HOW TO TRANSITION YOUR COMPANY TO REMOTE

Making an office remote-first amounts to taking the steps necessary to enable employees to effectively work remotely in an anomalous or even emergency scenario. With a remote-first setup, your company’s productivity need not be lessened by even one day, regardless of what illness or traffic or weather or worse affects your workforce. This podcast is dedicated to how to transition your company to go remote.

Why transition your company? For one, your employees/colleagues are requesting it more and more. Flexibility is one of the most requested benefits in companies, and thus offering flexibility is a great way to retain and engage your employees. The other reason for going remote is to make your company “remote first“: regardless of where someone is, they are still able to get work done. being remote first is useful in case of bad weather, long commutes, transportation strikes, sick kids, and the list goes on.

Tips for transitioning to remote

Toolset

Have great infrastructure in place to MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO TALK to each other

• Insist on the best internet connection possible
• Use a webcam
• Use a headset
• Use great conference room equipment

Mindset

If you’re just starting a transition program, make sure to INVOLVE THE TEAM in figuring out needs and processes. Be sure to OUTLINE EXPECTATIONS by creating a team agreement together.

When one person on a team is remote, the whole team is remote. This is very hard to do if you only have one remote colleague. It will take everyone being PROACTIVE and OVERLY COMMUNICATIVE.

Remember the GOING REMOTE IS A JOURNEY. You won’t get it right on the first try. It’s series of trials and errors. One tip that came up repeatedly in interviews about this: take the transition process slowly. DO SAFE TO FAIL EXPERIMENTS to learn as you go before making major moves. For example, have everyone call in from their own workplaces before going remote.

Skillset

Make sure to OUTLINE CLEAR EXPECTATIONS and visualize what success looks like. Make sure team members know what each other are working on. HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE to those expectations.

TEACH YOUR TEAM HOW TO WORK ONLINE. Give one on one support to help get people up and running for learning the tools. For professional training, consider the Work Together Anywhere or a Hybrid Team Collaboration workshop (offered online, in person, and as a hybrid workshop).

“For those readers who are unsure about whether to try out the remote option, the straight-up advice comes down to just a few points. Even separate from the benefits of staying competitive and attracting top-notch talent, a company would be wise to develop into a remote-first operation for two reasons. First, with a remote-first setup, your company’s productivity need not be lessened by even one day, regardless of what illness or traffic or weather or worse affects your workforce. And second, the unanimous opinion is that a remote-first operation is stronger and more viable. And so the work you’d need to do to prepare for the remote option will greatly benefit your operation, whether or not anyone actually goes remote.” – Work Together Anywhere Handbook, Chapter 5