As part of the communication with the EMBRAS award jury members, I talked to the jury member representing Estonia, Renita Kasper, founder of the HR Association of this country.
Renita was the HRD of Testilo, a company unique in its format of working in a geographically distributed (40+ countries) remote team. That’s why we chose remote working as the topic for our conversation.
What is remote work?
We may have a different understanding of remote work, which is essential to consider. The company should form its vision and convey it to future employees at the recruitment stage. Working from home and remote work are different things. We’ve experienced the former in coworking, but it’s not equivalent to remote working. That’s why describing and agreeing on the rules of working in a remote team is crucial.
Here are some of them:
— Work time: people may live in different time zones, but they need to communicate with each other. Therefore, it is crucial to synchronize schedules to have time for joint meetings.
— Communication: how and where people communicate and interact with each other, what channels to use, and for what purposes.
— It is essential to think about mental health and personal life and stipulate where, when, and how you are ready to communicate. Boundaries need to be agreed upon in advance, especially taking into account time zone differences.
— You need to prepare leaders to work with a remote team. To avoid micromanagement, you must teach them to set goals and trust the team. So that the leader can ensure successful communication and teamwork.
Adaptation to remote work
Adaptation is essential; people understand the company’s culture, which is more complex than in an office situation. People can be in different countries, with other habits and experiences, so rules and regular communication are essential.
It all starts at the recruitment stage. Future employees should understand where they are going and what awaits them.
Adaptation is an essential process; it should be laid out for the remote team. Each company uses its tools: communication tools, guidebooks, training videos, and plans for different periods indicating materials to be studied and meetings to be held. The focus is essential so that the employee understands the logic and sequence so that their attention at this stage is not dissipated. It is necessary to explain the rules to the employee: what is good and what is not in terms of company culture.
The remote team leader should also be immediately involved in this process: he should build a relationship with the new person and help the section to do so.
What is vital in the recruitment phase of a remote team?
Everyone understands remote work and flexible schedules, so synchronization is essential. For example, we expect a person to work from home (and they may think working from a coffee shop is fine, although we as a company think otherwise — for example, we want to avoid discussing confidential information in a public place). It may be essential to explain what country the person is from, as compensation policies vary depending on the candidate’s country of residence, and legal regulations also have an impact. Therefore, explaining what remote working means for the company is essential, even at the recruitment stage.
It is crucial to understand how effective a person can be in remote work and how well they have the skills necessary (first of all, self-organization skills). It is required to assess the communication abilities of candidates from the point of view of remote work: someone is an excellent communicator while working in the office but does not have the skill to interact with a remote team. Managers can’t always understand how to build relationships and trust while working with a remote team.
Also, we may have people from different countries with different cultures — so the topic of cross-cultural communication is essential. Team members may use different communication styles: some may perceive direct communication as offensive in some cultures.
How do we help develop remote teams?
Informal communications can help build relationships. You can organize hobby club meetings to discuss topics of interest to different employees. For example, you can manage team introductions where everyone talks about themselves, what’s important to them, the things around them, and the environment in which they work. About their favorite cat, cacti, or coffee varieties — this is very human, and it helps team building.
It’s essential to think about ways to bring humor to the team’s work (through Slack, for example). This helps in the work, but you need to know how to do it properly, in a cross-cultural way.
Trust and creating a safe space for open conversations are essential, so actions that bring people closer together are crucial.
How do you monitor the situation in the case of remote teams?
One-on-one sessions are critical; human contact is the most important. If there is no such contact, no surveys will help. So, it is essential to invest time in establishing such connections.
You can also use questionnaires to understand what is happening in the team. These can be as extensive questionnaires 1-2 times a year or trim — with three questions — weekly pulse measurements. But the most important thing is understanding what you will do with this information. What happens next after you have that information?
What should I pay attention to when working with remote teams?
In cross-cultural teams, you learn a lot: through different experiences, you gain a lot. It is crucial in a company to teach people how to work in cross-cultural teams. In one country, they use a direct style of communication; in another country, everything is veiled. It is essential to understand this, discuss it, and give an understanding of its peculiarities.
It is equally important to work with stereotypes: this can hinder teamwork. It is also important to teach how to work in different situations, to understand the behavior of others, and to be able to take this into account in work. It is important to teach how to understand and discuss various conditions properly with people from different cultures. If you have many people from one culture and take a person from another, it is essential to do team integration correctly.
It is also essential to understand the legislation and the peculiarities of employment of employees from different countries to organize the hiring correctly from the point of view of the law.
Identifying the possibilities of moving across different countries regarding time zones, team working patterns, and legislation is essential. It is vital to consider salary differences in other markets and consider this in terms of the potential relocation of team members.
And the final tip: find experts in the field, become their followers on LinkedIn, network, ask questions, and learn. For each new market — look for someone who knows the country, the market, and the culture to find out what you may encounter, what are the peculiarities of a particular market and how you can find the right candidate there or the peculiarities of interaction. Form your network of contacts in your community who will help you.
