So You’re Fully Remote Now?

I’m hearing some companies are sticking with a remote / work from home model going forward after a few successful months doing it. But to quote Lee Corso: not so fast my friend. 

Yeah, we survived WFH, home schooling (barely), and the awkward Zoom happy hours. We rebooted meetings and work-life boundaries. Maybe even made a key hire remotely. We’ve come a long way.

But there is more to being fully remote long term. You have to handle employee retention in a globally competitive job market. How do you build connectivity?

CloudBees has been “remote first” from the start. Here are some ways we work you can hopefully borrow:

• CEO Watercooler: Sacha records a weekly video about something on his mind.  He invites guests, talks about company strategy, or discusses a timely topic. He then joins a dedicated slack channel for 2 separate  sessions (global time zones). Every week for 54 straight weeks and counting
• Team competitions: weekly friendly contests get the chatter going. Best when everyone can participate, like one we did recently on the number of days with more than 7 hours sleep and days with an outdoor walk over 1 mile
• Video required: Build a culture of gently calling out your coworkers when the video is off.  Every time. When we partially return to the office, make everyone dial in separately (no conference rooms) for a level playing field

What else have you been doing? Has anyone found a way to passively play board games remotely or other connected activities? What’s working?