By Hugo Tilmouth, ChargedUp
For many businesses moving to remote working has been something new as it was for us. With the lockdown easing some people are returning to their workplaces but many will continue to work from home.
The shift to remote working was a huge learning experience for us. I hope the summary of learning points from our experience will give you some new ideas to help keep improving the way remote working operates in your business.
- Don’t spend lots of time trying to reinvent the wheel: If there is an issue you need to address remember that there is a wealth of online resources out there. I would recommend https://www.notion.so and particularly Notion’s remote working guide as a source of excellent information for start-ups. Notion is a wiki where companies share best practice and experiences to help other start-ups. Start-ups simply do not have the resources to produce extensive guidelines and policy documents so Notion has been a life saver. For example, in preparing our team for remote working we mined Notion. I would particularly recommend the video Zapier’s Guide to Working Remotely. We also used https://seedlegals.com Free Coronavirus Workplace Policy to guide us through the swift planning and preparation stage.
- Coach the team on how to work remotely. It’s not too late to do this, even if you and your team have been working from home for weeks.
It is vital that each team member is well equipped to work remotely. Team leaders should discuss the logistics of remote working with their team members; providing guidance on creating a quiet space, setting a schedule, limiting interruptions from social media and other members of the household, etc. We coached the team on good working practice, including maintaining regular working hours, scheduling breaks, etc. We have a very committed team and we don’t want them burning out by working 24/7.
One of the key lessons we learned from people taking, for example, monitor home is that it is often difficult for people to find room at home for a desk to work on. I had to take the plunge and purchased a small second hand desk from eBay, after trying to work at a coffee table for a week! The extra investment was well worth it.
- Establish the working day routine from day one: To facilitate a structured approach, I suggest starting each day with a 15 minute team stand-up at 08:45. I would also encourage you to introduce a progress tracking tool such as https://clubhouse.io It allows you to create templates so that people can report what they did yesterday and what they intend to do today. We use the https://slack.com automation tool to prompt everyone at 8:30 each morning to complete this form. This is then visible to all team members. This is so important to keep our team focussed and to keep projects moving in the right direction.
- Make the most of inexpensive tools to help with remote working: Like most companies we already use collaboration software for audio conferencing, file sharing and communication. We chose Slack, from Slack Technologies Inc., although there are many offerings out there. Slack is a great option for small companies. When we want full video conferencing, we turn to Google Hangout. This enables us to share screens, presentations, etc.
ChargedUp uses https://Loom.com from Loom Inc, to record processes, new code, etc., to then share with the team. For example, the operations team have recorded all of their policies and processes via Loom. This is so useful for on-boarding new employees.
- Ensure strict discipline for online meetings: Do you find that online meetings can drift? Or not cover everything needed in the time allotted? I strongly recommend implementing a robust meeting policy to ensure that meetings are effective and that each one is time limited, has a clear agenda and that outcomes, actions and owners are agreed. I found a great article on ‘How to run a more effective meeting’ from the New York Times Business section. https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/how-to-run-an-effective-meeting
- Keep your staff happy and well motivated: Of huge importance to ChargedUp is the well being and mental health of our team. We want them to stay well so we can hit the ground running when we get through these difficult times. Feeling isolated is one of the key issues raised by habitual remote workers and so we have made a particular effort to create opportunities for colleagues to socialise together online.
The team meets online for lunch at 13:00 each day, encouraging down time and an opportunity to chat and share ideas.
We also use https://www.donut.com to arrange 121 coffee breaks with each other. Many of the best ideas originate by the water cooler so do encourage opportunities for chatting and brainstorming.
- Continue to reward and praise your colleagues: Although cash may be tight, go out of your way to praise and celebrate successes. For example, I arranged for a case of Jubel beer (https://jubelbeer.com/sales/) to be sent to each staff member so that our regular Friday 17:00 beers could continue, albeit remotely. We meet online at 17:00 and celebrate our successes and have a laugh. Not only does this boost morale but also supports a local brewery.
- Use this ‘quiet time’ wisely: We fully anticipate a huge bounce in our business when the crisis is over and we are using this time to plan for the next stage in ChargedUp’s expansion. This quieter time allows us to develop our capabilities, hone our processes and improve our application.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hugo Tilmouth is CEO of ChargedUp, Europe’s largest phone charging network. Building on the British philosophy to promote sustainable innovations, ChargedUp gives customers power on-demand through its network of portable power banks. It also provides venues with a unique marketing tool that drives footfall and increases dwell time. 50 people work for the young company, which has expanded its charging network to over 3000 stations across the UK, Netherlands and Germany since 2017. The ChargedUp app now has around 210,000 users.
https://instagram.com/chargedupworld
https://www.linkedin.com/company/chargedupworld