By Glenn Grant
With the recent flood of millennials into the workforce and a competitive hiring market, companies are scrambling to transform how they manage their employees. A recent FlexJobs survey of millennials states that 85 percent of millennials want to telecommute 100 percent of the time, and 54 percent want to have a flexible alternative schedule (think remote hybrid). In today’s climate, a key component of attracting and retaining top talent is a company culture that champions flexibility and change. With endless telecommuting and collaboration technologies available, moving to a hybrid remote workforce is an easy way to score a win with your existing team and attract A-players.
At my company, we have seen a lot of success with the hybrid remote model over the past year. Our success is due to leveraging new technologies, like Zoom for video conferencing and Slack for instant messaging. We've also extended our internal communication channels to our customers, so we now interact with them the same way we interact with each other (through Zoom and Slack) in order to better integrate our customers' needs into our daily workflows.
We have “work from home” days every Wednesday and Friday. The rest of the week, we are all in the office but maintain flexibility for employees to work remotely if they are trying to bang out a project or need to be home for a delivery. We start every day with a 15-minute departmental “huddle” via a Zoom virtual meeting. Bringing the teams together each morning sets a collaborative tone for the day and ensures everyone is focused on the right tasks to move the company forward -- no matter where any employee physically is.
Video Conferencing: Why We Chose Zoom
We are huge Zoom nerds. We have built a whole culture around video conferencing, and everyone is in front of their camera for just about every virtual meeting. We have achieved this culture by setting expectations with new hires right out of the gate. Throughout the interview process, candidates will likely be interviewed by someone remotely via Zoom. So before they even join the company, they are exposed to our remote-hybrid workflows. No one is hiding behind the phone at G2. Zoom makes this possible but also provides an environment that really clicks with the millennial workforce. Just woke up? Zoom has a feature, similar to an Instagram or Snapchat filter, to enhance your appearance with the click of a button. If that doesn't speak to millennials, I’m not sure what does!
Instant Messaging: Why We Chose Slack
Slack is another staple in our hybrid remote workforce. #ChatOps, a workflow that utilizes a collaboration tool, like Slack, to combine people, process, tools, and automation to get work done, is a way of life for technology companies like ours. Slack allows us to instantly communicate and file share with each other as well as our customers. With Slack, we can manage projects more effectively and maintain a line of communication that fosters a strong and collaborative relationship with our customers. The team also enjoys Slack's fun features, including emojis and /giphy, a command that randomly generates funny GIFs -- sense of humor required!
There is also a lot of fun to be had on Slack and Zoom. Employees will often send pictures from vacation, which is a testament to the positive remote culture we’ve built here, made possible through these technologies. We are constantly evaluating new tools and strive to keep current with the latest technology available to streamline operations, attract and retain top talent with a fun and flexible culture, and help drive company growth.
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Glenn Grant is the Founder & CEO of G2 Tech Group. Glenn is a visionary, entrepreneur, and tech-executive with over 20 years of experience in the IT support industry.