As the world’s largest remote working company, GitLab has shown what it takes to be successful.

October 14, 21, a date that will go down in history as World Remote Working Day, along with other key dates that spawned breakthrough innovations like the Internet, email, and Facebook (let’s give Mark Zuckerberg some credit for this for bringing the world closer) GitLab went public with a valuation of $ 11 billion.

In two weeks, the stock rose over 50%, bringing the company’s market valuation to over $ 17 billion. This is a fantastic achievement for a company with only 1300+ employees that has existed since it started up ten years ago.

The $ 11 billion initial public offering is proof that remote work is no longer a fad, that it will stay and be trusted by investors and market movers alike.

The growth of remote work

While in 2020 companies were forced to adopt the remote working model to keep business running, in 2021 companies volunteered to use remote working to save costs and improve work performance.

As more and more employees love the concept of sharing work and home work equally, there seems to be a significant change in behavior at both management and individual levels. As a result, many companies are now putting in place policies that will allow employees to work from home more than ever before.

However, it may be some time before remote working is seen as the norm rather than the exception to the rule. This transformation cannot happen overnight and would require significant effort, time, and investment before an organization can move all of its operations to remote work.

TCS Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on record that working from home is not a cost-saving measure and increases the company’s expenses. This is mainly due to the long-term rental and service contracts that the company has concluded for its locations around the world.

Interestingly, startups and small businesses have a distinct advantage over traditional, large companies, as they are just getting started or their operations have not yet scaled irrevocably.

For the founders Neelesh Rangwani & Vivek Gupta, who started India’s first remote working operations back in 2016, it was either the remote route or the highway.

Their belief in the concept of remote working was so strong that they explored an innovative model to provide companies with remote assistants to manage their routine tasks. It would help startups and small businesses to focus more on growing their business.

How do you set up a remote work organization?

For companies bucking the trend and looking to realign their operations to make them more remote-friendly and sustainable in the long run, here are some remote working tips that can be learned from GitLab.

1. Work on creating an office-like, virtual work environment

People have an innate need to socialize and communicate with others. Communication could be anything from discussions about personal issues to the latest office politics. This usually results in men and women spending more time near the water cooler or washing machine.

While this is not (yet) possible in a virtual environment, companies need to find a way to satisfy this very basic but essential human urge. It means allocating bandwidth (the new retail space on the IT freeway) for employee gossip that was usually played around the water cooler or coffee maker.

The creation of an office-like environment does not have to be limited to this, but can also include spontaneous meetings on topics that might be of interest to the employees. (Something that makes GitLab impressive and great).

From soccer teams to trends on New York fashion ramps, there needs to be something interesting and interactive for all team members.

On the work front, forums are needed in which employees can get timely answers to their concerns, be it with a new customer or when moving to a new location. In addition, information needs to be easily accessible with just a few clicks, with audio and video being the preferred means of disseminating the necessary information.

2. Build trust among employees

In an environment where employees may never see each other, building trust between them becomes more important than in a physical office. The ethos of a physical office is to foster a sense of community among employees in which everyone works toward a common goal.

Unfortunately, this feeling is lost or minimized with little or almost no physical contact between remote workers. In such scenarios, organizations will do much better if they promote a transparent work environment. All employees have equal access to all major developments and news relating to the company.

Checking and verifying facts helps employees to trust their colleagues more and to be wary of rumors circulating about the organization.

The key word here is “be more inclusive” so that nobody feels left out on the work front.

Another important tool that companies can use to build trust among employees is to establish informal communication channels and social connections.

3. Set the correct work expectations

What flexible hours may mean to you may not mean the same to everyone else, leading to misunderstandings and inefficient time management. While everyone loves flexible and timed policies, it is important to keep the goals of the organization in mind.

A good compromise for flexible working hours would be to be available for meetings and discussions when most of the team is online. This can be achieved by setting standard times when people can be online to answer questions or solve problems. The rest of the working hours can be arranged according to the preferences of the employee in order to ensure a perfect work-life balance.

Setting daily and weekly goals could also be good practice to ensure that all work commitments are met according to expected schedules and guidelines.

In an environment where no one is monitoring your work time, it is very easy for an employee to lose focus and be less productive than in an office. To avoid such scenarios, companies could assign mentors to work with the employee on a specific project and available 24/7 for any guidance or assistance they need.

4. Help employees move to a remote environment

Since remote working is a relatively new concept, it may not be easy for many employees to adjust to it both physically and mentally.

Working from home would require them to allocate space within their home to work quietly and without disturbance. This can sometimes be at the expense of the family’s privacy and home environment. Workers must be given advice on this in order to ensure a minimum of interference and disturbance in their family life.

To keep employees comfortable while working from home, organizations can also invest in providing the best physical amenities. They could be similar to the amenities you would install in a physical office, such as a bathroom. B. Monitors that reduce eye strain with ergonomic chairs.

Establishing a good broadband Internet connection also makes a significant contribution to keeping interruptions to work and communication to a minimum.

Most importantly, you give your employees enough time to move to a remote working environment and be comfortable in it, especially if they have been part of a typical office environment for many years.

5. Create documentation and guidelines for even the simplest of tasks

Since employees can no longer run to their colleagues’ desks on a particular problem or project for advice or mentoring, it’s important to break down and document every small task that is relatively easy to understand.

Documenting everything also helps create better collaboration and helps create a reference manual that employees can access whenever they need a solution to some of their questions.

Everything needs to be documented to make it easier to work remotely among employees, from onboarding new members to the SOPs that need to be followed for a product launch.

Taking notes during meetings and sharing with colleagues should be standard practice and encouraged to create a more collaborative work environment. Also, because people are encouraged to write down their thoughts and observations, this leads to clearer and more precise communication.

Is the GitLab model applicable to all companies?

Unfortunately the answer is no.

While futurologists claim that working remotely is the only way businesses can thrive, some industries need to work together and work together in one physical environment in order to grow.

Creative agencies, film production units, hospitality and manufacturing industries are some of the companies that can opt for a hybrid model, with both physical and remote presence, but may never be completely removed.

As the world pushes new boundaries and explores work concepts that have never been conceived before, a “no” may seem a little premature.

For businesses willing and ready to experiment and try the concept of remote working, the transformation may not be as easy as it sounds. However, the rewards are well worth the time and effort you may have to invest in the exercise. We therefore recommend giving remote working a chance and making the most of it.

About Wishup

Wishup is one of the pioneering remote working companies in India. It has a 100% remote working environment that meets and exceeds customer expectations for remote and virtual assistants. This is due to the rigorous selection process involved in hiring employees and then training them in over 50 tasks to meet virtually all of a client’s administrative or social needs.

By the way, Neelesh & Vivek, the founders of Wishup, plan to share their experiences of starting Wishup and the benefits of remote working for businesses in an e-book soon.