{"id":170,"date":"2020-04-22T16:49:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T11:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.remotejobs.co.in\/?p=170"},"modified":"2020-04-22T16:51:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T11:21:06","slug":"will-remote-work-inspire-companies-to-abandon-bad-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/will-remote-work-inspire-companies-to-abandon-bad-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Remote Work Inspire Companies To Abandon Bad Habits?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Documentation and transparent success metrics are must-haves for distributed teams. Maybe they should be for the rest of us, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of tech professionals transitioned\u00a0to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/builtin.com\/remote-work\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">all-remote<\/a>\u00a0workforces for the first time just a few weeks ago \u2014 without much warning or preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In such circumstances, how do you lead the transition well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You start by listening to someone who\u2019s spent their whole career doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Darren Murph\u2019s the guy for that. He\u2019s worked and led teams remotely \u2014 as an editor, consultant, strategist and communications director \u2014 for several years, most recently with the all-remote team at GitLab, as the company\u2019s first-ever head of remote. There, Murph literally wrote&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/about.gitlab.com\/resources\/ebook-remote-playbook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the playbook<\/a>&nbsp;on how GitLab\u2019s thousand-plus employees can work smoothly in lockstep \u2014 without ever having to share a physical office space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6r9kf6DvTuY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">21st Century HR podcast<\/a>, Murph shared advice on how leaders can think best about transitioning their teams to remote (and what it\u2019ll look like to transition them back).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Here are four key takeaways from the discussion.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"21st Century HR Live: Darren Murph, Head of Remote @ GitLab\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6r9kf6DvTuY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>21st Century HR Live: Darren Murph, Head of Remote @ GitLab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Remote will change how your people think about work<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>After several months of working remotely, what existed before solely as a hunch for many professionals will be made clear: When work\u2019s not bound by geography, a lot of opportunities open up. The new arrangement creates new possibilities \u2014&nbsp; about where to live, where to send children to school, what fulfilling hobbies can be pursued now that free time isn\u2019t gobbled up by the commute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a lot of people, \u201ctheir identity has been very tightly tied to the office,\u201d Murph told Amplify founder Lars Schmidt, \u201cbut now that that\u2019s been broken down, where there is no physical office happening in their life every day, it gives them that freedom to ask those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professionals have glimpsed the possibilities afforded to them by remote work. Their curiosities have been piqued.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply sending workers back to the office (once it\u2019s safe to do so) as if the status quo hadn\u2019t been disrupted could lead to whiplash.&nbsp;Because for some of them, the genie\u2019s not going back in the bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Remove work could help de-risk the business<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>By tying their businesses to a specific, physical location, some organizations unnecessarily face heightened risk \u2014 to no fault of their actual business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6r9kf6DvTuY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Talking to Schmidt<\/a>, Murph cited Milan as a location where companies have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. The location is what made the impact more severe, and that had nothing to do with the company\u2019s business model. Murph also noted that some firms in London received a sudden shock in the wake of Brexit a few years ago. Again, the impact had nothing to do with the soundness of the business; it was due to the geographic location \u2014 in which case, there\u2019s little an organization can do to prepare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRemote is a great way to decouple where the work happens \u2014 the results \u2014 with geography,\u201d Murph said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may sound overly cautious to some, but by going remote, organizations can lessen the impact of a location-bound crisis, such as a natural disaster, pandemic or regional instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Remove forces you to get disciplined about documentation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past, Murph has advised executives to take months out of the office and give remote work a try. That way, they would be forced to document things they previously only verbalized.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll start to see communication gaps,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6r9kf6DvTuY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">he told Schmidt<\/a>, noting that&nbsp;<em>ad hoc<\/em>, in-person meetings are how many organizations bridge those gaps. But it\u2019s not an efficient allocation of time and resources. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not in the office, there\u2019s no Band-Aid solution. You have to be intentional about making sure that your communication is rock solid and seamless all the way up and all the way back down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GitLab, Murph said, adjusted the settings on its Slack app so that messages would expire after 90 days. That way, employees were forced not to do work in Slack; they would have to document it, which would benefit the entire company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt could be uncomfortable for new people coming in, but sometimes the forcing function is exactly the discipline you need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Remote work requires you to think differently about performance evaluation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve often been asked, \u2018How do you know if employees are working remotely?\u2019\u201d Murph&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6r9kf6DvTuY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">said<\/a>&nbsp;in the 21st Century HR interview. \u201cAnd my immediate response is, \u2018How did you know they were working in the office?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Performance management, according to Murph, has been far too subjective in an office environment. Likeability, for example, can take an employee a long way in a physical office setting where employees rub shoulders and chat by the water cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, \u201cIn a remote setting, likability is not the top aspect,\u201d Murph said. \u201cIt\u2019s results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Results are location-agnostic. In the absence of a shared, physical workspace, real, tangible work results are the only things an employee can prove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murph believes it\u2019s up to an organization\u2019s leaders to clearly define the results that are expected of each department and employee \u2014 regardless of where the results are accomplished. Employees shouldn\u2019t be burdened to prove to managers that they\u2019re working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShockingly, this has not been something with great hygiene for a lot of companies,\u201d Murph told Schmidt. He noted that many are grappling with what it looks like to define performance benchmarks for the first time, rather than rely on subjective analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, Murph said, managers should ask candidly what their direct reports need to meet the clearly articulated expectations while they\u2019re working remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThis,\u201d Murph said, \u201cis a great awakening for performance management.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong><em>Originally published at <a aria-label=\"Entrepreneur (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/builtin.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"rank-math-link\">Builtin<\/a> &amp; written by <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/author\/alexandra-cote\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"rank-math-link\">Hal Koss<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><cite><a href=\"https:\/\/builtin.com\/operations\/remote-work-advice-hr-gitlab\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/builtin.com\/operations\/remote-work-advice-hr-gitlab<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Documentation and transparent success metrics are must-haves for distributed teams. Maybe they should be for the rest of us, too. Lots of tech professionals transitioned\u00a0to\u00a0all-remote\u00a0workforces for the first time just a few weeks ago \u2014 without much warning or preparation. In such circumstances, how do you lead the transition well? You start by listening to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,9,6,3,7,8,4],"tags":[18,21,22,20,23,16,19,11,14,13,17,12,10,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}