Ten Tips for Working Remotely and Getting the Most Out of Video Conference

The chances you will be working remotely this year just went up. With the World Health Organization declaring Covid-19 a pandemic, many organizations are asking their employees to work remotely. As organizations begin to invest in technology to enhance remote work and studies continue to show that working remotely can increase productivity, and employee satisfaction, this trend is here to stay. With so many professionals new to working remotely and leaders worried about a decrease in productivity, it’s important to have a plan to navigate this transition.

Over the course of the last seven years I have had the opportunity to work remotely at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Amazon (AWS), and lead teams distributed all around the world. As a result, I’ve developed a series of best practices that I hope might be useful to anyone working remotely and using video to stay connected to their team.

Five Tips for Working Remotely

• Embrace the Change: Remote work isn’t going away so embrace it. There are many benefits to working remotely including the ability to have a flexible work schedule, the ability to work from anywhere, not having to commute and not being distracted by everything happening around you at work. This is why 97% of employees who work from home recommend it to other colleagues according to a 2020 study of 3,500 remote workers by online brand development agency Buffer.
• Create a Culture of Trust: Whether you are a leader or an individual contributor, everyone needs to help create a culture of trust if you and your team are to thrive at working remotely. If you are leader, put ground rules in place and hold people accountable, but empower them to get their work done in a way that is best for them. While not seeing your team in person on daily basis might give you anxiety, it’s important to know that most studies show working remotely causes an increase in productivity and employee satisfaction. If you are an individual contributor, do your part by proactively communicating to your leader and your colleagues with multiple touch-points throughout the week. Don’t disappear and don’t make them track you down.
• Get Creative with Communication: Most people spend their work days in close proximity to their leader, employees and co-workers where it’s easy to have informal communication. When you are working remotely, you have to be intentional about communication. The 2020 Buffer study found that loneliness was the first-most reported challenge, one experienced by 20% of respondents. Video conference is by far the most effective way to communicate, instill culture and build relationships when working remotely. There are many video conference services available like Amazon Chime, Zoom and BlueJeans to try if your company hasn’t invested in a video conference technology (see my video conference tips below). But not everything has to be a formal video conference, in fact making quick phone calls to your team or co-workers, texting and WhatsApp are all great ways to communicate. No matter your communication method, the key is to make communication constant, consistent, formal and informal.
• Be Intentional About Exercise: As you might have noticed, walking to the train station, your car to the office, your desk to the restroom, one building to another building for a meeting, and taking the stairs are all off the table when you work remotely. It’s because of this that you need to be intentional about exercise. Not only should you continue any exercise regimen you currently have, you need to add additional steps you are now missing by working remotely. It’s also important to get up from your chair to stretch at least once every hour, and ensure you have an ergonomically correct work space. By taking care of your physical health you can continue to make just as big of an impact as you did by working in the office.
• Know When to Unplug: The second-most reported challenge for remote workers according to the 2020 study conducted by Buffer is not being able to unplug. When we have flexibility of when we work, we sometimes feel as though we are always on the clock. We often reach for the phone to check email when we immediately wake up in the morning and through the evening. This can cause issues with your health, motivation and even your family. To combat this, put some ground rules in place such as not looking at your phone until you have finished your morning routine, putting a block on your phone so you can’t look at certain apps during the evening and calendaring weeks in advance so you aren’t overloaded with meetings during the day and you have time to get your work done and respond to emails.

Five Tips for Getting the Most Out of Video Conference

• Master the Technology: The goal is to be so proficient with the video conference technology that the people on the other end think you are there with them. Whether you are using Amazon Chime, Zoom, BlueJeans or another video conference technology, take the time to gain fluency. You can do this by ensuring you have the latest version, logging in early, knowing how to share your screen, and knowing how to mute yourself and others. In addition, you might want to invest in a good pair of headphones with a microphone or a professional external microphone to eliminate the chance of feedback. If you are uncomfortable operating the video conference technology, you will distract from the meeting, and undermine your effectiveness as a contributor to the conversation.
• Look at the Camera When Speaking: Most people have the tendency to look at the people on the screen rather than the camera, however, making direct eye contact is crucial to connecting at a human level. If you look at the people on the screen, it will appear as if you are looking down or to the side, which gives the impression that you aren’t fully engaged in the conversation or confident in what you are saying. You can easily solve this by looking directly at the camera when you speak so the people on the other side feel as you are looking directly at them.
• Pay Attention to What the Camera Sees: The optimal camera angle is from the chest up so you can communicate with body language and a background that doesn’t distract from the conversation. Most first-time remote workers are using their laptops and sitting them on a desk with the camera pointed up towards the ceiling. This angle can either make you look small because only a portion of your face is in the video, or it can take up the entire video with just your face. Neither of these options are flattering and often distracting. While I highly recommend getting a monitor with a camera (or an external video camera), another remedy is to elevate your laptop on a stack of books so the camera is slightly above your eye-line.
• Body Language and Your Voice: Body language cues and your voice makes the difference between being effective on a video call or not. When we are in person, we are able to pick up on subtle body language cues like communicating with our hands, our posture, and our facial expressions. On video conference, these subtle cues can be lost, so we need to dial up our body language with big hand gestures, exaggerated nodding to show we are paying attention, and raising our hands when we want to talk. Just as important as body language is the power of our voice. Are we using the right tempo, or are we speaking too fast or too slowly? Are we using the right tone, or are we speaking monotone or too excited? Building relationships and influencing others over video conference can be just as effective as in person if you pay attention to how you show up.
• Be Inclusive: Being intentional about including others in the video conference is the hardest but most impactful thing you can do to make your video conference meetings successful. Because it is harder to pick up on body language cues like a subtle gesture when someone wants to speak, video conference calls are often dominated by a handful of extroverts. This means you are losing the voice of some of your top talent (who often have the right answers) and creating an environment that isn’t inclusive. You can solve this by setting ground rules and being intentional about calling on people who haven’t spoken.

I’m hopeful that these tips can help you become more productive and successful working from home and using video conference with your teams. If this is a skill you haven’t developed, you need to take the time to master it as it will only become more important as the future of work shifts. If you are experienced at working remotely and using video conference with your teams, please share your tips below.