SovTech Remote Week 2019

SovTech Remote Week 2019

While it was business as usual, the entire SovTech team, 55 of us, worked remotely for the entire week from 12-16th August. Here is how SovTech Remote Week 2019 worked out.

According to IWG, 70% of people globally work remote at least once a week. Remote Co reports that 66% of companies allow remote work and 16% are fully remote. Not everyone you work with is able to sit down in the same room with you, however collaboration is key.

As we expand globally, and teams are spread out across our different offices, we need to be able to #adapt to this changing landscape and learn to work with colleagues in a different locations and time zones.

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So Why did we have Remote Week?

• To cultivate empathy for full-time remote workers.
• To work more effectively as a highly distributed team, and help pave the way for more effective collaboration across our offices.
• To improve our communication with remote workers, and be at our best when working remotely.

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We essentially had 3 rules for remote week:

• You could work from any location you chose but couldn’t come into the SovTech office
• Everyone must have an internet connection and be able to join meetings with video.
• Business functions would continue as normal.

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Our Insights from Remote Week

This is what we learned;

89% overall employee satisfaction

80% of the staff felt the exercise was relevant to their line of work

80% were overall more productive during Remote Week

17% feel Remote Week should be held Monthly, 61% prefer quarterly, 22% would prefer it held Biannually and 8% say Yearly

Also Good wifi is essential!

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In conclusion, Remote Week gave us a unique opportunity to put ourselves in our teammates’ shoes and truly understand the pros and cons of remote work.

Since this experience, we’ve learned to be more collaborative with our remote counterparts, make sure everyone has a voice in team meetings, and be more flexible when hoping on a quick video chat with a remote colleague.

SovTech prides itself in the ability to create and improve on digital solutions whilst working remotely across the globe. Get in touch with us to discuss your project today.

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