Remote working has increased during the last decade. How can companies maintain team spirit, productivity and a strong corporate culture in a digital world? As the coronavirus has spread and became a global pandemic, one of its main consequences for working adults has been a change in their workplace. A huge proportion of us (probably a majority, in many countries), are now working from our home office or kitchen table. In March a growing number of countries were telling most workers to work from home unless they were providing essential services – for example, nurses and doctors, teachers or supermarket workers. It’s too early to say whether the coronavirus will lead to a significant long-term increase in remote working, more video meetings and less commuting. Of course, the impact on our working habits is trivial compared to coronavirus’s effect on our health, health-systems and our economies. Nonetheless, home or remote working (in cafes or co-working spaces) was an important trend in the labour market before the coronavirus. It will continue to be so long after the world hopefully recovers from the coronavirus and life hopefully goes back to normal. How can businesses encourage team spirit, a strong corporate culture and worker productivity when more people are working remotely? Buffer has embraced remote working. All the eighty-plus staff at our tech company work remotely, from home or co-working spaces near their homes, in 15 countries. Our experience may provide some tips for other businesses that are considering doing more remote working.

We use different technologies for different types of work communication. For everyday communication and collaboration, our employees typically use Threads and Slack. We use Trello to manage our time, to-do-lists and projects. Our software engineers use Jira, a software development tool that’s ideal for agile working. We have frequent team get-togethers − digitally and in person, and once a year, the whole team will get together somewhere in the world. We use Zoom video and audio-conferencing software for monthly employee “gatherings”. If a problem is getting thorny, instead of going back and forth on Slack or Threads, our employees are encouraged to have a video call to work things out. It's probably 95% as good as being in the same physical space. We also encourage the use of emojis in work communication because they can convey subtleties in meaning succinctly and defuse stressful situations. Plus, you lose a lot of body language and facial expression when you are a remote team. Emojis can help fill any communication gap.

Yet remote working can also create new challenges. One of the main ones is known as “asynchronous communication”. Put simply, it means that work doesn’t happen at the same time for everyone. Communication and collaboration are complex issues, especially for remote workers in different time zones and continents. In the last three years of our research into remote work these two matters have been in the top three struggles for remote workers. How can employers encourage good collaboration and communication between teams of remote workers? At Buffer, instead of relying on everyone being online at the same time, we try our best to communicate in a way that keeps conversations and decision-making open to all teammates, no matter where they are.

Over the past year or so, Threads software has become a staple of our work communication. It makes it easy to have text-based conversations across the company and clearly mark decisions when they are made. We find it far easier than using email. Email message threads can quickly become tangled when there are numerous messages from different workers about the same subject. Although we prioritise asynchronous communication at Buffer, that doesn’t mean we never have meetings or real-time communication. How do you know what situation calls for what kind of communication? We normally use real-time communication for casual conversations, catch-ups, and celebrations, urgent situations and “relationship-building” (for example, one-on-ones conversations and mentoring).

In 10 years, I believe that most companies will be promoting flexible work − meaning that workers can work from home for a couple of days per week, or at least a couple of days per month. I appreciate that many companies have invested a lot money in their physical spaces. But as research has shown, a growing number of workers want the option of working from home for some of the time. Some may reject a job offer if it doesn’t include flexible working. Ignoring the long-term rise of remote working could be a costly mistake for your business and be bad for staff morale. Adjusting working practices and technology for remote work can be done gradually to avoid disruption. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy a mixture of remote work and office work.