Transitioning our team & company culture to WFH

At Alloy, we’re incredibly thankful to be in a business that we can operate completely remotely with no service interruptions, and to be in an industry that requires Pandemic Planning!

However, how do you go about transitioning your team, and most importantly, culture to a fully virtual environment? Here are some things we’re trying right now:

Over-communicate

Firstly, from a company perspective about business health, planning, policies, updates, even if there’s no news to tell, it can be reassuring for people to hear that. Secondly, on an individual level, remember tone can be lost on an instant message, and nuances missed during times of personal anxieties. If the message is important, it’s worth repeating in different ways.

Get everyone set up correctly

Alloy has given every employee a stipend of $250 to get what they need to make their homes fit to work in. Be that a desk, chair, mouse, etc. Don’t overthink this, trust your team to use the budget appropriately and enable them to operate effectively faster.

Keep them secure

Since Alloy uses cloud-based tools like Google Apps and Salesforce, it has allowed us to always be remote-friendly, compared to more traditional methods that rely on networks and firewalls that are only available in the office. Additionally, operating in a heavily regulated industry has ensured all the Alloy team takes regular security training and has robust policies and processes in place. If that’s not you, now it is particularly important to check all of your cloud-based accounts are locked down, including making sure Multi-Factor Authentication is on for all employees.

Redistribute the snack budget

While Alloy is reviewing expenses in many areas, keeping the team spirits high is much more important to our business. We’ve taken the office snack budget and turned it into a monthly Seamless and Public Goods budget for regular at-home treats.

Be there for people

While we may not directly know the struggles working parents and caregivers are facing, our approach is to provide the support to figure it out together and get through this time with compassion. The same goes for the whole team, even if you’re used to working remotely, the mental toll of being isolated and stressed can’t be underestimated. Regular one-on-ones become even more important, both with managers and peers, to check-in on each other and provide support. Especially if your daily stand-up is the only reason to shower!

Time to hire

With a couple of high-priority roles still open at Alloy, we can’t slow down our hiring process, but with our final in-person session moved to remote we’ve built in more time to get to know candidates better. Equally onboarding a new hire remotely has got us thinking about the importance of finding ways they can connect beyond their direct team.

Keep the community vibes

Our office community manager Daria has been fantastic in driving remote community life at Alloy. Be that a slack discussion topic of the day, a continuously open watercooler zoom room, games nights, happy hours, trivia quizzes and more. These informal, and personal chances to connect with each other help keep us all sane, and remind us that we’re all navigating our new virtual environment in these challenging times, together.

What else are we missing? We’d love to hear how your team is adapting to working from home during these challenging times.