Liliya Kokh, trainer, coach at Rusonix company

Recently, more and more companies are deciding to hire employees from other regions, and are also increasingly agreeing to let their employees work from home. Of course, this is a wonderful opportunity for those people who are not allowed by circumstances to be in the office every day from call to call. These include mothers who want to work and at the same time stay at home longer with their children, people with disabilities, and talented young people who are not eager to live in big cities, but want to develop in a large, prestigious company and are therefore ready to work remotely.

For many companies, this trend is also very profitable. You can save both on work space and its arrangement, and on salary levels. Specialists in the labor market of their region are cheaper. No less important is the fact that there is a chance to hire specialists who are not so easy to find in the city, and maybe even in the country where the company itself and the office are located.

It would seem that there are continuous advantages and benefits on both sides. And everyone should be satisfied and happy. Then why are more and more managers complaining about “turnover” among remote employees? Why do so many people who work remotely quickly lose enthusiasm, responsibility and motivation to work? What is important to consider when organizing the work process of a remote employee? How to avoid misunderstanding and dissatisfaction between management and employee?

As already mentioned, a remote employee is one who works partially or completely outside the company’s office. Let us roughly distinguish two categories of such employees.

The first will include those who live in the same city where the office is located. They are also called “homeworkers.” These are those employees who work from home, but can still attend important events and meetings. Therefore, life is easier and more fun for the first ones.

They can come to the office at any time (and many do) and personally communicate with both their superiors and their colleagues. Perhaps this option is the best, it gives the feeling of freedom and choice that those who dream of working remotely are looking for. And this is not surprising - you can always receive instructions from your superiors on the “true path”, the necessary attitude to work and be filled with enthusiasm again. But even with such seemingly favorable conditions, difficulties arise. Quite often, having changed the office to work at home, such employees quickly lose their sense of belonging to the team. Instead, they feel alienated and “cut off” from corporate life.

The life of the second is even more difficult; they are in another city, or maybe in the country, and accordingly, they cannot afford what the first can. At a minimum, they cannot come to the office at any time when they suddenly feel sad and want to get their portion of inspiration and motivation.

Therefore, a number of questions arise:

• how to involve remote employees in your team
• how to create a sense of belonging to a team
• how to create motivation
• how to set criteria for remote employees, according to which the manager can calmly monitor the dynamics of task completion.

So, you have a remote employee on your team, or maybe more than one. What is important to consider for cooperation to become effective.

1. High-quality communication

When a newcomer appears, the manager wants him to become a full-fledged employee as soon as possible. To do this, you need to have or create high-quality internal communications. Whatever your company does, effective communication is an important requirement for success. This is more than relevant for remote employees. The closer the communication between the manager and employees, the clearer they see the company's goals. The greater the opportunity to interact with colleagues, the deeper the commitment and sense of belonging. It is necessary for the remote employee to trust you, the company, and colleagues. This creates an emotional connection and commitment to the company. Emotional involvement is an important factor in developing employee loyalty and cannot be managed only through job descriptions.

Set aside time for communication, personal meetings, and invite such employees at least occasionally to corporate events, exhibitions, and conferences. Moderate projects in the general chat. Hold meetings in the form of a webinar where everyone can go live and talk about their vision.

The social intranet will also provide worthy assistance and support in creating high-quality communication.

This platform has a huge resource and capabilities. For example, in addition to work tasks, people can organize groups based on interests and hobbies. This means that in this way it is possible to unite employees into groups based on work interests.

A well-organized group, where employees work on a common project, requires close communication. Not only written tasks in the calendar can be included, but also joint Skype, video conferences, webinars, and general chat. In such conditions, it is easier for an employee to integrate into work and feel like part of the team.

Let's look at how this works using a specific example.

A year ago, we decided to reorganize the customer service department; the team needed training for junior technical support employees. Task: in 6 months, from the “yellow mouths”, grow at least strong deputy engineers, a good shift.

Experienced engineers are usually focused solely on their deep technical specifications. They interact with few people at work other than their systems. When the head of the department heard that they should become teachers and mentors, he did not imagine this was possible. But when we created a group for four engineers in the work portal and called it “The Fab Four,” everything worked!

