Working Remotely: an Individual Approach

Какие шаги необходимо предпринять в первую очередь при организации удаленной работы?

Alina Kurchatkina: The first thing you need to do is assign a task force to organize remote work in the company, which will consist of the heads of departments or divisions. The task force should not only generate their own proposals, but also, when possible, gather and analyze suggestions from employees on how to restructure the existing processes. Then you will need to do the following:

For each business unit, identify the business processes that cannot be stopped due to the transition to remote work and those that can be temporarily frozen/slowed down. Assign responsible persons and executives for the critical processes.

Further, you need to collect information from the employees on the equipment they have available at home: someone may not have a laptop or PC, headset or camera for video communication. You also need to collect up-to-date employee contacts.

Then create a chat or FAQ page on the corporate portal, where employees can address their questions related to working remotely.

Finally, draw up a policy and general rules for remote work. Most companies still use paper for their document flow, so you need to consider how you are going to address this – collect signatures and stamps, and whether and how you can quickly switch to electronic workflows.

Alina Kurchatkina, Head of the Personnel Development Division (Organizational Development and Business Support Directorate)

Andrei Stepanov: As usual, the general advice is to start from looking into the new changes and the risks they pose. You need to figure out what will change in the operating processes with the transition to remote work. You need to assess these changes and the extent of their impact on the overall result. For each such risk, develop a solution to eliminate it, minimize the damage or come up with a workaround. And, of course, keep giving these issues a lot of thought, collect feedback, analyze, develop new solutions.

How do you control employees remotely?

А. K.: For employees to work effectively from home, you need to provide unified communication channels for all staff (using different means of communication will create confusion) and a virtual scheduling/task board. It is important to draw up the rules of remote work, which will spell out: information exchange procedures, communication channels, employee work schedules, ways of receiving tasks and sending in results, reporting and writing off working time, and, after all, the rules of online communication.

You also need to pay attention to how you assign tasks: a task should be short, specific and rule out potential misinterpretation. In real-life communication, we can ask back, or come closer and see what the other person is doing and how they are doing it. In virtual space, we only have a written source to rely on.

Andrei Stepanov, Deputy Director of Development (Production Directorate)

А. S.: It's very simple, in IT, many people already have everything they need. I would highlight the following areas. First, you need to set up a toolkit for setting and controlling tasks. With the switch to working remotely, communication has become more complicated, so you need to set tasks as clearly as possible (SMART), and give as much information in writing as possible. Then set up task boards. Make the processes transparent for the whole team. Further, deal with the control of time spent. You need to have a clear picture of what an employee was doing and the results of their work. Your job is to make timely corrections and give feedback. Next, set up the tools for quality assessment. Here, of course, everything depends on the specifics of the job, the employee’s role, and etc. For developers, these are self-tests and code review. Introduce a work schedule and daily morning meetings, this is important. Also, you will need to set up asynchronous and synchronous communication tools. And, finally, learn to trust your employees.

What technologies and solutions are recommended for such work?

А. S.: As follows from the previous question, you will need a number of essential tools. Firstly, a system for setting and controlling tasks, secondly, a timekeeping tool – it can be either integrated into the first system, or an independent system. Third, I would say is a system enabling team-work on artifacts (source code management system, wiki system, etc.). The fourth and fifth items could be a corporate calendar and systems for synchronous (video conferencing) and asynchronous communications (group messengers, mail).

Which cloud services are the best fit for these needs?

Vladimir Vlasin: Truth is that the cloud services we use in our daily lives are a small part of the whole array of cloud technologies. In this case, I'm talking about SaaS (Software as a Service). Many companies use such clouds with great success. As a simple example, Google, Yandex or MAIL.RU are communication services. They are very popular. But in each case, you need a balanced and individual approach, you want to calculate whether it will be economically advantageous for the company to migrate to cloud services. For the time being, the optimal solution is sort of a hybrid scheme, where part of the infrastructure is in the clouds, while other services are run in-house.

Vladimir Vlasin, Head of the IT Department (Production Directorate)

А. S.: Individual services do not imply teamwork. If you are the only person assigned to a task, you can use them. But, if we're talking about teamwork, then corporate services allow you to significantly improve the efficiency of task execution. Team services allow you to communicate directly within that system without losing context, which means you don't have to waste time copying/repeating information, it doesn't get corrupted.

A good teamwork tool, combined with a properly structured process for its use, enables almost linear scalability of your team through concurrent tasks.

What systems and business processes today could be painlessly migrated to the cloud for the purposes of remote work?

А. S.: To begin with, a system or process doesn't have to be cloud-based so that you can work with it remotely. Generally speaking, the word "cloud" can be understood in different ways. If we are talking about the infrastructure (iaas), of course, you need to outsource the infrastructure to the data center, in case there is a power outage or you won’t be able to get into the office. Right now, it's even cheaper than building infrastructure in-house. If we are talking about a platform (paas) or ready-made system (saas), then there is no simple answer. Because company systems do not exist in a vacuum, sometimes, you will spend more money on the integration of a cloud system than the development itself. It all depends on your IT development strategy and level of maturity. You need to start by streamlining your processes, separating out the services, and automating manual work. And, as I said before, start with the problems that appeared after the switch to remote work. If the quality of service did not suffer during this transition, then you’d better spend money on other, real problems.

