How does an employer keep mobile workers engaged? A new report by Prysm Inc. has a few suggestions.
The company, which creates cloud-based visual workplaces designed for remote teamwork, says that the greatest obstacles to mobile work are time zone differences, lack of proper communication tools, isolation and social barriers, a lack of access to key information and expertise and the misuse of technology.
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Different time zones are not such a big deal, argues the report, if the team plans according. "For example, have a team in Europe or Asia begin a project and have your North American team pick up the project when they arrive at work," it suggests. Of course, there are certainly instances in which that system will not work; sometimes the person in Tokyo really needs to talk with the person in New York.
Unsurprisingly, Prysm also suggests that its own technology is part of the solution. Email is simply not good enough for connecting mobile workers; companies should embrace "technologies that support virtual conferencing and real-time collaborative updates."
Similarly, the company suggests that the best way to combat isolation and social barriers wrought by remote work comes from communication tools that allow for visual interaction between employees.
Indeed, some companies are so serious about promoting traditional social interaction between their remote workers that they are throwing mobile office holiday parties. A team of remote workers at Xerox have been having remote office parties since they converted to telework in 2008, the Atlantic reports.
Breandan Beneschott, the founder of Toptal, a tech company that consists entirely of remote employees, described the first virtual party the company threw: "It ended up being a several-hour virtual Christmas party with everybody's videos turned on. You're talking and joking, and people are pouring champagne or eggnog, or whatever. It was awesome."
FlexJobs, a platform for remote jobs and workers, not only throws virtual parties but offers remote yoga sessions, happy hour trivias, book club meetings and belly dance classes.
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