The amalgamation of the flexibility of work with location independence

The amalgamation of the flexibility of work with location independence

The amalgamation of the flexibility of work with location independence is still a dream for many. And why it wouldn’t be? Who doesn’t want to work without stepping out of their comfort zone? Everyone wants that. With technology advancement, everyone today can embrace the concept of working remotely with utmost dedication. Moreover, valuable insights and vast knowledge about the entire concept is being nurtured more and more with our penchant for working remotely.

Working remotely means working with the flexibility of location independence. Since everyone working in a remote company might be the residents of different countries. Hence,communication in a Remote Company has to have a perfect detailed set of guidelines, and Evernote has been following up these sets of instructions for their remote employees. Let’s take the insights into the communication process that they follow and get some valuable learning from them, which will make a better remote work environment for us and enhance our productivity.

1. Developing a Communication Policy for Remote Teams

“If your house was on fire, would you send an email to the fire department? Probably not, because that’s not the right channel for that kind of urgency.”

Says Beat Buhlmann – EVP of Evernote

To state it right, Beat Buhlmann has given an example. Every time they get new people on any of their teams, they provide them with a communication Drivers License. A proper communication structure is created with the team’s input on how they use the various communication platforms, like email, messenger, video call, and calendar. But instead of asking team members for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a calendar invite, they get them together on a video call and ask them to list down everything they do not like about working at Evernote. Then from these insights, they develop a communication plan which is discussed with the team before they finalized it.

1. Evernote’s Communication Charter – Defining Communication Guidelines & Over Communication

Before they proceed with the communication process, they have a detailed set of guidelines that they follow for communication and call it the Evernote Communication Charter. It includes calendar hygiene, email expectations, home office hygiene, office hours, and more. It is free to use for anyone who wishes to.

Beat Buhlmann told us that he emphasizes on calendar hygiene because it’s more important that teams maintain transparency. If he’s on a plane from Japan to the US, and it’s not in his calendar, no one will ever know. During his flight hours, someone might book a meeting with the client that he has to be a part of, and this can lead to complications and misunderstanding.

Having a clear and transparent calendar is essential for every team member to have clarity and communicate efficiently.

1. Is Over Communication a Significant Challenge in Remote Teams?

“An average knowledge worker spends 2-2.5 hours each day on tools looking for information. Which is 30% of your salary cost.” Says Buhlmann

If employees are more focused on looking for information and data on communication channels or tools, it leaves them with less time to actually get the work done, and it hinders their productivity.

For instance, if team members can’t easily find information, they would keep (over-communicating and) interrupting the entire team for information. And if you don’t address these issues (and have guidelines in place), it would make the whole team unproductive. It eventually leads to interrupted productivity.

1. Running a Meeting in a Virtual Team

Meetings are a significant part of your work-life, no matter if you’re working remotely or in a traditional corporate office. The process of conducting meetings is slightly different from the one done otherwise. A few questions that arise before holding a meeting are the sole purpose, the agenda that’s going to be discussed, and if the discussion could be done without getting everyone on a video call or not.

These questions will ensure that you don’t conduct unnecessary meetings, and you save everyone’s time. To keep the pointless meetings aside, Evernote follows a Triple W rule while conducting meetings. It stands for – Who, does What, and by When. It helps in clearly defining everyone’s tasks and efficiently prioritize work and projects for teams.

1. [Remote Hiring] Tools Don’t Make Virtual Teams – The Right People Do

Hiring a remote employee is the most significant step for every remote organization. Nobody wants an incompetent candidate, who they waste their hardened money over. Similarly, the essential aspect of a virtual team is the people, not the tools. And this can only be incorporated during the hiring process. Tools have their own perks, but they can’t be replaced with people all the time.

If you hire the right people, they will quickly adapt to the tools used in your teams and will fit right into the organizational culture. To ensure that, Evernote gets the right people on board, for which, they follow a few steps. For instance, during the interview process, they conduct the first interview only on the telephone (not even a video call). It helps in evaluating whether or not the candidate can communicate efficiently and clearly in a remote environment.

Another assessment practice that they follow during their hiring process is evaluating whether the candidate is a great listener or not. During the interview, the candidate is asked two specific questions and is asked to repeat those questions. Then they ask them to send them an email with the questions followed by its answer (in less than five sentences). And ⅔ rd of candidates fail this test because they weren’t listening to the instructions they were given.

1. Building trust among remote team members

The cord of trust between an employee and the employer in every organization is way too eminent as it creates the real values for the employee and employer both. It can neither be blinded as it has to be earned. The team of Evernote believes that think precise, efficient, and to the point, communication is a great way to do that.

Beat Buhlmann stated an example to connote this better – “I ask a team member a question, and I get the answer within 10 seconds, or so, it instantly makes me productive, and I can move forward with my work without any hurdles. This helps develop trustworthy relationships between my team members and I. On the other hand, if that same team member would have taken 3 hours to respond or if I would have asked 20 different questions altogether, it would waste both of our time, and this leads to dissatisfaction.”

1. Performance Evaluation and Feedback in Virtual Teams

“I take everyone in my team on either a weekly 30 min or bi-weekly 1-hour meeting with every team member. We use a board to add agenda items for every meeting that needs to be discussed so that we are able to communicate everything without wasting time.”

Therefore, for feedback and performance evaluation, they go through the tasks and goals set for the team during the week and check how much of it has been accomplished efficiently.

1. Managing Internal Conflicts in Virtual Teams

Conflicts are a part of internal communication in every organization, but the first thing is to prevent the conflict in the first place to avoid managing it later. You can prevent conflicts by having communication rules, virtual team charter, and other processes that will help to overcome miscommunication and misunderstandings; that is the sole reason for conflicts in remote teams.

Secondly, if you are unable to prevent it and conflicts occur in your team, it is essential to resolve them by communicating with the team members involved. But doing it over email would be a bad idea as it escalates the matter further. Using the right communication channel (like video conferencing) could be a better option to get the team members together to resolve issues.

1. The Future of Virtual Teams

Since the technology is snowballing, it is creating a boon for all, and this will result in numerous tools and equipment that will enable all the tasks and processes automatically without putting in many efforts.

Buhlmann says – “I think in the next couple of years, a lot of tasks and processes will be automated that are currently done by knowledge workers. So the question arises, what will the knowledge worker do then? This makes it essential to stay ahead of the curve and understand the mega (long-term) trends in the industry.

Today, given that artificial intelligence can solve so many business problems, there is no reason why companies would not go remote in the coming years.”

As we are reaching closer to the future of work i.e., Remote Work, we must get to know the complete knowledge of remote work environment not just as an organization but also as employees seeking flexible opportunities. To get the perfect insights into remote work, joinThe Remote Work Summit that covers the entire spectrum of discussion on Remote Work and become an expert today. Also, get to knowTrello’s flexible work culture.