Working From Home Lessons

We’ll be dealing with people working from home for a while now. It’s now the new norm.

It might’ve started as a necessary safety measure in response to the pandemic, but has continued as lockdown has been lifted and New Zealand enjoys something resembling normal life again.
To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if the trend of working from home continues. It may even become a story we tell to our wide-eyed grandchildren, just like the way our grandparents told us about the war.
Going forward, it’s clear that businesses will need to continue to provide a flexible working situation for their teams.

This isn’t a lamentation, mind you. The ability for businesses to be flexible to the different requirements of their team is a virtue. It’s vital to creating a productive office environment. But it goes without saying that the normalisation of remote working is going to throw a couple of challenges. And this might take some adapting to.

I’ll level with you, as a business owner, I had (and have) something of an unfair advantage here.

I run a digital agency, so using tech to solve problems is what our clients pay us to do. We operate under the notion that if you have an internet connection, you’ve got everything you need to work with us. We’d also like a brilliant mind to go with it, but that’s beside the point.

However, I really do think that some of the lessons to come out of my experiences with running a business remotely can be applied to most workplaces.

It probably comes as a surprise to no one, but communication really was a major factor in keeping the machine as well oiled as possible from afar.

Crucial to note is that it’s less about what you communicate, and more about how you use communication to stay connected with the team.

It’d be all to easy to slip into a routine of staying shut off from the outside world. We instead just jump on a Zoom call from time-to-time as part of scheduled meetings around specific tasks. This is exactly what working from home has meant for many.

But that’s not what it’s really like to work as part of a collaborative effort. Aside from the work your business produces, it’s about the little back and fourths between major meetings to solves problems. It’s also about the jokes and off-topic conversations that ultimately build-up a productive and enjoyable office culture.

Now, you can’t really expect to perfectly replicate this kind of environment remotely. However we did manage to create something of a “virtual watercooler” during our time away from the office.

This was largely in the form of setting up a constant live feed amongst the team. This meant that not every piece of communication between team members had to take place over an organised meeting.

Participation was optional of course, the goal was never to create some kind of digital 1984. But it really did go a long way in helping people feel like they were still part of a team. And being part of a team is why we are a business, not a single freelancer.

And when it came to scheduled meetings – setting up regular “check-ins” with the team became as important as meetings regarding specific topics and projects. It was just a good way to make sure that everyone was coping well.

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the secret weapon that is MyTeamPulse. This allowed me to further ensure that my team’s engagement and wellbeing wasn’t suffering (and I promise they aren’t paying me to write this).

In a nutshell, MTP is an app that allows you to pulse your team’s engagement and wellbeing. This is done through anonymous surveys provided to each team member on a regular basis. And whilst I pride myself on having an open office environment where people are invited to speak openly without judgement, anonymity is just that little bit more comfortable at times.

Running a business is equally about making sure that your team members feel empowered and supported to complete their work. It is about making sure your employees are meeting their obligations. Distance doesn’t change that.

And as businesses are becoming more flexible to the needs of their employees, this feels more relevant than ever to running a smooth operation – near or far.

 

Mike Taylor is the Founder and Managing Director of BBT Digital.