We recently surveyed 2,000 small and medium sized businesses to find out how they felt about what 2009 has in store – more than 70% are looking for ways to cut costs.  Read more…

Get the right people

This is not about their skills on the CV, its about their personality, how they work and what motivates them. We use psychometric testing to make sure people can work on their own, that they will enjoy it and they have the communication skills to work in that way. We also focus on recruiting people for whom working from home can make a big difference in their life; typically people who have spent a few years commuting and are sick of it.

A clear vision

You can’t be with people every day so this ensures we are all moving in the same direction. 

No politics

Politics and sneaking behind people’s backs will kill remote team working.  Stamping this out comes from the top – senior management need to make sure this doesn’t happen. 

Show trust

You need to show that you trust your people to deliver on tight deadlines or important projects remotely. That means not dragging people into an office as a deadline nears. If you get the right people and trust them, then they will rise to the occasion. Sometimes people will make mistakes – you need to allow them to do this, and just work through it. It has a huge impact on the level of trust people feel they have from the company.

No clock-watching

Don’t try and track the hours people do. Let people have flexibility in their time – so an afternoon to see the kids school play, or a day off. 

Make time to chat

Make an effort to speak to the people who report to you every day, or every other day at the very least. Don’t have a reason for the call – just call for a chat. You will end up discussing all sorts of things. 

Beware of email debates

Discourage email threads where people argue with each other. You need to stop these in their tracks – this shows a lack of communication. Encourage people to pick up the phone and speak with each other. These ‘arguments’ then get resolved very quickly – as most are down to misunderstanding.

Socialise

When you are all together – do something more social, don’t fill it full of meetings.

A considered approach

When we have conference calls we debate and discuss things.  We normally leave final decisions for outside of the call. We found that if decided things in the call – then after people would have other ideas and thoughts, and it would be a nightmare to get back in touch with everyone.

Make it fun

Revel in the fact that you are working remotely. Our dev team have ‘virtual beers’ on a Friday for example. They all get on a conference call and just chat – with beers or coffee. It’s the online equivalent of going to the pub after work.

Any investment in training is in time as well as money, so keep the time that’s been allocated and avoid the cost.  There are loads of opportunities for self-teaching at little or no cost and reserving specific time slots for self-development means that people will take time out of their usual work day.

There are lots of skills within any company that can be shared.  This internal training can be rewarding for both parties.  At uSwitch we introduced lunchtime learning sessions, where functional specialists would share their knowledge with other people.  It was optional, informal and very popular.

Cut out unnecessary travelling costs.  I heard recently about one of our customers who uses Yuuguu to train hotel reception staff in different European cities.   This saves time and money in an area where ongoing training is really important to keep customers happy.  You can read some more thoughts about using Yuuguu for training.  

Do you have any tips to add to my list?

I often look at our stats to see international usage patterns.  The fastest growing Yuuguu network groups are in India and Mexico.  And much of our usage crosses borders – we have an interesting case study of a translations company who uses Yuuguu to collaborate on projects across the globe. 

If you are involved in support with your business, or are one of those people (like me) who is often asked by relatives to help with their home computer, check out our guide ‘How to use Yuuguu for Support‘.  We also have a case study of a company using Yuuguu to help clients with technical issues, saving them time, money and staying true to their green principles by avoiding unnecessary travel.

All you need to do is use this discount code: webeu08com

The Yuuguu team’s first stop on the conference tour was at Office 2.0 in San Francisco last week.  This event is focused on the future of online productivity and collaboration.  On the first day, at the ‘unconference’, Yuuguu was one of the tools used for the collaboration experiment.

We spent the next two days meeting with folks, announcing the release of our Linux version and giving demos of Yuuguu.  We had some great feedback, positive comments and good ideas for development of the service.  Steve Wylie has posted a write up of his list of cool applications at the Office 2.0 conference.

We’re now looking forward to Web 2.0, which is in New York next week.

In this article, we explore the benefits of home working employees, look at how resistance to old-fashioned stereotypes of home workers are fading away and show how many companies are gaining a competitive advantage by introducing more flexibility.

All you need to do is use this discount code: webny08com

Hope to see you there

Office 2.0, San Francisco, 3-5 September 2008

Web 2.0 Expo, New York City, 16-19 September 2008

Future Of Web Apps, London, 8-10 October 2008

Web 2.0 Expo, Berlin, 21-23 October 2008

If you’re attending any of these events please get in touch beforehand, so we can arrange to hook up.