The manager led most of the project remotely. Employees and project participants usually work different shifts and rarely meet in the office. Therefore, this format was very helpful in building a suitable structure. Moreover, the project participants were so involved in the process that ideas and suggestions flowed like a river. They came up with and introduced the White Collar Rule. They also included politeness among themselves, which is especially important for customer service, appearance, joint meetings, everything that helps the engineer “fit into the format” of the mentor.

The group provided clear outlines of tasks for engineers. It is important to learn how to transfer experience by structuring your knowledge in such a way as to divide it into blocks, topics, lessons and hours of training. As a result, the completed tasks, which were stored in the group’s files, became puzzles of the overall picture of the future project. At weekly video conferences, results were summed up and next steps were outlined. All work was carried out exclusively within the corporate portal.

The project did not aim to involve employees in work and give a sense of belonging to the team. But this happened already at the initial stage. Partly due to compliance with the next point.

3. Main points of motivation

Perhaps every manager dreams of employees who are motivated and involved in the ideology and mission of the company.

But it’s important not to make the common mistake of imposing your motivational priorities. The pyramid of values ​​is the same, but different people, at different periods of life, are at different levels of the pyramid.

It should be remembered that people tend to strive for different goals, both personal and professional.

In addition, among people there are both “process-makers” and “result-makers”. For the former, the content of the work itself, communication with colleagues and clients, and the opportunity for self-expression are important. The second is more important the result, recognition.

Whatever category your employees fall into, their work should be fun. The key point is to enjoy the work itself. Remember, your employee may be sitting alone within four walls and needs special motivation. The difference between motivation for work and motivation for work itself is colossal. In the first case, external motivation works when the leader encourages you to work. This is usually not durable. In the second case, motivation starts from within. When we do it not only because we have to, but because we also want it, like it, and it’s interesting to do it.

Many successful companies have long come to the conclusion that employees are happy to work when they can develop in the process of work, acquire new knowledge, have freedom of creativity and, of course, see a meaning in all this that resonates with their own values.

In the case of our technical support department (see example above), it worked. All main points of motivation were taken into account. Creating meaning in activity, the possibility of personal development and freedom of choice. Every engineer knew that by developing his mentoring skills, he would pass on his competence. This means it will help others improve their skills. To do something important for colleagues, to feel valued, significant, useful to the team. It is human nature to want to leave something useful behind.

As for freedom, there was a fairly clear structure within which everyone was free to be “creative.” First, they shared ideas about what a future engineer, a newbie, a good engineer, a better engineer, etc. needed to know. Then, a ton of ideas were put together into a training scheme, and the engineers happily “assembled the construction set” of the future program.

4. Control sequence

It is important to remember that no matter what kind of activity your employee has, how many hours a day he must work, how flexible his schedule is, how creative and imaginative his task is, he must have a clear structure within these processes. A structure according to which you, as a manager, will set the necessary criteria for the quality of the work done and monitor the dynamics of task completion. Structure is essential when working with any employee, especially if they work remotely.

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In remote work mode, your work environment becomes the Internet. Everything happens there: employees communicate, projects are recorded, the manager controls.

A life hacker found salvation in cloud CRM. No servers, no wires. This virtual work environment can be accessed from any device, anywhere in the world. There is Internet - consider that you are at work.

100 kBit/s is the minimum Internet speed for normal operation. This will be sufficient for many programs.

Check your speed using Yandex.Internetometer

The Internet is there, the speed has been tested, it’s time to get down to business processes.

Switch to cloud programs

Task management, time tracking, tools for monitoring execution, file storage - all this is needed for productive work.

What exactly to use:

• Project management system (planners): Basecamp, Active Collab, Wrike, Trello.
• File storage: Google Drive, Cloud Mail.ru, Yandex.Disk, Dropbox.
• Messenger: Viber, Skype, Telegram, Slack.

There are millions of programs. Choose for yourself, guided by the following principles: simple interface, presence of reminders, speed of entering and analyzing tasks. There are often too many useless options in the planner that can be confusing. The less functionality the better. Based on experience, I chose Todoist for myself. To work with a team - Trello or Worksection. My personal planning system is a mix: GTD, Gleb Arkhangelsky, Benjamin Franklin, Kanban, Paul McGee.

