Working Virtually
| posted by Meghan Trainor When I moved back to my hometown, my company decided to start a branch office to help serve our West Coast clients. Now I'm just about at the end of my first year working remotely in Seattle for Learning Worlds in New York. Many of of our clients at larger companies already work remotely, but it was a new experiment for Learning Worlds. At first we thought about sexy technological solutions: video conferencing, mobile robot avatars, and other high tech toys. But as we gained experience, over time we found a few simple ways to work more effectively.Appoint someone in the main office to act as "host" for the remote employee.
Rather than trying to dial remote folks into every single company lunch or meeting, the host acts as an advocate for the remote employee, relaying important information that may be missed in emails and conference calls. This is especially important when something relating to the group comes up that is hard to infer via electronic means (or hear over a muffled speakerphone), like a special event or a regional weather issue.
Make time for watercooler talk.
It's important for existing teams to make time for the normal office chatter and exchange, in order to maintain a personal connection with the remote employee.
Use hosted solutions for document collaboration.
Online software and documents are unbeatable when working remotely. While we did have VPN access set up, the immediacy of online resources, such as GoogleDocs, was far more useful for everyone involved.
Keep time differences in mind.
There are a variety of widgets that let you see the time in multiple locations, which is important when your team and your clients are scattered over the globe. Being on the West Coast, I often had to get up for a 5am meeting with European clients. Having a tool that lets you gauge multiple time zones is invaluable when you're setting up interactions.