What advice would you give to IS professionals, faced with the task of supporting remote employees?

V.V.: The basic recommendation could be this: give your employees corporate equipment originally configured as per your organization's IS requirements. If that is not possible, you need to make a checklist of the requirements for the hardware and software that will be granted access to corporate LAN. These requirements can spell out antivirus software, password policy, network restrictions when connecting to the corporate network, remote access for IT or IS employees, and other rules adopted by the organization.

А. S.: It depends on where you work. If you work in an office where information security people sealed off USB ports and monitor what you are doing through a camera, then I feel bad for you and I doubt you will be able to work remotely.

But, in most companies it's not all that bad. In fact, nothing has changed since the switch to remote work. You still have to lock your computer when you walk away, you access all company resources via VPN, and all user connections are recorded just like before.

How do you motivate remote employees?

А. K.: The same way as you motivate people in the office. You need to analyze their needs and connect the results of their labor to their satisfaction. For example, some people crave recognition, some seek financial well-being, and others work to achieve career growth. It is important to have an individual approach and not to forget that in the office, there is a lot of non-verbal communication, and when working remotely we need to translate all this into words and provide more feedback more frequently.

А. S.: The same as when you have your employees in the office. The only thing that has changed is the way you communicated with them. Try to do it more often,  schedule regular one-on-one meetings.

What tasks does the IT department handle? Which specialists ideally need to stay in the office to support and address urgent issues?

V.V.: The IT specialists’ job is to provide the same quality of corporate services to remote employees, as they do for employees working in the office – or, in the worst case scenario, with a slightly worse quality, due to issues arising while employees are trying to connect to corporate services, which are beyond the company’s control.

If some of the office hardware stays there, it is advisable to keep someone who could perform fairly simple operations with workstations or network equipment, such as to restart a frozen computer, organize a new workplace, prepare equipment for a remote employee and other similar matters. In fact, you can have no IT specialists in the office at all, they can come from home when needed, provided that they do not violate the SLA when performing the above tasks. Let me stress again that there can be no loss in the quality of services.

How do you motivate employees and help them adapt more quickly to the new environment?

А. K.: When told that they will be working remotely, many people perceive this as a unique opportunity to get some rest. Once they realize that this is far from being the case, the first sign of laziness kicks in: procrastination. Employees know that they need to complete a task, but they can't bring themselves to do it – life at home is too consuming. You have to explain people from the start that working remotely does not mean a vacation. Employees need to understand that there will be schedules, deadlines, and supervision. Draw up a set of rules for remote work, ask your subordinates what difficulties they encounter and implement rules for reporting on what they have done.

To make sure that an employee does not feel lonely and separated from the team, you need to maintain corporate rituals, by reinventing them in a new online format: birthday greetings, Friday tea parties, etc.

А. S.: We conduct surveys among employees on remote work to identify and address different issues. We try to provide everything our people may need. You also need to encourage informal communication between employees; they need to feel that they are part of the team and part of the company.

What are the common misconceptions customers have about remote work and how to protect them from shooting themselves in the foot?

А. S.: A typical misconception is that employees always want to slack off, and if there is no boss behind them, then the work stops. But, this is definitely not the case – people who are motivated, who enjoy their work, they will show even more commitment working from home, because they spend less time commuting to the office and are less distracted. However, the reluctant workers were essentially just pretending that they were working even in their office days. Motivate your employees, and you will see that your team can be very efficient even when working remotely.

Almost two months have passed since the start of the massive switch to remote work. What has changed in this time?

А. S.: We have gotten used to working remotely. It has become a routine; we prepared a new schedule, and mastered new tools and approaches. In a way, this has been a positive thing for the company – we are more flexible now. Moreover, we are already looking into ways to apply our newly acquired skills when the restrictions are lifted.

V. V.: Nothing has really changed for us since the end of March. Initially the idea of our business was based on the principles of remote support, and in the current situation this has helped us to continuously provide corporate services without compromising their quality. One of the company’s main resources is people, and our job has always been to make sure they can fulfill themselves professionally at any time. Therefore, even before the lockdown, most of our employees had the opportunity to work remotely, unlike many companies from other industries.

А. K.: In general, our employees had no problems adapting to the remote format, which means we were ready for such a sudden turn of events. We organized new work processes and dealt with the issue of task setting and control for remote employees. In a sense, this format is even more efficient, as it lacks the distractions you normally have in an office environment: no travel time, no one pulling you into tea parties and smoke breaks, no one pestering you with urgent questions. Personally, I feel like I’m working harder and longer hours than in the office. This is mostly due to the fact that communication is slower in remote mode. But the most severe problem among our employees is a feeling of loneliness. They miss real-life interactions, the team, the office, the opportunity to say a few words to their colleagues in the kitchen. Of course, there are chat rooms, "virtual kitchens" and internal workshops, but people accustomed to real-life interactions are finding it hard to adapt to the new situation. Some people even come to a conclusion that they prefer working in the office, because they just cannot work from home, they cannot concentrate. Globally, the company now has a policy of maximum social offline isolation, but hopefully, soon we will all be able to go back to working in the office as before.

Cinimex commentary:

"We believe that the company’s switch to remote work was painless: we managed to build corporate communication quickly, we showed flexibility toward new circumstances and yet maintained our efficiency. This has been a valuable experience, which Cinimex will definitely put to use in the future.”