Denis Yudin

The tasks have been set, the plan has been outlined. It's time to start implementing it.

Communicate using IP telephony

• Everything is in the cloud. From now on, the location of subordinates does not matter.
• Shared room. Employees in any country in the world are available via a single number.
• Service from the provider. Technical support is always on hand to help, advise and answer questions.
• Electronic document management. To exchange contracts, personal meetings are not necessary, because original documents can be provided electronically.

Virtual PBX "Telfin.Office"

How to use - checklist for a manager:

• Listen to calls: stay informed about your employees' work.
• Keep track of missed calls: this way you can understand why the client didn’t get through.
• Combine with CRM: for your workflows.
• Set up call forwarding: your employees will be in touch 24 hours a day.
• Track statistics: you will get a comprehensive picture of the company's performance.

Come up with KPIs

Let's say you hired Gregory and Konstantin for identical positions on a standard schedule: eight hours a day and five days a week. And one day you notice that Gregory is working hard, and Konstantin is minding his own business for two out of eight hours.

Without talking, you fire Kostya, but later it turns out that Konstantin did the work in six hours, and devoted the remaining two hours to self-development. Grigory cannot do the same work in eight hours. It turns out that we were in a hurry, but in vain.

What is more important to you: the result or the time spent to achieve it? When switching to a remote format for control, establish a KPI system that is understandable to both you and your subordinates - key performance indicators.

How it works:

• In a table in Google Docs, each employee notes his plan for the month and quarter.
• At the end of the reporting period, he sums up what was planned and what was not.
• A manager only needs to look at the numbers to understand how things are going.
• The subordinate always has a guideline, and he knows what is expected of him.

Regular reports and meetings, where subordinates will talk about tasks completed over a certain period, will help you keep your finger on the pulse. With such an organization of control and reporting, a valuable employee will not be fired, and a lagging employee will be correctly redistributed working time.

Develop your team

If remote employees have very different skill levels, this can be easily resolved with online training. Follow relevant courses and educational programs on the topic; there are a ton of them online now: marketing, copywriting, sales, SEO.

Where to go to study:

• "Netology". Online university. Everything about internet marketing. Levels - from basic to advanced.
• "Theories and Practices". Lectures on business, design, art.
• Coursera. Online catalog of educational courses from around the world.
• "Lectorium". Academic educational project.
• HTML Academy. Interactive courses on HTML and CSS. Lots of practice.

Maintain two-way contact with subordinates. By regularly communicating with employees, you will understand how viable the built system turned out to be and how it can be improved.

Ask questions, hold informal online meetings, ask for feedback through surveys, meet occasionally.

You are the captain. Steer your ship and form a team.

Enjoy the results

This format has several advantages that will make the life of any manager and business owner easier.

• Savings: no need to overpay for renting a large office or spend money on purchasing office equipment.
• Productivity: remote employees statistically work more efficiently, because they don’t have to judder in crowded public transport every morning on the way to the office.
• Risk reduction: the likelihood of total technical problems occurring is minimal - someone from the team will definitely maintain communication.
• Freedom to choose specialists: personnel are available all over the world, without geographical restrictions.
• Constant communication: the ability to work around the clock with representatives in different time zones.

Now you know all the secrets of remote work - from the set of necessary tools to the intricacies of teamwork - and are completely ready to switch to a new labor organization system. Be bold and everything will work out. Good luck!

Remote work with various programs and data on your own computer, smartphone or tablet is becoming increasingly popular and accessible. Thanks to developing technologies, distance, time and place from where you want to connect to your workplace are no longer a barrier. The only question remains: are you ready to be available 24 hours a day?

Thanks to this approach, there are many solutions and their variations on how to create a connection to a remote desktop via the Internet, allowing you to work from any device. Your computer or any other device is used only as an entry point to a virtual workplace, which is located in the cloud of an external data center.

If in your business you have set the goal of saving on investments in hardware and computers, increasing data security, reducing monthly maintenance fees, and also providing your employees with a comfortable and safe working environment and mobility, then DaaS or “workplace as a service” ( desktop as a service) would be a logical solution for choosing a specific remote access.

What is DaaS?

