Front’s guide to successful remote work

While many Fronteers work from home sometimes, working remotely all week long is largely a new experience for us. To allow us to stay productive and remain connected as a team, we’ve compiled a guide to address a few key pointers. In the spirit of transparency, we’re sharing them here for your inspiration.

Front’s guide to successful remote work

Front Discussions, Slack, and Zoom are going to become necessary to maintaining our culture and your relationship with your teammates.

1. Be Available – Be reachable via multiple forms of secure communication and actively engaged in work as per your normal working hours and obligations. Please set up Zoom meetings in advance of meetings and dial into team meetings and All Hands on Monday.

2. Be Accountable – Commit and follow through as usual on your priorities and goals. Keep your Front status updated.

3. Be Attentive – Utilize WFH in a way that does not inconvenience others or slow the velocity of projects. Engage in open communication with your manager and team regarding your scheduling requirements or any offline time.

Tips for communicating clearly while working remotely

• When in doubt, send a message or schedule a meeting to chat it out. Over-communication is better than being uncertain of whether your point is unclear.

• Use Front and Slack to work together with your team!

• Touch base with your manager and teammates regularly throughout the day.

• Give frequent status updates, even if you wouldn’t normally do that. If it makes sense, try doing daily standups with your team.

• At the end of every meeting, confirm deliverables and expected next steps.

• Be reliable for your team. Let others know when you’re going to get something done, and then stick to your word. If you can’t deliver on time, it’s okay — communicate that proactively so we can work on it together.

• Don’t argue over chat. If you’re having a long discussion, just hop on a Zoom call.

• Have a constant Zoom meeting that your team can jump in and out of so it feels like you’re chatting at your desks, or in the kitchen.

Tips for keeping our company culture alive while working remotely

• Be conscious about reaching out to your team and chatting with someone every day, even if you don’t have a work-related meeting scheduled.

• Join our #life-wfh Slack channel which serves as a space for us to stay connected during this time

• Use emojis to clearly communicate your tone and send a little positivity to your team.

• Take time to say "thank you" to someone on your team every day. You can do this on Bonusly with cookies, or over Zoom.

Tips for maintaining a healthy mind and body while working remotely

• Have a set time to start work and end work every day, and communicate that to your team.

• Try meditation to start your day.

• Catch up on reading! Join our #books Slack channel to share suggestions and recommendations.

• Get some exercise: Move for at least 30 minutes daily!

• Keep good postureso you don’t get a neck cramp.

• Take 5: Don’t sit at your desk all day. Take a moment to leave. Go for a walk, do a quick workout routine, take another crack at your Rubik’s cube.

• You know who’s excited about your working from home? Your pet! Share photos of your pets on our #petpals Slack channel.

• Rely more heavily on your friends and family (use this opportunity to call your mom everyday!)

Tips for managing a team remotely

• Give morning greetings, like you would do in the office. Consider holding a morning Zoom meeting to kick off the day.

• Manage with trust — be self aware and stay away from micromanagement.

• Over-communicate the information you get to your team so they feel in the loop with the broader company. They won’t be able to get that in the office.

• Keep all of your existing meetings and do them over Zoom.

• Be very present on Slack and Front. Check in with each team member throughout the day.

• Ask your team for feedback — are you doing enough? Communicating, meeting, giving expectations, unblocking roadblocks, etc?

• Deliver feedback to your teammates over Zoom as much as possible.

• If you don’t already have a Discussion in Front dedicated to your immediate team, set one up so you can chat about ad hoc topics whenever you need.

• Keep the team feeling positive and engaged by sharing news and stories, sending photos, etc.

We’ll continue to add more tips as we develop them! Using Front is a huge part of what makes our team successful — remote and in the office. You can read more on our efforts to transition to remote work in our CEO Mathilde Collin’s 25 things we implemented at Front to keep a great culture while remote and our tips for using Front to stay connected and efficient.