world class virtual teamwork - hrpa€¦ · “if we are to enjoy the efficiencies and other...

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World Class Virtual TeamworkHow to Make Remote Work Work @JsarahwatsHR

@Actionableco

2World Class Virtual TeamworkJane Watson CHRL @JSarahWatsHR @Actionableco

InsightConversation + Action +

Actionable

• We partner with learning & change consultants to help amplify and measure their impact on employee behaviour

• Remote-first company, with team members in 4 countries

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• Why remote work?• What’s so great about remote work?• What’s not so great?• The foundation of effective remote teamwork• Supporting effective remote work at every stage of the

employment relationship• Q&A

World Class Virtual TeamworkJane Watson CHRL @JSarahWatsHR @Actionableco

Today

4World Class Virtual Teamwork

• Entirely remote and distributed organization?

• Organization in which some teams or roles are remote all the time?

• Organization in which some roles are remote some of the time (work from home policy)?

• Organization that is entirely office-based, 100% of the time?

Jane Watson CHRL @JSarahWatsHR @Actionableco

Where Do You Work?


Text goes here


Source: Joel Gascoigne, Buffer

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Wait, what about Yahoo?

World Class Virtual TeamworkJane Watson CHRL @JSarahWatsHR @Actionableco


The Current State of Remote Work

40% more U.S. employers offered flexible workplace options than they did five years ago.3

Regular telecommuting grew 115% in the past decade, nearly 10 times faster than the rest of the workforce.3

More than 1.7 million Canadian employees — those not self-employed — worked from home in 2008 at least once a week, up almost 23 per cent from 2000.4


• What problem are you trying to solve?• Is remote work likely to address this problem?• What problems might remote work contribute to?• Are these trade-offs worth it for your org?• Can these be mitigated through preparation, design,

education, communication?

Why Remote Work?


What’s So Great About Remote Work?

80-90% of US workers would like the opportunity to work from home at least some of the time.3

Employees who spend 60% to 80% of their time working outside of the office are most engaged.9

Significantly expandedtalent poolunlimited by your geographic location.

Talent Attraction & Retention


What Else is So Great About Remote Work?

Productivity increased by 13.5% in a RCT of 16,000 Chinese travel agency workers.4

Performance increases of 11% per one day of telework a week due to less distractions. 4

$10,000 per year per employee that telecommutes only two days each week.10

Productivity Cost Savings


• Knowledge Sharing• Individual visibility• Feelings of isolation• Work-life boundaries

blurred• Conflict more difficult to

manage• Employee anxiety

Challenges of Remote Work


Trust, not Technology


Why Trust is Critical for Effective Remote Work Less social cues

+Fewer opportunities

for social control

Risk of conflicts due to delayed

responses +lower context

Higher risk of role ambiguity

Poor understanding of events

Source: Science for Work, summary of 2016 meta-analysis

Trust strongly correlated with:• Effort• Commitment• Collaboration• Sharing information and

knowledge freely• Learning

15World Class Virtual TeamworkJane WatsonCHRL @JSarahWatsHR @Actionableco

Symptoms of Low Trust

Treating remote work as a reward (only for people who have earned our trust), not as a business decision.

Equating presencewith productivity (activity over outcomes).

Managerial fear:If I can’t see you >I don’t know if you’re working > and I can’t measure you > which puts my credibility at risk.


Trust as a Default

Trust as a starting point, until proven otherwise.

Assume benevolence: give others the benefit of the doubt.

Display a bias for generosity (information sharing, advice, assistance). Making transparency a priority.


Designing for Remote Work


Recruitment

Hire right• Self awareness• “Self management”• Life outside of work• Benevolence• But, people are

adaptable

Interview in the context they’ll work in (phone, video, e-mail) to test communication skills.

Do a work preview, paid project, or at very least a practical assignment.


On-boarding

Make the invisible visible. Spell out how and why you work the way you do.

Build connections fast and on purpose. Give them a buddy and involve them in an easier project right away.

Set really clear results and a planfrom the start and revisit regularly. Give 3x as much feedback as you think necessary.


Communication & Collaboration

Everyone should be asking themselves: ”How can this be more transparent?”That goes for your own work, all internal communication.

Be deliberate about informal interactions, they build empathy.

Use video whenever possible.

In mixed (remote & non) teams, always have at least two people ‘dial in’ to meetings.


Managing Performance

Focus on results not time. Outputs over inputs.

More feedback than in a non-remote workplace. Raise issues as soon as they come to your attention.

Be deliberate about creating opportunities for people to showcase their work (not just achievements). Help them be visible.


Terminations

Legal will tell you to do it in person.

I am not a lawyer.

An effective virtual termination is 90% about what you do leading up to termination.

Balance adult to adult conversation and transparency, with practical concerns like info security and not being able to gauge someone’s emotional state.


“If we are to enjoy the efficiencies and other benefits of the virtual organization, we will have to rediscover how to run organizations based more on trust than on control. Virtuality requires trust to make it work: Technology on its own is not enough.”

C. Handy: “Trust and the Virtual Organization”, Harvard Business Review May – June 1995


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QUESTIONS?


Evidence Based Resources:Science for Work https://scienceforwork.com/Centre for Evidence Based Management https://www.cebma.org/Deep Feedback Movement https://www.thedeepfeedbackmovement.com/

Remote Work Resources:Buffer: https://open.buffer.com/category/remote-work/Basecamp Handbook: https://github.com/basecamp/handbookTriberr http://blog.triberr.com/executives-guide-managing-remote-teams/Zapier blog: https://zapier.com/blog/remote-team-management/

Tools:SlackZoom (or Skype)Google DriveTrello

Jane Watson CHRK @JSarahWatsHR @Actionableco

Resources

https://scienceforwork.com/

https://www.cebma.org/

https://www.thedeepfeedbackmovement.com/

https://open.buffer.com/category/remote-work/

https://github.com/basecamp/handbook

http://blog.triberr.com/executives-guide-managing-remote-teams/

https://zapier.com/blog/remote-team-management/


1. van der Meulen, D. (2017). Does remote working really work?. RSM Discovery - Management Knowledge, 29(1), 20–22. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/98617

2. https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-132.pdf3. http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/2017-state-of-telecommuting-in-the-us4. Statistics Canada 20105. http://www.nber.org/papers/w188716. http://calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Telework_Canada_Final.pdf7. Cascio, W. F. (2000). Managing a virtual workplace. The Academy of Management Executive, 14(3), 81-908. Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Teams That Work." Harvard Business Review 93, no. 10 (October 2015): 74–81.9. http://www.gallup.com/reports/199961/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx10. 2011 WORKshift Canada report, The Bottom Line on Telework


Sources

https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-132.pdf

http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/2017-state-of-telecommuting-in-the-us

http://www.nber.org/papers/w18871

http://calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Telework_Canada_Final.pdf

http://amp.aom.org/content/14/3/81.short

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49666

http://www.gallup.com/reports/199961/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx

http://calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Telework_Canada_Final.pdf

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