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Walk-and-talk meetings, block time in your calendar and find out when you are most efficient are some of Anna’s tips to nail the remote office

Anna Gulliksen, head of Talent Acquisition & Employer Brand at TietoEVRY, thinks there are greater demands on leaders when their new employees need to start in the company working from home.

28 December 2020

To help new starters settle in, the most important thing to do is to help them begin creating a network.

If you have a good leader, they will already have set up all introduction meetings with all the key colleagues you will work with. If not, then you should either ask your leader to help you find people you should have a digital coffee with, or, if you are more experienced, you could find those people yourself through the intranet of the company.

Another good tip from Anna is to ask your leader if you can get a mentor or someone that can work as a mentor for you in the beginning.

Read about Vegard and why he thought his first job got easier when he started here and got Kjell as a mentor. 

In these times it’s even more important to think about what you need help with. If you can’t find the answers, ask your leader or anyone else to help guide you in the right direction. This will help the company to get the best of you.

Working only digitally makes it important to give feedback if you think something can be done differently. It’s harder to catch over a camera if your employees are not happy.

Working only digitally makes it important to give feedback if you think something can be done differently. It’s harder to catch over a camera if your employees are not happy.

Something else we have talked about in our company is that we see a bigger difference in the hierarchy when everybody is at home. Like me now, sitting in the coach without any make-up. When we see our leaders and all of our employees in exactly the same situations, for example under a blanket in the coach, or with a college sweater, it makes it easier to see that we are all in the same boat.

Anna_gulliksen.jpgIt took Anna years to manage remote office in a good way.

Tips for focusing on home office

Focusing on the right tasks is not always easy when working remotely, especially when the laundry pile is screaming at you. Anna has some good tips.

The most important thing, she says, is to have a structure to your day. Block time in your calendar for the different tasks you need to do. We know that the human brain only can concentrate for 45 minutes, so a good tip is to build in small breaks every 45 minutes when you work in deep concentration.

The most important thing is to have a structure to your day. Block time in your calendar for the different tasks you need to do. We know that the human brain only can concentrate for 45 minutes, so a good tip is to build in small breaks every 45 minutes when you work in deep concentration.

Find out when you are most efficient. When is it easier for you to be in deep concentration? For some people that is in the morning, for others, it’s in the afternoon. Book meetings, answer emails and other tasks that don’t need deep concentration in the period you are less efficient.

Find more tips for remote office here

When sitting at home we lack natural movement when for example walking from one meeting to another or walking to the cafeteria. So try to build in opportunities to stretch your legs. Why not have one walk-and-talk meeting a day? A lot of meetings today are for sharing information or ideas that may not require you to be seated at your desk, and can instead be combined with a walk in the park.

Routines are the key

Building routines into your day can also help, Anna suggests. This might involve dressing ‘for the office’, taking a morning walk, and having a regularly timed break – all activities that help give you the sense that you are “at work”.

“For me, it took years to manage remote office, so don’t despair if you don’t get the hold of it right away. Remember to make good routines, talk to at least one colleague a day and take enough breaks. It may demand some time to master it, but if you follow some of these tips you are well on your way.”

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