The DaaS service is a pre-installed set of necessary programs and configurations for a specific user, which are located on the provider’s cloud platform. DaaS is a comprehensive solution for building the necessary functionality of office software; The platform differs from other solutions in its high fault tolerance and security thanks to the data center in which this service is deployed. This means that your data will always be at your fingertips, and even if you accidentally erase it from the Recycle Bin, it can always be restored. And if your computer is stolen, you physically lose only the hardware, which you may have wanted to replace for a long time. Your entire remote desktop remains in the secure cloud.

From a technical point of view, remote computer management DaaS is a virtual server on which a set of the most popular and necessary office applications and software is installed. To connect to a remote desktop, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, thin clients (workstations without a hard drive), terminals, and other devices are often used. The connection is made by the RDP remote access program ( Remote Desktop Protocol), using a base of operating systems such as Citrix ( XenDesktop) or Microsoft. For a more secure connection to a remote desktop, it is recommended to use VPN (Virtual Private Network) to which any of your employees' devices can be connected, providing a separate encrypted channel with direct access to applications or data ( point-to-point).

VDI in the cloud

If a business is faced with more serious issues of increasing productivity, connecting employees to work without delay, or saving money on new software, then thanks to solutions built on the DaaS cloud environment, an enterprise of any size can instantly get the necessary remote desktop located in a reliable and a fault-tolerant data center.

WITH VDI or virtual desktop infrastructure (virtual desktop infrastructure) the user can take care of long-term savings for his business and simplify the maintenance of workstations, while receiving complete security and power for growing requirements. The VDI solution is the most common on the DaaS platform and consists in the fact that each user is allocated a virtual server with predefined settings for full operation (operating system, applications, disk space, CPU, storage, network). It is possible to deploy your own VDI infrastructure within 2-3 hours; the solution involves a single point of control and can be customized to any requirements, any business, due to a large selection of configurations. All you need to get started is a computer, keyboard and mouse. The solution is suitable for large-scale work, for example, with design programs BIM AutoCAD and Building Design Suite or severe SQL databases, since it does not require a high-speed Internet connection - during operation, the data is automatically compressed and therefore quickly transmitted over the network. Thin client ( ThinClient) as a port for a centralized connection to a server, increases operational security and reduces capital and operating costs, since it does not require high costs for IT equipment. This small book-sized device does not require the installation of additional operating systems or software on each individual personal computer. At the same time, the thin client provides fast and convenient access to data on the server and makes it easier to work with data from anywhere.

Terminal server

If your business needs a simple, fast and cost-effective solution with a certain amount of power, then a terminal server will be an excellent alternative to virtualization. Several users are simultaneously connected to the terminal server and share the total amount of server resources. Depending on business requirements, it can be distinguished as physical (dedicated), and virtual server (VPS/VDS). The working platform will also be equipped with the necessary licensed software and applications for remote access; to get started, the user only needs to install a client program on his device through which he can connect to the infrastructure, or use a thin client terminal. Centralized administration and local placement of all users simplifies overall work and allows more efficient use of all allocated server resources. The disadvantage of a terminal server is the possibility of the entire system failing even due to one error, stopping the work of all users at the same time, which sometimes leads to downtime and even data loss. To significantly reduce the risk of data loss and quickly recover information, many users connect additional data backup (backup).

5 Benefits of a Remote Workspace

1. To maintain the efficiency and productivity of staff, you do not have to invest new budgets on IT equipment and the purchase of licensed programs.
2. Always available computing power for any program, the ability to instantly increase the amount of processed data.
3. Save on setting up and maintaining your IT infrastructure - take unnecessary worries off your shoulders and pay more attention to the main business tasks instead of solving technical problems.
4. Mobility and efficiency of the team - even when on business trips, your colleagues and you yourself can always have access to any file or email.
5. The security of the solution is included by default, and you can always increase your level of protection through additional services.

In conclusion about the advantages of individual cloud solutions

Cloud computing have unlimited capabilities and access to a shared pool of IT resources, and often non-standard cloud configurations tailored to real business needs contribute to more reliable and secure operation. Moreover, remote desktop allows businesses to quickly adapt to various requirements - growing demand for online services, digitalization of document flow, data migration, surge in data growth, partial transition of work to the trending principle of BYOD (bring your own device) or optimization of IT solutions , reducing costs for IT equipment and software licenses.

