Switching to Remote Work Overnight
Here’s how we switched to 100% remote work overnight, told straight from our COO Rana Hallal’s perspective. This is to help other startups adjust to sudden work shift caused by COVID2019.
The very first day after we switched to remote work, we noticed that the team was very much affected by the social distancing. Some were bothered by the isolation, some were worried about their health.
So as a company, but more importantly, as a group of people who see and care for each other on a daily basis, we had to act fast. The change was abrupt and we needed to be proactive and reconnect with our team members outside the scope of work. Here are a few thing we did:
Weekly email check-ups
We started by sending a few #slack tips on how to make remote work easier. Weekly email check-ups were sent out to turn our "tips" into a process, and to hear back from our team. Here’s the email we sent out the very first week.
2. Virtual Coffee Breaks
By week 2, our CEO was still feeling disconnected from the team so she set up a Hangouts meeting not to discuss work, but solely to connect with the team and have a quick break together - like a virtual coffee break.
3. Fun Slack Automations
Next thing we know we received adorable Slack reminders to take breaks, drink water, even play with a pet. That was our CEO using Slack’s automation workflow. The effect of the reminders on the team? Higher and better engagement. So I had to get creative with my next idea.
4. Weekly Health Tips Series
Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere close to being a blogger and have no time for that. But being a fitness instructor on the side, I grabbed the opportunity to share my knowledge with the team and try and put a smile on their faces by starting a “Weekly Health Tips” series.
My tips were random - from ways to cope with stress to simple jokes to suggestions for at home workouts and guided meditation. By the end of the email, I asked them to reply to the thread by one thing they are grateful for. The result put the biggest smile on my face.
We started hearing more from our team members even the ones that don’t usually partake in non-work conversations. We started truly connecting. Now, we are reminding them that even if they do not see us on a daily basis, we are still there for them.
What have we learned? Remote work might get tedious, frustrating, even isolating yet when we work on changing people's mindsets, we start tracking improvement in their well-being and higher productivity.
