Remote working is an increasingly popular way to work in the modern age. It allows people to work from anywhere they want and has many benefits for both employers and employees. However, remote working can be difficult if you’re not mindful of certain things – like how your personality traits play into working remotely – or what type of communication best suits remote teams. This article will explore these topics and more so that you’ll know what it takes to make working remotely successful.
History of remote work
Remote working isn’t a new concept, in fact it has been around for almost half a century. The first remote working pilot program started back in the 1960’s by AT&T (Sound familiar? A little like IBM Watson?) to combat rising urbanization. Although working remotely has always had its ups and downs, the most recent push towards remote working happened during the turn of the millennium with working from home becoming more popular due to increasing broadband connectivity and powerful laptops.
Reasons why companies choose remote working
There are many benefits which make remote working attractive for employers with some of these being happier employees (see below) and increased productivity because there is less distractions. Other key reasons include; hiring talent that you might not otherwise be able to, increased flexibility for working hours which is especially helpful if working with freelancers or contractors, cost saving opportunities due to office space reduction.
Benefits of remote working for employees
Remote working has many benefits for the people working too. It allows more freedom and helps you manage your time more effectively (you can work when YOU want) as well as increasing productivity because of the lack of distractions found in an office environment. Remote working also increases job satisfaction, reduces stress, it’s great for working from home (I mean who doesn’t like working from bed?) and it can even help improve relationships!
Here is a list of some of our favorite benefits of working remotely…
- working remotely allows people to work from anywhere they want. This means working in a cafe one week, working from the beach another, working locally one day and working abroad another.
- working remotely fully supports remote teamwork. This is because people are not limited to where they work or when they do it.
- working remotely allows people to choose their own hours. This can be especially helpful for freelancers or contractors who need more flexibility (or those with children).
- remote workers get to avoid office politics and bullshit inter-office backstabbing which can often occur in “regular” office environments (I don’t know about you but I’m sure we’ve all worked there at least once!).
- working remotely gives employees increased job satisfaction, less stress, and improved relationships to not having the daily commute and working from a place where you can manage your working environment to suit you best.
- working remotely helps people become more productive as they have fewer distractions and better time management.
- working remotely gives employees increased flexibility for working hours which is especially helpful if working with freelancers or contractors, as well as cost-saving opportunities due to office space reduction.
Personality traits needed for successful remote work
Very few studies have looked at what personality traits make people good at working remotely; however, there are some common traits which successful remote workers have.
A few people working remotely are introverts, but working remotely is not just for introverts, extroverts also work successfully remotely so being an extrovert doesn’t automatically rule you out of working successfully remotely.
Extroversion or introversion has little to do with working remotely as both types of personalities can be good at working differently. Extroverted entrepreneurs often use it to their advantage, working elsewhere other than the office and utilizing WiFi connections in cafes to conduct business calls where they wouldn’t normally be able to make these phone calls during “regular” working hours. However this isn’t always the case as there are plenty of successful extroverted freelancers who are happy working by themselves during the day and working from home.
Successful remote workers are typically described as being flexible, adaptable, sociable with good communication skills, reliable, organised with good time management skills and self-motivated. These traits are useful for working effectively in any working environment so you don’t have to be working remotely to possess them. However these can become even more important when working remotely because there is no one else which the remote employee can rely on if they run into problems – it’s up to them to sort things out by themselves/communicate their problem properly or ask for help when needed.
These personality traits are especially helpful when working alone but also important when working within a team too (see below).
Here is a list of some of our favorite personality traits which successful remote working employees have:
- flexibility with working hours or working location
- tendency to be self-motivated and goal-focused
- good communication skills, especially written communication. It can also be useful to have good interpersonal communication skills too as working remotely involves communicating with people from all over the world (like team members on your Slack channel). Many employers working within a fully remote team hire for culture fit first and then look at other factors like technical skill second. This means that interpersonal/soft skills are sometimes more important than technical ability when hiring for a role.
- communicating problems or issues is an essential trait as there is no manager to run into if you need help (and managers aren’t often too happy if you interrupt them with remote working problems).
- An ability to be working alone for some periods of time and working as part of a team during other working hours. This means that the successful employee is able to work independently, but also understand how working in a team can help achieve more.
- The ability to self-manage (self-discipline) and motivate yourself when working remotely on your own..
- having good concentration levels and not being easily distracted – it’s important to be able to focus fully on what you’re doing when working remotely especially if working at home where there are plenty of distractions: TV, family members, pets etc. If everyone needs their “heads down” for 8 hours a then remote employees need this too.
