Remote work: Cases of Bright Box’s Firmware, Technical Support, Product Development, and Project Management teams
The word “remote” should be the Word of the Year for 2020, as it has affected almost every person and every company. Bright Box is no exception. In fact, we have worked remotely for quite a long time. Since 2017, company employees have had the opportunity to work from home two days a week. But since March 2020 in five Bright Box offices (Moscow, Dubai, Budapest, New York, and Hong Kong)no one has worked in the offices. And, no one will be until March 2021. We decided to collect detailed information on the internal processes of the switch to remote work in Firmware, Technical Support, Product Development, and Project Management teams in countries where our company operates. This information is interesting because our company’s team work is connected with telematics and cars, which do not fit into the home office. We have divided the experience of each team into sections.
Team leader of Firmware:
Problems
Even before the pandemic, Bright Box employees were able to work from home two days a week, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, when the home became a full-time office due to the pandemic, psychological difficulties began. Many people found it difficult to recreate the working experience at home, and family relationships and habits interfered with work.
First of all, as a team, we faced the problem that the daily routine was down, which in its extreme form became insomnia. To address this problem, we introduced a “day schedule” where we strictly defined work start, end, and break times. The team also decided that it was necessary to separate work and non-work spaces. Some workers turned a room into an office; others used a balcony. HR and office managers provided employees with everything they needed to be comfortable: ottomans, desk lamps, office chairs. Everything for work was put in a specific place; entering this space meant that employees could focus on work tasks, and exiting this space meant employees could switch to home affairs or relaxation.
In terms of positive changes, we noticed that the absence of office noise increased the speed of task completion. And even though additional meetings and organization of new workflows partially restored the office environment, the productivity of employees increased at home compared with the office.
But, the synergy between team members suffered most when moving to remote work. The synergy is crucial for efficient execution of complex tasks and finding solutions to fix them.
Technical equipment
The developers took telematics devices home with them in order to provide remote support and develop new functionalities. An approximate set of devices for each developer was as follows: nine telematics devices of the last three versions, four controllers, a tourniquet to connect the emulator, transmitters with harnesses, a laboratory power supply, three tachographs, and a USB-port extender.
Communications
Our team conducts research on cars, so it is important for us to have cars physically present near the office or to be able to work on clients’ premises. Writing and debugging code and functional tests are also performed on real cars.
But, due to the pandemic, we have mostly shifted our focus to remote research. In local offices or on client premises, one employee conducts work. With the remote assistance of our engineer, he performs research work, collects and transmits information for analysis, and performs minimal tests. He relays this information to the team, and they provide a solution. This approach is subject to limitations, but in the current situation, it allows us to continue some of our planned work without traveling. Employees also carry out work on personal vehicles or vehicles of colleagues.
Team leader of Technical Support:
Problems
The challenge of remote teamwork was mostly employees with children. Depending on their age, children may not understand that a parent needs to work all day and cannot play with them.
In addition, there is a severe lack of team physical presence. But we have tried to solve this problem. For example, to support team spirit and staff awareness, HR provides a number of weekly activities.
Technical equipment
Nothing new for our work had to be invented. We use the same tools that we used before the self-isolation period: VoIP telephony, incident tracking systems, internal services for working with equipment, etc.
Communications
Our clients are divided into two types: aftersales customers and carsharing operators. For the latter, we provide only informational support. For aftersales customers, we help them remotely, as always.
Team leader of Product Development:
Problems
For us, the transition to remote work was not very noticeable because our team has previously worked in a similar format. We always took the opportunity to work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we have established a system of remote communication that fully replaces personal contact in the office. With the arrival of fully remote work, our team resolved any problems that occurred — all employees are available during working hours by email and phone, and do not need to be sought in corners of the office.
At the beginning of the transition, everyone was worried about the uncertainty of the situation. Many were ready to work in another city/country but were hesitant because it could be necessary to return to the office soon. Now, this uncertainty has been cleared up. We will not return to the offices until the end of March 2021, or we might completely switch to a remote format.
Technical equipment
Since the company was founded, the tools and technical solutions we use in our work have been designed for maximum employee flexibility. Everyone has a laptop (some even have two), so there are no problems with access, and work can go on without interruption. If someone’s work equipment breaks down while working remotely, our IT department can urgently send a replacement laptop, and everyone has access to cloud-based office and technical sites.
Communications
Our team works as self-sufficiently as possible, so interactions with other teams are minimal and not critical for the performance of our tasks. In fact, remote work has opened up new opportunities for us. For example, you can go to the mountains or to the sea for a long period of time while continuing to work remotely and increase social distancing.
Head of Project Management Office:
Problems
The transition to remote work was quite easy and smooth. To be honest, at first, we thought mostly about continuing business processes and maintaining project activities. As soon as we made sure that all processes continued to be performed at the proper level, we started to optimize communications, solve “everyday” problems, and monitor the status of remote employees. At this stage, it was important to get feedback from employees and react quickly to issues. The company actively helped employees create a comfortable working environment at home. During personal online meetings with employees and meetings regarding annual and interim assessments, discussing issues related to remote work became common practice. The main challenge for employees was not technical ability to perform duties remotely; instead, the major challenge was organizing remote workspaces and integrating work life into home life.
Technical equipment
In the first days of quarantine, employees had to solve the problem of arranging a workplace at home. The company provided necessary equipment and office furniture to help employees create a suitable working environment. For example, one employee had to change their home router for a more powerful one, and another employee had to buy an additional antenna and change their mobile communication provider to get a reliable connection in their country house. All other resources needed for work were already available on the Internet.
Communications
Although working with remote employees is not new for Bright Box, transferring all employees to this mode of work simultaneously caused some difficulties. When managing a remote team, we need to spend much more time on team communications and one-to-one meetings. Not surprisingly, at first, all available call slots and online meetings were completely booked for two to three weeks ahead. With employees requiring micromanagement and more frequent communication, there were additional activities discussing the rules of remote work, availability mode, and response time to colleagues.
Since 2017, Bright Box has been a part of the international insurance group Zurich that focuses on the health and safety of employees of all its member companies. So we don’t rush to open our offices, we don’t send people on business trips, we reimburse employees for coronavirus tests to be able to work in the office if it is extremely necessary. And today we focus more on the list of remote benefits. Here they are:
· An employee can work from any location as long as they have Internet access;
· A new experience at work — our engineers have found a way to test cars remotely.
· No need to waste time on travel;
· Saving money for lunch, you can stick to your eating habits and diet;
· Scheduling work time to your liking;
· Opportunity to spend more time with family;
· Increasing the level of self-organization and responsibility;
· The warmth of waiting to meet your co-workers;
· Saving money on office maintenance (buying office supplies, tea, coffee, etc.) and business trips;
· More opportunities for remote training. Employees are more active in self-education and are happy to take online courses on the educational platform of Zurich Insurance Group.
Once upon a time, it was hard for us to imagine that all companies would switch to a remote working format. We had it accepted twice a week, so we were able to quickly reorganize. But most employees still recognize the need to talk to their colleagues in person at least a few times a week.
So we’re not ready to give up the office for good yet, are you?
