Remote work tips | Powercode

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1. POWERCODE W E B U I L D L E A D I N G - E D G E S O F T W A R E F O R B U S I N E S S E S A N D P E R S O N A L U S E
2. REMOTE WORK Remote work due to coronavirus has become a problem for many people. Millions of people, are trying to work from home if they can. For companies that haven’t had remote employees, the transition can be complex. But first, we all have to learn that remote work is different work. Those people who haven’t worked remotely before have a problem with organizing a workplace. Working from home requires a great deal of self- motivation, discipline and responsibility. POWERCODE
3. REMOTE WORK The management has other problems, such as monitoring the execution of work and keeping control over performance, setting and monitoring goals, but not activity. Managing a remote team successfully requires good support, planning, and communication. We have experience working with teams and clients around the world, so we want to share tools and approaches that help you build remote working processes. Working with a remote team has many challenges but it's a very rewarding experience. POWERCODE
4. TIPS FOR GETTING READY FOR THE WORK REMOTELY EQUIPMENT (HARDWARE) APPLICATIONS & TOOLS COMMUNICATION PLAN - Make sure everyone in your team has what they need to succeed remotely. At least, do they have a laptop, webcam and microphone? - Do all teams have access to all the accounts you use in your work? Decide what tools for remote work your team will use in their job and for communication. In distributed teams, you are very reliant on finding the right soft. When you choose software, check all capabilities and limitations. - When going remote, keeping everyone informed in an efficient way becomes a big challenge. So, you need to identify methods, frequency, time of communication and activities the tools are used for (for a team, for customers, etc). Set some ground rules for team communication and choose a timeframe for responses. Surely, notify all participants. And check, do you have all the contacts of the people you will be working with? POWERCODE
5. THE NUANCES OF REMOTE WORK Focus and expectations - Stay focused on goals, not activity. Management of remote teams requires a switch mindset from focusing on employees’ time to focusing on their deliverables. Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. - stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Support - Loneliness and isolation, miscommunications and other communication issues due to a lack of nonverbal cues are the most common complaints about remote work. More overall communication is going to be necessary. Provide encouragement and emotional support. Especially in the situation of an abrupt shift to working remotely. POWERCODE
6. MAKE SURE YOU'RE READY Workspace - You need a space at your home where you can concentrate on working. Minimize distractions. Schedule - Remote work can blur the lines between professional and personal. Make sure there are right boundaries. Discuss it with family and commit to an area that you can work from without interruption. You need also to schedule breaks and time for lunch. Especially, schedule a stop- working time. POWERCODE
7. THE MAIN PROBLEMS WHEN SWITCHING TO REMOTE WORK ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEMS COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS • Distraction factors • Decreased work/life balance • Loss of productivity • Problems with tracking performance of the team • Security problems • Lack of access to information, documents • Changing familiar workflows, tools • It is unclear what’s happening at the company, with clients, with objectives • Communication issues due to a lack of nonverbal cues • Not enough feedback • Not enough working and personal communication between people • Problems with building/maintaining trust • Problem to stay motivated and feel part of a team POWERCODE
8. COMMUNICATION Some of the problems and anxieties are ameliorated when remote working processes are normalized company-wide. And, thankfully, managers can clear a lot of obstacles with good practice, planning, motivation, and right tools for working. When working remotely, you need to build interaction with people in a slightly different way. Effective communication is crucial. Make sure you communicate well and often. POWERCODE
9. BEST PRACTICE Meetings and collaboration Personal connection builds trust, minimizes missed expectations, eases self-organization. Choose a video-conferencing solution that is easy for anyone to use. Take one of the best Agile practices and arrange daily video meetings in small teams at the beginning of the working day. This is the opportunity for the entire team to synchronize team’s work, track progress, improve team collaboration. POWERCODE Daily video meetings should normally last for max 15 minutes where everyone answers shortly to the questions: • What did you complete yesterday? • What are you doing today? • Are there any impediments in your way?
10. VIDEO CONFERENCING TOOLS THAT WILL BE USEFUL POWERCODE A classic tool for video calls where you can also do a “screen demonstration" if necessary to discuss a document together. SKYPE HANGOUTS MEET ZOOM A good service for video calls by Google. Here you can create a new appointment and send a link to invite colleagues. Also a good service for video conferencing and online meetings.
11. Rocket.chat - a corporate chat. There is a mobile and desktop versions. Very easy to use. Slack - one of the most popular corporate messengers. There is also a free version, but of course there is more interesting functionality in a paid version. There are a lot of messengers that you can use. YOU CAN COMMUNICATE DURING THE DAY IN MESSENGERS, BUT IT’S BETTER TO DUPLICATE IMPORTANT INFORMATION BY EMAIL POWERCODE
12. TIME AND TASK TRACKING TOOLS ARE NECESSARY FOR WORKING REMOTELY Redmine 0 20 40 60 80 100 week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 45% 80% 50% 30% POWERCODE A task tracker similar to Jira. Here you can organize projects, setup tasks, gather and share all the necessary documentation for each project in one place. An employee can log the time they spent on the task and you can see quite detailed and useful statistics and reports. You can assign different teams for each project.
13. SIMPLE ON-LINE TASK TRACKERS Trello This is a board with tasks that you can move and see what is ready and what is in progress. Most people are familiar with this tool, but if not, you should try. You can use this tool in combination with others when you need simplicity and speed in organizing working processes. Miro A great tool for collaboration of remote cross-functional teams, white- boarding. POWERCODE
14. SIMPLE REMOTE WORK WITH DOCUMENTS POWERCODE Google’s service for storing files, in which you can, for example, create a shared folder for the team and use documents together. GOOGLE DRIVE GOOGLE DOCS DROPBOX To create text documents, tables, presentations with which you can work as a team. A file storage service that allows you to create a folder on your computer with contents available for viewing on any device.
15. GOOGLE CALENDAR This is an easy and convenient way to organize your time. You can create a work calendar and share it with colleagues, add common events, reminders, and schedule video calls. POWERCODE
16. SCHEMES, MINDMAPS XMind A mind mapping and brainstorming tool which helps manage your ideas and documents. POWERCODE Draw.io A multifunctional online tool where you can make flowcharts, mind maps, simple infographics, visualize business processes.
17. SIMPLE AND USEFUL - SCREENSHOTS POWERCODE Lightshot - A simple and convenient program for screenshots. Takes a screenshot of any area. You can draw a rectangle around the place where you need to pay attention (for example, the phrase in the chat). Tried and true - solves a lot of problems :) Nimbus Screenshot - As an extension for the browser, it helps in cases where you need to take a video of the screen or when you need to save the entire long web page as an image. There are a lot of such programs.
18. GOOGLE ACCOUNTS It may not always come to mind to separate work and personal Google accounts. But when there are a lot of tabs and bookmarks in the browser, and the Google disk space is over, then it's too late and it takes a long time to put everything in order. Make 2 accounts and quick access to each, it will be much more convenient for you to maintain order. In the browser’s working tab it will be easier to access documents and information, while in personal account working information will not distract you from relaxing after a busy day. POWERCODE
19. REMOTE WORK IS BOTH A CHALLENGE AND AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A COMPANY AND EMPLOYEES TO LOOK INTO THEIR BUSINESS PROCESSES, WORKFLOW AND OPERATING MODELS. 1 2 3 4 5 6 POWERCODE 7 8 PLAN WORK EFFICIENTLY GET GREAT RESULTS
20. OUR CONTACTS POWERCODE.CO.UK contact@powercode.co.uk POWERCODE