How to work effectively within a remote team?
Working remotely in a team requires good communication , working both independently and collaboratively. There are different working styles within the remote working world, freelancers working on their own or small teams working together to achieve goals. Working remotely with other people is no different from working with your colleague’s face to face – clear communication is key.
Whether you’re working for yourself or working remotely in small teams, it’s important to be able to work effectively both alone and as part of a team. This means being able to work flexibly while not missing out on opportunities because you don’t want to leave the house/office for fear of missing something at work (accidentally) while also understanding when to collaborate with teammates/clients so that others can benefit from working together.
On the topic of communication, asynchronous communication is very popular among remote teams. What is asynchronous communication? It’s when working teams communicate via asynchronous tools like Slack or emails (not live chat). This allows remote working employees to work on tasks without interruption, coming back later after working in the background.
Working remotely also means working away from others at times – it can be easy to feel lonely working by yourself all day every day especially if you’re working with people across countries/cities/continents. Some companies like Buffer offer working together days (a day of the week where colleagues work together in one physical location) which can help combat this feeling of loneliness and provide an opportunity for everyone to catch up in real life too.
Team building within remote teams
You might be wondering, how to build relationships and friendships with your colleagues remotely? The good thing is, there are plenty of things you can do to connect with your remote colleagues such as playing games together online, working together on group projects, working towards team goals, etc. Here are some tips to help you build relationships with your working teammates:
Use webcams when working together or talking with your working teammates (Skype video-calls) – it’s easier for people to connect over the internet when they can see one another even if using text chat rather than voice.
See if you can work locally in the same place at certain points during the week/month so that working employees can get to know each other better by working collaboratively and face-to-face.
Use Slack channels to communicate often with remote working employees – this means everyone in the office is connected whenever anyone changes anything important not only within their own department but across the entire working team as well.
Play games together online such as Scrabble, Sudoku, etc. which can help remote working employees connect and bond with each other on a more personal level than just working on group projects or working towards the same goals.
How to collaborate with your remote teammates?
Collaborating with your remote team is really important, especially given the distance. We’re going to cover some excellent frameworks and methods of collaboration, along with some collaboration tools.
Collaboration and communication frameworks for remote teams
Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model
Used to identify issues and find solutions, the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model is a framework that can be used in remote working teams where individuals have ideas/solutions but need help working out how to communicate them better or working out how they can work together for a common goal.
The following blocks are included within the model: Identify a problem/opportunity, generate possible solutions, explore alternative solutions, experiment with these options and solve the problems.
Open Space Technology
In Open Space Technology working teams share ideas through visual cards working towards a common goal or solving an issue as part of the process of identifying problems and finding solutions for those problems working towards those solutions collaboratively.
Design Thinking Methodology
Working teams working in remote ways can use Design Thinking to help solve problems and create ideas together working as a team.
Remote working collaboration tools
Slack (software as a service) – used as an internal chat system for remote working teams, also works as a task manager allowing remote working employees to save links and files during conversations to reference later.
Trello (software as a service) – used for organizing projects into boards with lists of tasks where users can save links and files related to that project which anyone else on the working team can access from any device.
Zoom (hardware) – used for high-quality video conferences via mobile devices, PCs or Macs with screen sharing capabilities.
Pivotal Tracker (software as a service) – used to manage development projects working with remote working teams and developers working on different aspects of the same project working towards the same goal.
Notion (software as a service) – used as a working framework working with remote teams, for capturing and working collaboratively on ideas, creating task lists, and working across different projects.
HipChat (software as a service) – similar to Slack but has more features. HipChat users can create private rooms to share information only with the working team that needs it rather than keeping it open to everyone on the team working together collaboratively. It also includes file-sharing capabilities allowing you to save links and files related to one another’s comments from within those private rooms.
All these tools above can help remote working teams collaborate better and create more ideas and come up with solutions together working remotely collaboratively, not only within their own department but also across the entire company too.
Final thoughts on remote working within a team
Working remotely can be a great way to work with teams of people who are working in different locations. It’s important that remote workers understand how they should communicate and collaborate with their team members, as well as what tools they need to use for working successfully across the distance. This article has covered some excellent frameworks and methods of collaboration, along with some collaboration tools. Communication is key when working on collaborative projects within a remote working environment; make sure you’re communicating clearly and effectively via slack or Trello so your teammates don’t miss out on vital information!
