The remote work experience in business

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Today, we live in a more unsettled time, and remote working became essential for every business. Having the right tools to keep working, and maintaining productivity have been two of the biggest challenges!

To help you sharpen your team remote work activity, we have gathered some of the aspects to have in mind when you work from home. Aligned to that, we attached our personal experience since we at Hi Interactive, are now fully remote working.

Whats remote work?

Remote work simply means any work you do that doesn’t require commuting into the company office.

The premise of the remote work is this: thanks to the digital age, you can now successfully complete projects and communicate with your team and/or client without being in the same room or even in the same city. And that is a big challenge for most businesses once the majority of them have a physical space where all collaborators are gathered to work.

That’s why in this new way of working, each one of your team members needs discipline, motivation and has to be very happy with the company environment! And, most of all, they need to have all the conditions and tools to still be able to communicate with each other like distancing wasn't an obstacle! 

Despite the benefits of home working be kind of obvious, like having more time for personal things, spending less time on daily home-to-work routes, and having fewer distractions. We also know that those advantages can lead to better conditions to be more focused and productive!

However, not everything is fantastic and super positive. There are always some negative issues that you and your coworkers can come across. Working remotely means to be more isolated. For once, employee visibility is lower and more difficult to control. On another hand, employees can have difficulties in controlling the working hours, sometimes overcome the normal working time, which can interfere with the normal work/life balance.

So it is crucial to be prepared to enter in remote mode, like knowing how and when!

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How to work in remote mode?

1. Have a dedicated space to have a peaceful remote work

Find a quiet space that allows you to create a healthy separation of work/home life. Maybe it is your home office, maybe it is the desk you have in your room. 

You need to have a space to be able to work remotely! 

2. Bonus tip to do an efficient remote work

To feel even more connected to your team, bring pieces of your company’s culture into your home office even if that means borrowing a coffee mug from the company office kitchen.

3. High-speed Internet is important for a fruitful remote work 

Reliability is key. You need to be on all the time during the working hours, so wifi needs to work at 100%! Focus on the guarantee that you and your co-workers have access to the best technology and network necessities to get the job done. Internet quality is a must-have to avoid wasting time remaking tasks and loose online communication.

4. Organization is essential for remote work high-performance

You’ll need to stay organized. Define the lunch hours and the breaks, and always check your digital week calendar for meetings or project tasks that need to be accomplished. Be regular with your working hours all week long. That's required!

5. Practice consistency is crucial to stay tune on your remote work 

Hold yourself and your team accountable for conducting meetings at a consistent time. Always show available to online communication, and get part of the online meeting rooms at the company digital sharing tools.

6. Take good notes during the online meetings of remote work

Make sure you or someone on your team actively listen and take notes during each call. By doing so you avoid talking over and over again with each other about the meeting aims and subjects. Ensure that the meeting always stays on track without too much repetition.

7. Communicate clearly and often during remote work to stay updated

Use the company communication and sharing tools at your disposal, including email, to make sure you are making your presence known and be on track!

8. Communication skills are vital in remote work

If you’re working remotely, take it upon yourself to go above and beyond to stay connected, aligned, and in-tune with your teammates.

9. Planning and execute the remote work daily tasks

At the end of the day, a working remote must follow a plan, with deliverables and a timeline to be accomplished so you and your co-workers don't lose yourselves in procrastination or excessive working hours.

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The tips to make remote work a positive experience.

You have to embrace remote work and learn the best ways to take it as a great experience. That will produce good benefits for everyone's professional and personal life. And also to establish a balance between them.

1. Create your own routine when starting a remote work

We know it’s not easy to keep an organized routine when your schedules are more flexible now. But you need to focus on performing a complete routine and continuing being productive, whilst keeping a balance between professional and personal life.

2. Take care of yourself during the remote work

Even though we are in the comfort of our home, it is also true that self-care is needed. Just see it as you're going to another day at work, so choose your outfit wisely and make sure you rock!

3. Know when to switch off after a remote working day

Don’t let work consume you! It is essential you establish your work hours and off work times, schedule breaks, and find out what to do in your spare time. Maybe you can read that really cool book, surf Netflix in search of that specific series.

4. Communication is key when you are at remote work

Working home doesn’t mean you have to isolate yourself from the world. Use digital communication tools to stay connected. Talk with your teammates as you were at the office, but by a camera!

When off of work, give a call to your friends and family, see how they're going!

5. Allow fun to enter the chat even on remote work

Working from home or at the office, fun is always a great way to brighten up everyone’s day! So make sure you keen that positive vibe and transmit that positivity to others!
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Testimonials from our remote team: our remote experience!

At Hi Interactive, it was a really big challenge to change to full remote work. It’s never easy to switch our entire concept of working. Facing a real health threat in our country, the remote work became a necessity to put everyone safe in their homes! And the company changing process was accelerated.

Now, that we are fully established as a remote working company, we can see that it was a success! We can proudly say that we have improved in so many ways we couldn't even imagine. Plus, we acquired new skills, ones that you can only learn throughout working remotely!

Facts like the ones pointed above can be better clarified by those in the frontline when the decision of working remotely was made. As it is the case of our founder, João Prior.

"The first time I heard about Covid-19 I thought that it was so far away from my country! Now, we're facing a new reality. Our casual Friday, became all week long. Now our teams are working remotely without exception. 

In the beginning, my mind was racing! Enhance our office cleaning! Then sending everybody home! So many adjustments to make in such a short time! Starting by demystifying the situation with our teams, put everyone’s mind at ease, and provide hope for the future. Making sure they and their families were safe! Secondly, the projects in hand! Okay, no worries, everything can be done remotely and our teams have great communication tools. All teams together, but for now at distance! And partner projects are going on in schedule! Great!

Today, I am really glad we adopted some of the best working practices because those helped us quickly adapt and ease the hardships we’re facing.” - João Prior.

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Conclusion

Remote work is now a new normal to embrace

To work remotely any company workers need to have the best conditions to do so! It is also essential that everyone in the company has to be in the right mindset. 

It is important for every company to give their teams the best tools to keep on communicating and team working on every project! Keeping the troops motivated, productive and communicative is also a must do for every company who is trying to switch to remote work!

We at Hi Interactive have taken the best part of it and made it a positive experience for everyone! This why now, we have every project underway, and we have elevated our team’s productivity, besides having everyone communicating and feeling like part of something big!