Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
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Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
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Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#2The use of the word "support" in the title is critical.
I've witnessed second hand the anti-pattern where a company has lots of remote workers, and fails to support them. You quickly get a 2-tier system where only the workers who are in the office actually know what is going on. This can seem to work for a while, but there is no shortage of problems.
One of my current contracts is different. One of the founders has been remote since the beginning, so they pay close attention to this type of issue. They have a number of remote workers (including me, very much part time) and it seems to be working out quite well for them - because they have the necessary support infrastructure in place.
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#3Today I am reminded of reason number #37 to telecommute: influenza.
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#4> All our knowledge transfer was done in person using heavy sarcasm and obscure hand waving
Choice quote and very true in my exp.
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#5The use of the word "support" in the title is critical. I've witnessed second hand the anti-pattern where a company has lots of remote workers, and fails to support them. You quickly get a 2-tier system where only the workers who are in the office actually know what is going on. This can seem to work for a while, but there is no shortage of problems. One of my current contracts is different. One of the founders has b…
I'm in a similar situation: One thing that works really well is that there are some very clear ways to get yourself lots of attention on a problem when you need it. It is pretty fantastic for this sort of issue
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#6Today I am reminded of reason number #37 to telecommute: influenza.
That reminds me of my favorite book, "How to lose friends and influenza people"
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#7The use of the word "support" in the title is critical. I've witnessed second hand the anti-pattern where a company has lots of remote workers, and fails to support them. You quickly get a 2-tier system where only the workers who are in the office actually know what is going on. This can seem to work for a while, but there is no shortage of problems. One of my current contracts is different. One of the founders has b…
What kind of support infrastructure are you talking about? I work remotely a couple days a week and we have several full-time remote workers on my team. We setup a Webex meetings for every meeting and we all have webcams. Besides that, we will informally use Google Hangouts to chat with each other.
I'm just curious what we could do beyond that to support the remote people.
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#8The use of the word "support" in the title is critical. I've witnessed second hand the anti-pattern where a company has lots of remote workers, and fails to support them. You quickly get a 2-tier system where only the workers who are in the office actually know what is going on. This can seem to work for a while, but there is no shortage of problems. One of my current contracts is different. One of the founders has b…
What kind of support infrastructure are you talking about? I work remotely a couple days a week and we have several full-time remote workers on my team. We setup a Webex meetings for every meeting and we all have webcams. Besides that, we will informally use Google Hangouts to chat with each other. I'm just curious what we could do beyond that to support the remote people.
Have a ticketing system. Use it religiously. Have online chat options (gmail is good). Use it religiously. Include remotes in conference calls. Do it religiously. Have key discussions in email, or at least summarized there, instead of just in person. Do it religiously.
In short, make sure that everything is accessible for people who weren't there. And keep the habit going always.
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#9I would have thought "Have access to the entire world of smart talented people" would have cropped up but it didn't. I see why, that's not quite the direction the article was going in, but it's another benefit. In my company we had a pretty talented front ender who had to go back to germany but since we support remote workers we've been able to keep him which is cool.
Re: Companies that support remote workers win against those that don’t
#10I would have thought "Have access to the entire world of smart talented people" would have cropped up but it didn't. I see why, that's not quite the direction the article was going in, but it's another benefit. In my company we had a pretty talented front ender who had to go back to germany but since we support remote workers we've been able to keep him which is cool.
I've noticed an interesting paradox at companies where I've worked. They are very flexible about remote workers when they are far away (e.g. office is in Los Angeles, and one programmer is in Oregon and one customer service rep is in Colorado), but they are more resistant when someone local wants to work remotely (e.g. to avoid a 1.5 hour commute each way in Los Angeles traffic).