In 2020, home is where the magic happened for Poppy. But how to handle this new way of working ? How to welcome new incomers ? In this article, we will share with you 5 tips on how we managed the challenges of working from home 👇🏼
Tips #1 – Define your workspace and be aware when to step away from your office 🖥
“Homeworking”, what a beautiful concept at first. You don’t stress in traffic, you can start in your fav pyjamas, you can schedule your day based on your workload… Why asking for more ? Even though this concept seems perfect, it can fast become a nightmare. Let me explain… You can work the whole day in your pyjamas, your fridge is just around the corner what a temptation to eat all day long, you can start later in the morning but you continue late at night forgetting to take breaks or just enjoy a normal evening. Actually you lose track of time.
Here is the Poppy tricks :
- 👩🏽💻 Set up a place like you have at the office : table, computer, notes, preferably out of your room and not in the kitchen 😅
- ⏰ Define a routine for your workday and write a reachable but ambitious to do list with your priorities. Deadlines will guide you.
- ✋🏻 Breaks are important. Whether it’s a break outside or just a cup of tea, a running session or a scroll session on your sofa, you need to step away from your office. Like you do normally, right ?
Tips #2 – Communication is key 🔑
Keep in mind that people working from home are as isolated as you are. Meaning they can’t see you when you talk or ask for something.
Here is the Poppy tricks :
- 💔 Don’t take things personally and if there is something that hurts your feelings, CALL 📲
- 💡 You send or receive something not clear ? CALL 📲
- 📝 Make sure your to do list is aligned to priorities, deadlines and team work.
- 💝 Even if you are not close to your colleagues, don’t forget the magic words : “Hello”, “how are you ?”, “please”, and most of all “thank you”. You can’t imagine the effect of these ones.
Tips #3 – Keep virtual coffee time ☕️
Being far from your colleagues can be really hard. Sometimes it means you only get in touch for work related stuff. How boring is that ? Act like if you are at the office, take a break together, chat, send some jokes !
Here is the Poppy tricks :
- 🤣 At Poppy fun is key #sorrynotsorry. This is why we used to play “rock, paper, scissors” on Slack, we share some good and very often bad jokes via our “fun” channel.
- ☕️ We start everyday with a coffee chat meeting. No worries, nobody will talk about serious stuff, it’s more about new haircut trends, food, private projects…
- 🍻 Are you more a late night worker ? We also had some e-aperos together ! Want to join us sometimes ? Write us via the chat on our website, we would be more than happy to welcome some of you guys !
Tips #4 – Set up efficient online meeting 🤳🏻
Figures, campaigns, projects or brainstorm online can be “ugh” 🤯 But nothing is impossible !
Here is the Poppy tricks :
- 📆 Stick to your timing and be clear on the agenda.
- 🤩 Embrace video calling, work on your presention to make it visually nice, interesting and simple.
- 🎤 Share the speech, give everyone a voice and encourage engagement to be sure everyone stays attentive 💤
Tips #5 – Double your efforts for new incomers 👋🏼
In 2020, we welcomed 18 new incomers in the team 🔥 Not always easy to give them a warm welcome like if we were at the office.
Here is the Poppy tricks :
- 👋🏼 Announce their arrival to the whole team presenting who they are, where they come from and what they are going to do.
- ⏳ Make no difference between an intern working for several months and a full time employee. Both are really important !
- ⚙️ Double your efforts to be sure they get what they need in terms of explanations, guidance but also tools and devices they’ll need.
- 👀 Keep an eye on them more than on anyone else. Be sure they are on track, comfortable with their new mission and well in the team.
- 🎁 Someone is leaving ? Don’t forget to say goodbye properly and of course, a little gift won’t kill anybody !
But working remotely does not only concern internal teams. It also includes working with external sources and most of all staying in touch with our red community. You will soon discover what we did to be closer than ever from you guys ❤️
These are just 5 of the hundreds advice you will find on how to manage remote teams. 2020 pushed us out of our comfort zone. Improvement is key but we are quite proud of how managed working from home. Let’s see what’s going to happen in 2021 👀
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