What COVID-19 means to the future of remote teams

The threat is real and now the world has realised a bunch of things. When it comes to remote work we saw in the last couple of days an increase of number of articles supporting remote work and what companies are doing to accommodate the changes. For us at Velv thankfully we were already prepared for a scenario like this since not only we allow Home Office some times per week but also because our teams are used to work in a remote setup (or nearshore setup).

What does this mean for the teams?

If you ever considered setting up a remote team somewhere, to overcome lack of resources or to have more flexibility in your projects, you probably thought about communication and organisation. First the teams are organised and established in a specific methodology, where the contribute of all is paced and well defined. This way there’s no running over someone or re-doing work that someone has done. Fast stand-up meetings (well, actually you can be sitting down since you’re alone) shall be more common that usual, with a defined agenda and maybe an extra daily or weekly report is needed so the management is up to date.

Many organisations are not ready for this scenarios. Banks are a very good example of this, but even startups sometimes don’t have the correct mindset to make this happen flawlessly. So if the current world situation have you thinking about setting up a nearshore team, or extend your current team remotely, define a strategy first (we can help you that), establish the right channels and procedures and then build the team up.

This article details a few best practices for remote work.

We really hope this pandemic goes away fast, with the help and commitment of everyone. And we also hope that people understand that this world is more connected that ever, and that we are a global civilisation where collaboration between nations or companies from different sides of the planet are the future.

Keep safe!