Like many other companies, we at neXenio have started to transfer all of our work to home and thus are now collaborating remotely with our colleagues. Due to the nature of high security requirements of our business, we deliberately opted against a remote work policy in the past. One of our teams develops software for the German federal mint and thus we have to comply with strict security policies. Therefore, out of a feeling for fairness and solidarity with this team, we collectively decided against a working from home policy for the whole company.
So, to us, as to many other people right now, who had to move to remote work — this experience is new and challenging. But there has yet to be a hurdle that we haven’t overcome! With the right tools and standards, working from home can be just as secure and productive as working at your regular office. We just have to put in a bit of effort to make the best of it.
Therefore, we wanted to let you in on how we are overcoming these challenges, hopefully to inspire you and to offer you some relief in these trying times!
#1 Communication is key
Not only for your mental balance, but also for collaborating with your teammates, who are now strewn across different locations. Physical boundaries should not limit us as we need to continue to collaborate with each other.
Here are some hands-on tips:
1) Virtual morning meeting: Before working remotely, we already used to have morning meetings (our daily stand-ups), in which we would tell our team about the work we did the day before and what we are going to do this day. This is a quick way to keep the whole team on the same page.
2) Virtual check out: At the end of the day we get together once again to recap the day, to summarize what went well and where we struggled.
3) Video face-to-face conversations: Throw in a few face-to-face conversations as they help mitigate misunderstandings and are much more effective in keeping someone’s attention. It also fights the loneliness that some of us experience in the eye of isolation.
4) Make it fun: Since we have added an additional meeting in the evening (check-out), we can use one of the meetings for more “fun” activities (we’re voting on a team mascot at the moment!). It is a nice way to wind down, banter with the team and just renew your energy levels.
5) Honesty: To some degree, working from home requires a higher level of trust than working in the office. Even if your colleagues cannot see you in close proximity, they still often depend on your input.
#2 Take measures against the absence of social interaction
When talking to my colleagues about their impressions of remote work, responses tend to be quite similar. They might seem familiar to you too, if you are facing this challenge: the absence of social interaction.
Be it lunch with your colleagues, discussing some gossip on your coffee break or just the walk to your office from the elevator. These seemingly small and insignificant interactions actually strongly help brightening up our day when we are at work. Naturally, as the saying goes, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”, and now we’re all sitting at home, missing these short but still momentous moments.
Here are some ideas to retain a social connection with your coworkers:
1) Host work-out sessions: A great suggestion our team had was to have a communal yoga/work out session in the morning (we personally haven’t tried it yet, but we’re working on making it happen).
2) Host a virtual lunch: Are you feeling lonely during lunch? Try out hosting a virtual lunch! Everyone prepares their food as usual, but instead of scarfing it down and hurrying back to work, jump into a video conference and have a nice chat with your colleagues.
3) Join a virtual World Café: Not hungry? The same can be applied to take a short coffee break. Post the time you’d like to take a break on a sticky note and join up in the video conference.
4) Take a break: This is important to relax your mind. Especially in times of working from home, it is important to separate work life from home life. Find a way to balance both, maybe by designating one room in the house as strictly “work only”. Set times for when to start and when to finish with work and try not to exceed these.
#3 How neXboard can aid you
To tackle these challenges, we use neXboard. It offers a wide variety of tools to support us during this process:
Easy access: neXboard is browser based — access it from anywhere, no app or additional hardware is required
Data security: We are hosted in the Open Telekom Cloud and we are 100% GDPR conform
Documentation: Upload any work you produced offline and transform it into a digital version that can easily be edited by you and others
Video conferencing: Start a video conference with all your co-workers; face to face in no time at all
Conference Call: Of course, you can opt to not turn on your camera and just use the audio conference instead!
Idea sharing: Share as many boards as you want with as many people as you want
Even if it might feel like it now, we are not alone, none of us are! We are just momentarily separated by distance, but thanks to technology even this can be overcome. Let us all get over this — together!
