5 things we learned while managing a remote workforce
At Mistplay, we’ve always been proud of our remote-friendly attitude: although our headquarters are located in Montreal, our team includes colleagues in Europe, South America, and Asia. From a technical standpoint, this meant we were able to transition to a completely remote team without much difficulty. However, like many other companies, this also introduced some unexpected challenges. For example, what would happen to our company culture, which was forged through in-person happy hours and team lunches? What steps could we take to protect our team’s well-being during this stressful time?
These challenges were intensified by our team’s growth over the past year. While we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have doubled the size of our team during a global pandemic, this also meant that many of our newest team members had never met each other in person. Over half a year later, we’re here to share five lessons we learned about how to boost team morale during a global pandemic.
1. Be flexible
As we’ve all undoubtedly heard many times, this pandemic is — say it with us — a rapidly evolving situation. Flexibility has therefore become a guiding principle for our decision-making over the past six months. Staying up to date with the latest news and directives meant we were able to take advantage of periods when it was safe to meet up in bigger groups. This allowed us to enjoy socially distanced happy hours and scavenger hunts outdoors when quarantine restrictions were lifted, before transitioning back to virtual events.
2. Be considerate
Researching remote work in the media might yield the impression that employees worldwide are ready to never set foot in an office again. Talking to our team, however, clarified the importance of taking their diverse opinions into consideration. An internal survey revealed that while some team members were happy working from home, others felt isolated and stressed. This led us to open our office on a voluntary basis for the people who wanted to be there, while respecting the wishes of those who preferred to stay home.
3. Be extra
To ensure we can keep our office open safely, we’re following every health regulation — even those that aren’t mandatory. We created the role of the Health and Safety Representative, which is a volunteer position that must be filled for our team members to work in the office. The Health and Safety Representative’s responsibilities include undergoing training, checking temperatures, mandating social distancing, and generally ensuring that all safety procedures are respected. Each Health and Safety Representative receives a gift card to recognize their extra work. Creating this position was just one of many additional steps we took to keep our office safe, in addition to the standards set by our government.
4. Be meticulous
The global pandemic posed a unique opportunity to rethink every step of our hiring and onboarding process. To prevent new team members from feeling lost on their first day, every new hire starts off with a busy schedule of meetings with all of our team leads. They can also join our weekly Team Huddles, which are dedicated calls where our team can hang out and chat about the weekend before diving into the work week. As well, hiring a dedicated recruiter and upgrading our applicant tracking system have been major assets as we work to improve each aspect of our onboarding process.
5. Be fun!
Most importantly, despite the difficulties introduced by COVID-19, we’re trying our best to maintain a positive atmosphere for our team. This means listening when our team voices their concerns, regularly asking for feedback, and maintaining recurring check-ins to see how everyone is doing. It also means showing our team that their work is being recognized, even though we aren’t able to celebrate birthdays, work milestones, and holidays in person. For now, we’re taking advantage of everyone’s favourite form of communication: the gift basket! Paired with a thoughtful card, it’s a great way to show your team that they’re appreciated and add some fun into everyone’s work week.
As the Montreal winter approaches, it seems like we’re in this for the long haul, and we’re certain that there’s going to be more to learn. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments too!
