Top 5 tips for setting up Remote Work

Learn tips and tricks to support effective remote work from home

By: Maxime Grosdoigt, COO at Staizen

“Remote is not a challenge to overcome. It’s a clear business advantage.” -Victor, Product Manager, GitLab

As a company that operates teams in the UK, Brussels, and Singapore, it was essential to build Staizen with the right tools and processes to enable cross-collaboration across our branches.

And with the majority of the world confined behind home desks, we thought we’d share some of the tools and techniques that have helped us in our journey. We hope that you can find something that could be of use to you and your team.

Our Remote Work Principles:

1. Set-up the right environment
2. Use the right communication tools
3. What’s not written, didn’t and won’t happen
4. Stay connected on a human level
5. Maintain balance and learn when to log-off

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#1 Set-up the right environment

Shifting from the office to working from home might be a disruptive change for some. It’s important to start with setting up the right environment. Try to reflect on what helps you work best and re-create that space for yourself. Think of investing in the right tools to get your home office up and running whether that’s a comfortable corner, a desk, chair, screens, headphones.

#2 Use the right communication tools

When it comes to communicating remotely, we realized that the small details make all the difference.

Here are the key principles we follow:

• If you have to align with someone, video chat as much as possible as it’s the closest to face-to-face communication
• Leverage on instant messaging, you don’t have to wait for an email to be sent out as replies will take time. Go ahead and ping them on Facebook Workchat, Slack, or any forms of tools that you use at work. If you don’t have one in your organization, we highly recommend that you set up one.
• We always try to remember that Whatsapp is more for personal messages, learn how to distinguish, and try not to mix things up. If it’s work-related, try to use work messaging platforms dedicated for work. Always use the tools that are fit for purpose.
• 1-to-1 discussions are only for private topics, other than that, it helps to keep discussion visible and shareable to keep the company open and transparent. Others might find some discussion useful whether directly or indirectly.

Some of the communication tools we use:

• Communication — Facebook Workplace
• Video conferencing — Google Hangouts or Facebook Workplace video
• Collaboration — Figma, Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slide), Jira & Confluence
• Documentation — Confluence, Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slide)

#3 What’s not written, didn’t and won’t happen

In a typical office environment, a lot of decisions are done informally — across corridors, over coffee or lunch. While it’s much easier to align when you can just quickly drop by a room and speak to your colleagues, this arrangement doesn’t happen as easily over a remote set-up. What we realized is that this also limits perspectives because not everyone can participate.

This is where documentation becomes highly critical because it boosts transparency. When you record everything, no one is left behind, perspectives are considered and conversations are captured for anyone who needs to refer back to it. We make it a habit to always capture discussions to make sure that all decisions are properly documented to maintain alignment. Having a single source of truth and information helps keep the organization not only aligned but also reduces inefficiencies and misunderstandings.

To do this, we use Confluence to document decisions, meetings, and anything that has been discussed or are to be discussed. Confluence tools are well-known within engineering teams, but we extend its use across all of our business operations including finance, business, operations, HR, and marketing. It’s still a bit of a challenge for everyone to learn the tools and we’re still in the process of learning this.

#4 Stay connected on a human level

It’s important to keep the team spirit high, despite the distance. In remote teams, we have to dedicate the time and effort to connect on a human level. This is especially important to build the right level of trust. Here are some tips on how to create this.

• Create an avenue where people can share non-work related activities and passions like what you’d do on a face to face set-up. A simple channel such as #random can go a long way.
• As a leader, think of yourself as a digital facilitator or community manager. It helps if you role-model the behavior that you want to see happening in your organization groups and communities.
• Emojis & gif can help bridge the gap in digital communication, don’t be afraid to use them.
• Arrange video calls to catch up with people, when doing so, make sure the camera is on. It’s a small thing but this helps people build a connection digitally.
• Encourage your team to reach out to each other as well, it might take some nudging at first, once they get a hang of it, it becomes more natural for them.
• Keep your team updated on what you are working on a simple message such as “Hi guys, this is what I’m working on… this is what I managed to accomplish today…”
• Virtual teaming up can be a good way to Here are some ideas we like from Atlassian

#5 Maintain balance and learn when to log-off

Working from the same place where you sleep, eat and rest can be initially challenging. It’s important to know when to log-off to avoid unnecessary burn-out. Find the balance that works for you when it comes to breaks and keeping active.

Learn how to set clear boundaries between work and home such as setting a specific time to work. Make sure you communicate any arrangements with your team so they understand the scope by which you operate. This is especially important in remote settings. Remember, what you don’t communicate, you shouldn’t expect.

Thank you for reading our 5 tips for a successful remote work arrangement. Do you have any tips for working remotely? We’d love to learn from you! Feel free to comment below!

This article was originally published as a Linkedin article by Maxime Grosdoigt, Staizen Chief Operating Officer.