Now you can assemble a team of experienced specialists from different countries, opening up new opportunities and prospects for business development. But how to build communication with a virtual team and get effective work from people you have never met? Rob Rawson, co-founder of time tracking programs Time Doctor and Staff.com, talks about his experience in creating effective remote teams.

Even at the start of the project, when Time Doctor was launched,agreed with partner Liam Martin to create a business and manage it remotely. Even if our company grows to the size of Google, we still won’t have an office. The time tracking program Time Doctor creates technologies for recording working time and monitoring remote personnel. Instead of “training on cats,” we test the developments on ourselves. Therefore, we know, like no one else, all the nuances of organizing and managing a virtual team, and all the difficulties that business faces.

Case “Time Doctor”

As a rule, a startup faces three weaknesses: organization of the work process, communication with employees and their motivation. It is these problems that can be turned into strengths of a business built on a remote model. The main thing is to change your thinking and not cling to office stereotypes.

Workflow organization

Problem: With a remote system, it is difficult to understand whether an employee is working on a task or solving his personal problems. In the office it is visible, at any time you can chat live about the project.

Solution: Automate your business with apps and programs.

In our company, all paperwork and bureaucracy is as automated as possible. This allows you not to increase the management apparatus, make do with what you have and get excellent results. Staff management system, reporting of time spent by staff, payroll, money transfer, GPS tracking - our own developments.

When working remotely, most employees easily retreat into their own shell and turn on the “at least no one disturbs” mode. The Time Doctor time tracking program relieves the business owner of the need to constantly check whether all team members are working. The program will independently create a report and provide it in the form of screenshots from computer screens, showing which sites and applications are used by subordinates, where time is spent and on what tasks. As a rule, only the presence of these programs encourages colleagues to work in a disciplined, responsible manner and for results.

We manage marketing projects in Basecamp, and developer tasks in Jira. We store working documents in the Google Drive application. Thanks to the integration of applications with a time tracking program (there are more than 30 of them - including work time in Asana, ZenDesk, Trello, Slack, Podio, Teamwork.), tasks appear in the Time Doctor interface; when colleagues start working, they turn on the timer, and upon completion - press stop. Thus, we see how much time and what issue the person worked on.

Problem: Approval of each step with the business owner takes a lot of time and reduces the effectiveness of a particular employee, slowing down the development of the company as a whole.

Solution: CEO Flow Method

Aaron Ross’s book “Predictable Revenue” helped me reconsider my views on hierarchy and try out the effective CEO Flow method.

The idea is simple - one boss cannot always effectively give instructions to absolutely all employees. Sometimes staff understands more about a situation and can make better decisions for the company. They are closer to the point and are more flexible, they know their own capabilities and limitations. A business owner is always interested in managers with great potential who develop, move forward, implement interesting ideas, taking the company to a higher level. Employees who do not take responsibility for making their decisions become dull and transform into an unnecessary resource.

CEO Flow is a long-term strategy where you need to direct the global train of thought of staff in the direction necessary for the company. In the CEO Flow hierarchy, each team member should feel like a mini-CEO. Thus, decisions are made quickly, managers feel more important, their level of satisfaction is higher, and work processes flow more quickly. Many successful companies allow employees to make their own decisions within a certain budget. For example, in our company, staff do not require confirmation from above if the price of the issue is less than $50. I’ll tell you straight: by giving managers this authority, people work more efficiently and projects are implemented faster.

If we talk about Time Doctor, the autonomous system was introduced at the very beginning of our journey. Of course, we should not exclude the possibility of mistakes made by colleagues. But to be honest, in this model we see more positive consequences than negative consequences. For example, one of our employees wanted to enrich himself with knowledge in the field of SEO. He himself offered to devote part of his working time to this. For the future, our company really needed help in the vast optimization space. It turned out that the manager not only succeeded, he helped the SEO department achieve large-scale results.

Communication

Problem: Personal communication is more effective than virtual communication.

Solution: With a remote team you need “over-communication” - twice as much communication through communication channels.

