How many people do you know who are working remotely? Probably at least a few! Remote work is on the rise and has been for the last few years. More and more companies are seeing the advantages of remote work, and we are definitely one of those companies! Currently, we have three full-time remote employees. And all of our team members work remotely usually at least once a week. We believe in flexibility at Buckeye, and it really pays off.
Our full-time remote employees are very experienced with the ins and outs of remote work. Here are some tips from them on how to successfully work while at home (or at the beach or on the other side of the world)!
Make sure you pair with your coworkers DAILY!
It’s very important to communicate directly and clearly, especially while remote. To stay connected, meet with your colleagues, and use that time to discuss various projects, brainstorm solutions, and implement those ideas. It’s very easy to feel left out while working remotely full time, so you have to be proactive about it by pairing and asking your coworkers to pair.
Hand in hand with that, you should identify a good meeting room application.
We mainly use Google Hangouts. We’ve realized that Hangouts isn’t the most functional with more than three people online, but we make it work. It all depends on your needs and what works best for you. Google Hangouts is our favorite because it syncs with our Google Calendars, and the meeting links are automatically updated. Also, the audio and video work almost seamlessly!
Along those lines, make sure your video is turned ON during your meetings!
It might seem trivial, but it’s very important your team members or clients can see your facial expressions and your mannerisms. And vice versa. Turning your video on helps keep communication direct and clear. We, as humans, pick up much more with our nonverbal cues than our verbal ones. And, hello! It’s a good feeling seeing your team members smiling and being able to smile back at them.
Use company-wide platforms like Zoho or Slack to stay up to date on tasks and to collaborate.
It’s very easy to miss notifications that go to your inbox about certain tasks or projects. If you’re not checking those platforms on a daily basis, you could miss something important. You definitely don’t want that happening. Moreover, you could miss a perfect opportunity to collaborate with a colleague. Let’s say someone asks for help with something you really know how to do, but you missed the messages, so you missed out on an opportunity to work together. That’s a bummer. So stay up to date!
Communicate all of your questions or concerns immediately.
Don’t wait for someone to notice that something is wrong. If you don’t understand something, send a Slack message or an email asking for clarification. Everybody, remote or not, needs to do this. But remote employees especially need to be good at it because they’re not able to communicate these concerns during lunch or during a side conversation. Just over-communicate, and make sure you’re as direct as possible. This helps avoid confusion and miscommunication!
If you’re working from a different time zone, make sure your coworkers know your schedule.
It’s crucial your team members know your availability. But in order for them to know it, you must know it. Put your hours on your calendar, and make sure your team has access to your schedule. That way you can avoid scheduling issues. You will most likely have to alter your normal working hours, so make sure your schedule works best for your first. Then you can accommodate anything else that’s necessary. By making your schedule work for you, you avoid stress and burnout–absolutely crucial when working remotely!
You can be beyond successful while working remotely, and our tips are created to help. If you’re someone who’s skeptical about the whole working remotely trend, take our word for it–it works, and we benefit from it! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!
