The world of work has changed drastically in 2020. Reporting to the office building is no longer equivalent to reporting to work because most of us are now working remotely. Remote working has its challenges, but these challenges are made greater if you work in a team, as most people do. What was once an open office, is now a miles-away-from-each-other office; a simple shout-out now requires a video call; the daily office banter is now reduced to an emoji.
Apart from the normal daily challenges, it’s possible to start feeling disconnected from your work life. While we’re not experts, we’re sharing what we are doing at Ceek to work remotely as a team, how we report our work, and how we stay connected...
Ceek Tip #1
Schedule catch-up calls
Working in silos is difficult for anyone, let alone for people who are new to this. We have found that in order to stay connected and keep each other updated, it is necessary to schedule video calls with the team. Some are formal, some are informal, but they are still ways for us to catch up.
As a team, we schedule two daily calls; one when we start and one just before we end our day. During our morning call, we set our priorities for the day ahead while at the end of the day, we inform the rest of the team what was achieved and any other information that applies to the team as a whole.
This is also the perfect time for a little small talk and anything we would have chatted about at the office. We’ve found it’s the best way to enhance team spirit and keep us all positive while getting the work done to the same standards.
Ceek Tip #2
Scrum it up!
No, we’re not suggesting a game of rugby. Scrum is a technique used by a number of teams. In short, it’s a pre-planned meeting where the people involved ‘butt heads’ over ideas. At Ceek, we hold one-on-one meetings once a week with our direct managers. During this session, we brief them about what we worked on the previous week, what we will be working on during the current week, and bounce off any ideas, both about present work and future plans.
Scrums are somewhere between formal and informal, where the lines of communication are completely open. Keeping scrums short is important to maintain their effectiveness. Scrums have enabled us to not only keep up the discussions, but to open the lines of communication between us.
Ceek Tip #3
Update your Calendar
We cannot stress this one enough! Seeing that we hold a number of meetings daily with candidates and clients on a regular basis, our scheduling has always had to be on point, and now even more so. Over this period, we have also begun to register our shorter calls to avoid interrupting each other.
Our little gaps in our calendars have also been used informally to have lunch together virtually or to simply run an idea by our manager. While we know it can be frustrating to have to schedule even the shortest meetings, we’ve found it to be quite helpful for us on the whole.
Ceek Tip #4
Set clear goals
It is vital that everyone in your team knows what they need to do especially when you are all working alone from home. Setting clear KPIs and deadlines with room for evaluation helps keep everyone on track.
Here at Ceek, we continue to schedule time remotely to discuss and align not only our collective goals but also each member’s. That way everyone is clear about what they are doing with respect to each other and what their own Key Performance Indicators are. We hold regular sessions to check that everyone is feeling positive about what they are achieving and remaining productive.
We value our company culture, and working remotely has not changed that. Let Ceek help you expand your team, or if you’re looking for a job in Malta, let Ceek help you find your match...