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Remote work – an increasing trend today. Does it apply to your company? And if not, isn’t it a pity?

​A lot has changed in the last 2 years. People have learned to work in new ways. There are fewer live meetings and workshops. People are used to it, although some are very reluctant to see their colleagues mainly on the monitor.

During many meetings – mostly online – I hear that this or that team has not yet returned to the office since spring 2020, that they are still “one hundred percent home office.” I also hear that someone is fully-satisfied and on the contrary someone is thinking about changing jobs.

In our own team, we feel that when we meet live, the energy is greater and ideas seem to come faster and maybe even a bit better. However, today it is necessary to know how to handle both – to be able to work live and remotely.

Just as working in-person together can be pleasant, efficient, or ineffective, remote work is similar. It has its pros and cons against working live from the office.

Working remotely not only solves the problem of not being able to all work together from the office (for whatever reason). Remote work also brings new possibilities and opportunities.

Does remote work really bring more opportunities?

Imagine that you are no longer limited in choosing your colleagues based on their proximity to your office. To be honest, if someone has to spend over an hour each way commuting to work every day, they probably don’t like it very much. The time availability of the workplace also plays a role in deciding where an employee will work. However, this may not be an issue if an employee can work remotely on certain days – or every day. In that case, our “headhunting” search for team members can expand even farther to other cities or even other states.

As an example of expanding the team with new people who are not in close proximity of the office, I can directly cite the words of Vlado Hrivňák, chief architect of the company No-A Architects: “We realized that we can easily recruit colleagues working from the team, who are a full-fledged part of the team. Specifically, I mean daily cooperation with colleagues from other cities.” You can read the whole interview with Vlad here.

So to sum it up, thanks to the ability to offer people a way to efficiently work remotely (at least to a certain percentage), you can both increase your attractiveness as an employer and actually expand the number of people from which you can choose.

​However, working remotely doesn’t just give people a certain percentage of home office time. As we like to say in the Teamogy team, it’s an opportunity to be IN, even if you’re OUT. And it doesn’t even have to be at home. Imagine a project manager waiting in between two meetings even though he has about 1-2 hours free on his calendar. Does it make sense to return to the office or home? Or is it better to stay with one of the clients longer at the reception or go to a cafe that is on the way between the two meetings? It is possible to work there in peace, without wasting time caused by unnecessary travel. In order for this to work, however, it is a prerequisite that all the necessary information be accessible from anywhere.​

An interesting model is also working directly with the client. At certain stages of projects, it sometimes makes sense to “sit” more with the client than with the implementation team of your own company. In this case, it can also be considered remote work and can be greatly effective if you have all the information, materials, documents, and colleagues on the chat…as if you were in a common office. The effect of such close cooperation with the client probably does not need to be explained. In the end, the proposed solution will exactly meet the client’s needs and ideas because you have had the opportunity to continuously adjust them according to their feedback or to involve the client directly in the co-creation.​

How to keep a motivated team that uses remote work?

​​The basic premise is that people in the team do not lack information for their work and, in addition, the information is available quickly. Ideally, this should all be possible without having to ask other colleagues for information. Unfortunately, this is often not possible in the office, let alone remotely, but solutions already exist today. I have to say immediately that one of them is Teamogy. It offers a very well-balanced ratio of options to users, while at the same time, minimizing the time needed to produce professionally managed work. 

Although people will have all the information easily accessible, it is natural to create some things together and to consult, not solely to share information via chat or mail. Speaking from our own company experience, it has been proven that many companies find it beneficial to meet online at short coordination meetings (called stand-ups) as well as at weekly or monthly meetings. The monthly or even weekly meeting can already be live, whichever best suits the team. In this case, these are not meetings on the solution of specific projects, but more importantly, coordination and motivational meetings. Most people are more motivated when they know the purpose of their job, why they have been given the task, and what their goal is. Additionally, it is motivating to know that one is not working alone on the goals and that the tasks and roles are well divided.

Why are stand-ups important, especially when working remotely?
Most bosses fear that people are not as efficient when working remotely. The fear is often justified. If you have someone on the team who is not very active within the company and does not cooperate well with fellow colleagues, he should rarely use this type of work. However, I believe that there are very few of these types in teams of a few dozen people. On the other hand, even a loyal team member needs team support. If he talks to others every day about what he will work on and what he will accomplish today, then he feels a moral obligation to others to do so. He has more motivation, and he expects the same from others. In addition, stand-ups have one more advantage. People can coordinate with each other well at the beginning of the day. For example, if one cannot start without the other’s previous work, they know this in time and can resolve the situation in a well-coordinated manner.

And what are weekly (online) meetings for?
They give the people on the team more context. They will learn what activities and projects have been completed, which are underway or are just starting. It is possible to acquaint the team with the results and main lessons (key learnings) from the implemented projects.

How to make a monthly meeting that people look forward to?
Priority information works well. A classic example is that people like to learn about corporate campaigns, new promotional brochures, or new clients before they see them on a media campaign, on the company’s website, or as new references. Other interesting ideas are presentations reporting the results of a company survey, introduction of the most profitable clients, or sharing practical how-to tips.

Do you want to have a system that offers you everything you need for remote work?

You can also share information with colleagues in video conferencing or chat, which are directly part of the Teamogy system. You can have the chat directly linked to the given task or project.

You know immediately about the current tasks that concern you
You will immediately receive notifications to let you know that you have a new task or that someone has completed the task you have assigned to them. If you want to have approval processes in the company (e.g., over-budget projects, orders, or invoices), you will also be notified when the document is approved.

You can easily find out what you have to work on that day or what your team is working on at any time. 
Everyone has an overview of all their tasks. He can use various filters to choose which tasks he wants to monitor. Today’s? Or the tasks that await him this week? Or does he want to see what tasks he has scheduled on the client? All of this is possible, and it is very easy. Of course, if someone is responsible for a certain team, they can work with the tasks of their entire team.

You can invoice from anywhere … and correctly
There is no need to collect a lot of papers before invoicing, to call colleagues for how much they have finally ordered, or if they have already purchased some services related to the project you want to invoice. In Teamogy, you will clearly find all orders to third parties, already received invoices, and internal costs in the form of hours spent by the implementation and coordination team in one place. In addition, everything is based on the approved budget or order, which you will also find in the same place. You can always invoice correctly and on time.

Profitability report without asking
A number of financial reports are available in the Teamogy system for selected team members, from the overall profitability of the company to the profitability and status of individual clients, projects, or teams. The correct and relevant numbers and information can be seen without asking others. Just set the appropriate filters.

And last but not least, you have clear contacts for all colleagues, clients, suppliers …
Thanks to the shared address book, you will find a contact within a few seconds, even those you do not cooperate with frequently. This can be useful, for example, in the case of filling in for a colleague on vacation. A good address book also includes other useful information, such as an exact address, billing information, account number, and more.

Do you want to know how you can ensure quality remote work for your team?

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