BUILDING A REMOTE CULTURE — Transitioning to remote work for our India Team
Last year was a huge learning curve for many organisations. No place of work — big or small could have ever anticipated the change from working in the glass covered — air conditioned environment to a desk at your own home. The pandemic caused us to take such drastic measures wherein putting the safety of our co-workers took priority.
We are into our fourth year of operations in India. Headquartered in Melbourne, and with a vision to have a top-notch developers team in India, our goal is to build a strong team across countries. TILL POS is a cloud based mobile point-of-sale software for all food outlets, hospitality stores and retail shops. At TILL, we help businesses realise the benefits of going digital. We provide store owners a way to build, manage and grow their business while creating a better customer experience.
As we continue to fight this battle, a lot has changed for TILL. To start with, our office in Hyderabad had to close doors for a period unknown as we announced “remote work until further notice”. And with this team members moved back to their cities and hometowns. Overnight, everything changed — our way of working and our way of living.
Challenges that we overcame and how !
In this article, we will talk about the challenges we encountered and how we overcame them while we took on this journey to building a remote team.
During the 2020 first wave, the TILL team continued to work. There was not a single lay-off. We continued to hire and expand our team because of our unshaken faith. And now, a year and a half later, we stand on strong foot. This was only possible as we quickly adapted to the remote way of working, which was happening across the globe.
Challenge 1: Scaling our team with remote hiring (We continue to hire, get in touch!)
Hiring, with no face to face interviews, posed as one of the major challenges. But we took this opportunity to expand our candidate pool — all across the nation. We have hired and will continue to hire the best talent from any part of the country. And this has become the first step towards “building a remote workplace”.
Remote work is the new adaptation that breaks the traditional way of working, i.e one can work outside their office environment and have this flexibility to choose when it comes to a preferred work location.
Candidates now are adapting to online interviews which itself sees small hiccups like internet connectivity or noisy surroundings. Reaching out to them, being considerate towards such hiccups has been a learning experience. Onboarding them was as tough as it could get. Wehad to chart out a whole new plan wherein they felt welcomed and connected right from day 1 and also felt supported virtually.
Challenge 2: Building culture and employee motivation remotely
Staying connected and motivated, until a year ago, our lifestyle was ingrained with this specific cycle, office — work — home — repeat. We lived for the weekends. We sacrificed our personal time for known reasons like — being stuck in traffic, missing out on the last bus and so on. Now, all we had to do was be at home. Starting our day and ending it within the confines of the home does have it perks, but also has its downside.
We could now be with our loved ones and spend time working on our personal passions. But work-life balance then becomes more harder than before as the lines have blurred out for many. It can also get mundane and monotonous. A second challenge that we come across often is the individual’s “motivation”.
Thanks to technology, it’s worked in keeping the spirit alive and continues to do so.
With platforms like slack for instant communication and zoom for video calls, we are able to have
- days like Fun Fridays, where we all meet up for some laughs and feel connected.
- we celebrate occasions — big or small — and send out gifts, some which take them by surprise.
- of course the limitations pose a challenge, but having a heart to heart conversation can be more effective than a starbuck’s coffee :)
- We have come up with on the go recognition culture where we acknowledge a team member’s effort without delay.
- Feeling belonged — whether it’s through conversations, meetings, topping the leaderboard, winning goodies etc, that’s become our goal more than before.
Challenge 3: Building trust with employees to enable ownership of work
Trust and ownership, this by far, is the biggest challenge. With no physical and real human connection, how do you build trust?
Remember the famous “trust-fall” test, where one team member blindly falls with the hope to be caught on time by another, this requires physical presence, the privilege that we no longer have. So with every new hire and existing team member, it’s now only our actions, our empathy in these testing times and our words that work towards building trust.
At TILL, we are encouraged to talk about our shortcomings, our apprehensions, our fears in times of uncertainty and how collectively we can overcome them.
And of-course, ownership — by this we mean being accountable and responsible towards our work and commitment. A flexible work culture was advocated wherein there are no strict guidelines but just “trust” on how one manages his or her day of productive work. The implementation is not at all easy. But we as leaders, if we do not acknowledge, that creating a work environment within the confines of your four walls where you also have a presence of personal relationships demands more flexibility than the very foundation of “remote culture” is faulty.
Hence, organisations and managers need to keep an open mind. They need to provide that support to create a conducive environment where remote work can be successful.
We are learning as we grow and their lies the beauty — the ability to change, as from here on nothing remains the same. The future is about adaptability and those who adapt will come out victorious.
Stay safe and stay healthy.
