are contributing to something bigger than ourselves.  Share progress on personal goals Inspire others with your home office setup Share healthy eating recipes
7. Send a ‘good morning’ chat Catch up over virtual coffee Have a ‘hallway conversation’ Add memes and giphys to chats to keep communication fun
8. Create a ‘watercoller’ channel in your team Share insights on remote working Be the Champion for your workgroup Have frequent team connects
9. Facilitate productivity in Teams Post shared files to your teams channels Pin important apps/resources for easy access Encourage channel chats to keep everyone aligned Establish communication norms Limit how much/often you share the same message Set expectations for response times Allow opportunity to everyone to respond Use the general channel for team announcements Build an inclusive environment Encourage feedback and questions Do ‘round-robins’ in team meetings/chats Be mindful of schedules and locations
10. Configure personal settings in Teams Test your headset/webcam Set your status and status message Pin active chats and conversations Allow colleagues to “see” you Embrace “do not disturb” status Use @mentions to grab attention Enable video with background blur Be active in meetings Make every meeting a Teams meeting Use a headset to alleviate background noise Leverage meeting chat to share thoughts/files Mute when not talking
11. What are the key indicators of a successful employee Encourage feedback and support Celebrate success
12. self-motivatedPeople who are self-motivated will have a solid answer to this question. They love a good challenge and stay focused on it, even when they face a setback, or a shiny new object enters their field of vision INITIATIVE This question varies based on what type of role you’re interviewing for. If it’s a design or marketing role, ask what struck them about the company’s website. If it’s a finance role, ask what struck them about the numbers you released last quarter. And so on. “What struck you about our company values?” is a good all-purpose variant. What you’re sniffing out here is how pro-active the candidate is. Did they take the initiative to research the company a bit? As a manager, you have better things to do that prod remote workers into action all the time. So make sure you won’t have to. PURPOSEFULNESS Effective remote workers are hyper-engaged in their work. They understand why it’s valuable and that shows through. It’s hard to course-correct someone’s sense of purpose if they’re remote, so make sure your candidate nails this one. Ideally, they’ll say that their passionate about the company’s mission. Or they might be excited to hone a new skill. Or work at a different type of company. However they answer, make sure their sense of purpose and yours are in alignment. SELF-AWARENESS Even the most introverted remote workers need a little social nourishment. How does your candidate plan to get it? It’s less important what exactly their answer is. Really, you want to see that they’ve considered how being remote will affect them and have some idea what they’ll do to adapt. In an office setting, people tacitly look out for each other (“Hey, you look really tired today – everything ok?”). Remote workers, on the other hand, have to be keenly self-aware and good at self-care or they risk burning out. INDEPENDENT DECISION MAKING You’ll have an easier time managing remote team members who you can trust to make the right call on small and medium-sized decisions autonomously. The best remote workers take time to understand the bigger picture, as well as what they need to optimize for at all costs vs. where they can be flexible so they can evaluate trade-offs effectively. Hearing how they’ve handled decisions where they were flying blind to some extent gives you an especially good window into their decision-making process. It reveals what information they sought out and what information they felt they could do without. Keep an eye ear out for how they thought about their decision’s impact on customers and stakeholders – not just themselves or their immediate team. LEADERSHIP Even if the job isn’t managerial, leadership skills are still important – especially if your company is one where individual contributors frequently play the role of project lead. Leading from afar means being extra-intentional about coordinating and communicating. So listen carefully to how they’d build the business case for the project and convince the leadership team to give it the green light. Then, how would they pull a project team together? A good remote worker will instinctively think about all the different job functions or skills needed for the project and won’t hesitate to get other teams involved if need be. COMMUNICATION SKILLS Ok, this is sort of a trick question. It’s unlikely anyone you’re interviewing would walk in with enough information to answer it authoritatively. And that’s the point. A good remote worker will ask clarifying questions right away. What are the team’s priorities right now? What projects are already in flight? What have we already tried that didn’t work? Once they’ve got enough context to formulate an answer, look for candidates who get right to the point. A low signal-to-noise ratio is key for effective, efficient remote work. 
13. When all your interactions with colleagues are virtual – either voice, video, or text – it’s easy to miss out on social cues like body language or tone of voice. That’s why remote workers with a high level of emotional intelligence are more successful. They’re able to empathize and anticipate that person’s concerns or mood, then let that influence their communications with that person. This question will reveal whether the candidate imagined themselves in the other person’s shoes before speaking with them, and how they took that into account. Candidates with an especially high EQ will talk about how they focused the feedback on the other person’s actions and behaviors, rather than their innate characteristics or worth. Also, take note of whether they offered to help the other person work on a solution or make changes – another sign of emotional intelligence. A more effective approach is to actively choose what to request of your employees and work with them to determine a realistic timeline for that task’s completion. This aids in establishing standards of “how” work will be done, not just “what” work will be done. Setting such expectations acknowledges the stresses employees are experiencing and likely will result in reduced stress and higher quality job performance. Different in Leading meetings in person versus remotely
14. Give feedback Ensure you are providing regular feedback Walking meetings Take the opportunity to both get up and walk during you connect with team members Peer Feedback Ask team members to provide feedback Reverse Mentoring Ask for feedback from team members Celebrate Growth Quarterly connects to learn about what they learned
15. Give feedback Ensure you are providing regular feedback Walking meetings Take the opportunity to both get up and walk during you connect with team members Peer Feedback Ask team members to provide feedback Reverse Mentoring Ask for feedback from team members Celebrate Growth Quarterly connects to learn about what they learned
16. A lot of times what you set out to do, is not always achievable
17. Shorter deliberate meetings Reduce longer meetings with shorter meetings (15/30 min) Increase in planned ‘informal meetups’ Informal conversations benefit a lot to remote employees. Bringing structure with predictable-yet optional social activities meetings see an increase-as an alternative to the coffee corner conversations
18. The collaboration practices that worked well in their last job, might not work in this one. Especially if your team isn’t used to having a remote member, or if this would be the candidate’s first remote-based job. You need someone who is flexible, persevering, eager to experiment, and doesn’t assume they already know the best way of doing things. Sound familiar? Those are key components of a growth mindset.  A candidate who is all about growth and continuous improvement will have at least one story in this vein. Listen carefully to how they frame the failure, though. Do they take ownership, or shift the blame elsewhere? Unless they openly accept responsibility, they probably didn’t learn anything. Owning the failure also demonstrates a desirable blend of humility, confidence, and integrity.
19. Project completion Showcase to peers Share customer feedback During performance reviews