A simple trick to ensure sane and quality remote interactions

Pierre Derome

VP Engineering at Scality

Problem

Regarding remote employees, I tend to think that we never do enough. I approach remote interactions by using advice from one of my managers, who himself got this advice from an external coach.

Actions taken

The basic idea is to make a list of all the interactions you have with your local and on-site employees and their goals. There are team interactions, such as standup meetings and sprint meetings, and personal meetings, such as one-on-ones, but also informal interactions, such as saying hello in the morning and talking during coffee breaks. List them all. Then ask yourself why a remote employee would need less interaction. The answer is they wouldn't. Starting from there, I use the list to replace and adjust my interactions to keep up the same level of interaction with remote employees. For example, I pay extra attention to one-on-ones, coming prepared and ensuring I don't miss them. For team meetings, I make sure that we pay extra attention to logistics, such as sound and image quality, and ensure that remote employees can easily express themselves. The hardest interactions to have with remote employees are the informal ones. So, I force myself to regularly come to them with a topic unrelated to work. For example, recently I asked an American remote employee about the Superbowl, just to break the ice. Very often it triggers a work-related conversation, so these efforts are worth it.

Lessons learned

Managing remote workers is hard, but working to maintain the same level of interaction between my local and remote workers by listing interactions has enabled me to think about where to improve, where to put my efforts and where to be creative.

"Regarding remote employees, I tend to think that we never do enough."

"Managing remote workers is hard, but working to maintain the same level of interaction between my local and remote workers by listing interactions has enabled me to think about where to improve, where to put my efforts and where to be creative."

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