With such a large staff of 80 people, most colleagues had never seen each other. We are one of the first serious companies in the world without a central office and believe that we are starting a kind of new wave in the IT industry, gaining momentum, gaining experience and improving communication with a remote team.

We are trying to recruit and distribute employees across two main time zones for us - the Philippines and Canada. This approach helps the team build the right relationship - communication occurs twice as often as in companies where everyone works in the same space.

We build daily communication through online chat on the Slack platform. Here we have certain channels where discussion of issues is divided into topics - work and chill-out (which is not related to work). We arrange video conferences via Google Hangouts.

Once a week we organize “coffee breaks” - we inform two employees that they have a random 15-minute meeting over a cup of coffee and discuss any topics other than work. It’s rare not to discuss work because questions always pile up for any of the employees. The CEO holds weekly personal meetings with each employee, compiling progress reports and setting goals for the week ahead.

We hold open Q&A sessions monthly, where the team receives answers to any questions from the founders. We gather department meetings twice a year - developers in Europe, and those responsible for sales, support, marketing - fly to the Philippines.

Founders and team leaders have their own rules of communication: “inbox zero policy”. They cannot immediately respond to all letters. We give priority to urgent, unimportant letters, we archive them, solve them as they accumulate, and set up Gmail filters.

If there is no constant communication with the team, control is lost. No control - no profit

Motivation

To motivate specialists scattered around the world, classic techniques are used in the form of career and personal growth, decent salaries, and social privileges.

The employee chooses what he wants to do in the company; if he doesn’t like a certain activity, he can safely move to another department.

The employee also uses 2 full working days every month for self-training. He chooses himself - advanced training courses or reading useful literature. Training material is approved at the beginning of each quarter for each employee separately. Interesting points taken from the study are subsequently discussed with the whole team. We provide our colleagues with full time - 15 paid working days a year. It is convenient that the employee does not need to ask for leave in advance, a couple of months in advance. If he needs to leave tomorrow, he simply warns about it. Once every three years we pay for any personal development course not related to work for our colleagues.

And if you get sick, the company sends a gift from abroad and pays for hospitalization.

Well, the most attractive “bun” of remote work is that the employee chooses when to work - on weekends, during the day or at night. The main thing is to work 160 hours a month.

Finally, I will say that the way of doing business is changing rapidly every day. To remain among the best and strongest companies that earn huge fortunes and make the world a better place, you need to keep your finger on the pulse and keep up with the times. We are all watching how the vector of business is moving towards the Internet. This means that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow more and more Russian entrepreneurs will reconsider their views on business, open online offices and lead remote teams. Therefore, the use of time trackers is becoming a necessity every day. The time tracking program tracks mouse movements, keyboard activity, and running applications. During this time, employees are at their peak productivity.

Our tools:

General communication and team building: Slack - work chat, Yammer - closed social network for employees.

Calls and meetings: Skype, GoToMeeting and Google Hangouts. By the way, we wrote an article about how we compared Slack as an analogue of Skype.

Project management: marketing - Basecamp, developers - Jira.

To quickly organize meetings - Calendly.

For designers: Mural and Invision (visual communication: comments, edits, ideas). Zeplin (for collaboration between designers and developers - a problematic issue in many teams).

(system integrator)

According to HeadHunter, currently only 1% of vacancies in Russia offer the opportunity to work remotely. Despite such an insignificant figure, for many companies, especially small and medium-sized businesses, transferring employees to fully remote work or organizing the possibility of remote work for full-time employees can be an excellent solution in terms of optimizing workflow and personnel management.

We tell you from our own experience how to technically organize the possibility of remote work, and what advantages this gave our company and employees.

What do remote workers bring to business owners?

1. Savings

According to research, the employing company saves up to 3% of profits by transferring only 20% of its employees to remote work. Such savings are achieved by reducing the cost of rent (the office space is reduced) and depreciation of the workplace (no need to buy office furniture, stationery, etc.). For example, due to changing life circumstances, some of our employees were unable to work in the usual office rhythm, so we transferred them to permanent remote mode. For us, this is an opportunity to retain a valuable employee for the company and save money on the job; For them, it is the opportunity to work from a comfortable place on a convenient schedule.

2. Empowerment