How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace is a book written by Robert Glazer that was published in 2021.
The book provides a blueprint for success in the virtual workplace, offering practical advice on how to make the most of remote working, set up effective teams and productive routines, and leverage technology to increase efficiency.
It also provides guidance on how to create a positive and collaborative culture and how to maintain productivity and motivation in the virtual workplace.
Remote Working: What’s It All About?
Remote Working: What’s It All About?
With the explosion of video conferencing, it’s likely that you’ll spend a significant amount of time online when working remotely on your own version of a mini stage—occasionally with a large audience.
There are several worthwhile accessories that you should consider from the outset to help you be more productive and look more professional
Building a world-class culture Part 2
C. Goals
- Key metrics to hold yourself and your team accountable
- Build upon each other to advance vision and values
D. Modifiers
- Repeatedly following proven procedures and upholding standards for excellence
- Consistent processes to keep the organization on track
- Clarifying vision, values, and goals for employees
- Understanding core concepts and fitting into the big picture
Conclusion: Full picture of the organization
- Upfront about key characteristics
- Help find, recruit, and hire the right talent to execute core components to perfection.
Hiring for Remote work
To hire for a remote culture, look for candidates who have the specific characteristics needed to work effectively and maintain personal well-being while working from home. It’s important to consider whether candidates have the innate personal and professional characteristics to work effectively in a virtual workplace, and whether they will be happy and fulfilled working from home in the long term.
Look for candidates who are self-motivated, self-directed, strong communicators, self-confident, and accountable. These characteristics allow remote employees to work effectively and consistently without in-person oversight, figure out problems proactively, communicate clearly, confidently execute tasks without oversight, and take ownership of assigned outcomes.
Employee Engagement
In the era of remote work, virtual team building has become more popular than in-person activities. Companies like JAM, an offshoot of the Canadian organization Sport & Social Club, offer remote team-building activities like trivia, bingo, and online escape rooms.
These games can be customized to include references to the client company. JAM even provides onboarding-focused games for new employees to learn about their colleagues and organization in a fun way. Virtual team building may become a permanent practice for companies, offering opportunities for companies like JAM to grow.
Self Care
Prioritizing your health and well-being is essential for better work.
To achieve this, focus on quality sleep by establishing a consistent bedtime routine and limiting electronic use before bed. Incorporating daily exercise, even a short yoga video or a brisk walk, can improve your mood and focus. Find an activity to reduce stress and relax.
Tips and tricks to enhance your virtual work environment
- Use a second monitor for multitasking and to avoid hunching over your laptop.
- Always use a headset or headphones during video calls to improve audio quality.
- Invest in a good camera, either by buying an HD webcam or using a camera stand for better video clarity and control.
- Improve your lighting with inexpensive lights that clip onto your laptop or screen, or use a ring light for great lighting during calls.
- Create a comfortable workspace by investing in a workstation or standing desk.
- Keep your background clean and clutter-free for a professional appearance during video calls.
- Consider blue light glasses to protect your eyes from strain and improve your sleep quality when working on a screen all day.
Building a world-class culture Part 1
- Authentic leadership with self-awareness
- Personal principles and priorities
II. Key components of a successful culture
A. Vision
- Clear, forward-thinking vision
- Articulate in a way that excites stakeholders
B. Values
- Core values as the DNA of a successful person at the company
- Objective and evaluative wording to measure behavior/performance
- Top performers meet core values when in the right role
Advantages of virtual interviews for remote organizations
- Provides insight into how interviewee may perform in a virtual work environment
- Helps gauge candidate’s attention to detail in setting up virtual workspace
- Shows how much thought and care interviewee puts into presenting themselves professionally
- Noisy background, ineffective headset or microphone, or messy background may indicate how they’ll present themselves in the future as a team member.
Setting Expectations
If you’re working remotely for the first time, it’s essential to set expectations for your new colleagues about when you are and aren’t working. While everybody deviates slightly from day to day, it’s helpful to clarify to your manager and coworkers if, for instance, you prefer to work from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day with an hour at 12:00 p.m. for lunch.
What you don’t want is to be unreachable when people expect you to be working. Nothing erodes trust faster in a virtual working environment than when someone is unavailable or can’t be found easily at a time at which they have designated they will be working.
Motivating employees
Many employees are getting their first dose of remote work during a time of isolating social distancing, stressful economic turmoil, and, for many, an inability to get childcare. It’s no surprise that many of these workers quickly felt exhausted and began to worry they would not stay motivated while working indefinitely from home.
One way to tap into motivation is to identify which aspects or tasks in your role you enjoy more than others, especially those to which you can apply your skills.
If you find it invigorating to compile data in spreadsheets and draw meaning from the results, for example, you might consider finding a way to consolidate that work into blocks of time so you can look forward to that type of work, spending uninterrupted quality time on what you enjoy most.
