Good teleworking practices according to our great department heads

Do you know what good teleworking practices? We tell you everything!

Hey dear readers! This time our article may be particularly useful for you, are you teleworking while reading this? Yes? Well be honest, are you wearing your pants? You can shake your head with a smile on your mouth, or simply say to the monitor in front of you: “No, I NEVER wear my pants during work hours, THANK YOU TELEWORK!”. Yes, teleworking has brought very good things, such as less stress, reduction of expenses for the company, and decrease in absenteeism. For this reason and to emphasize that even if we do not wear pants we are responsible and mature, today, in Pandora FMS blog we want to discuss good teleworking practices.

As you know, in this blog we are more empirical than Aristotle and David Hume together, so we will address the question of good telework practices by asking our heads of department. They, more than anyone else, take charge of the situation and manage it among their workers, with enviable leadership and musky affection.

What are the good teleworking practices you promote in your department?

Sara Martín, head of Human Resources, Training and Community of Pandora FMS.

Between HR and management, we had to start by creating a manual of operating procedures for teleworking, or good teleworking practices. Creating basic rules so that people would be as comfortable as possible reconciling their family and work lives. Among the good teleworking practices that we try to carry out, are the following: a flexible schedule, breaks during the day, give importance to security with access through a VPN, a safe antivirus, use internal tools such as the company’s chat or videoconferencing, and then each department chooses how to organize themselves, there are some who prefer a daily meeting, another twice a week, etc.

Then there are several recommendations we make for anyone who is telecommuting:

1. Have your own fixed schedule routine. (Breakfast, break, lunch.)
2. Have your computer protected by password. So your child and cat don’t write messages when you’re in the toilet or eating.
3. Your computer must have up-to-date security updates.
4. Socialize through collaborative tools, don’t let telecommuting make you forget that you’re still working with people.
5. Take special care of communicating with the rest of the team. Use the webcam and video conferencing whenever possible.
6. Separate your personal life from your work life. When your workday is over, you should be able to disconnect.
7. Ask your colleagues for help as if we were all in the office.
8. Go to HR whenever you need it, their job is to help you.
9. Take into account digital disconnection: workers have the right to forget about emails or work calls outside of their working hours.
10. Respect the right to privacy.

Kornelia Konstantinova, Head of the Marketing and Communication Department.

In Communication, we are proud of our “Decalogue, formal but incredible, for good teleworking”. A series of flexible guidelines like the junco and robust like the quebracho. Someday we will sculpt them in stone or make T-shirts. Here I list them:

1. Flexible working hours.
2. Camaraderie.
3. Team trust.
4. People come first.
5. Take care of mental health.
6. More efficient and less time-consuming meetings.
7. Information security and data protection.
8. Physical activity and exercises.
9. Healthy eating.
10. Rest.

They are so practical and versatile that they can be both good teleworking practices and a self-help manual for dealing with the fact that you have reached thirty.

Daniel Rodríguez, Head of the department of QA

The fundamental rule for us QA is basic, but of course important and conciliatory with the work: Keep a schedule as regular as possible.

Keeping track of work time is the key, since being from home it is very easy to get distracted and keep on thinking “I finish this and I’m done” or some similar procrastination thought.

Regarding this, we could add an appendix to our motto:
Try to have a different work space than that for leisure. You know, if possible another room or table… Especially not to continue in the same place once the day is over. You have to discern.

Mario Pulido, head of the Department of Systems/Support

I no longer know if they are good practices or not, but the truth is that from minute one we started teleworking, the contact between the entire team has been constant. We have a meet constantly open where we are present when we are available, or need each other, and where we comment on whatever happens to us. Just like we would in the office.

The team also shares their screens when a test or intervention is complicated, and the rest of us are there, to support and indicate possible solutions. That way, despite not being together, we never feel alone.

Sancho Lerena, CEO of Pandora FMS

The key point here is to understand well what is expected from you and define objectives. Share those goals and how to measure them. The more mature a person is, the more freedom they can have. In the end, it all comes down to setting goals and being able to evaluate them. Having good communication so that when there are problems, those objectives can be redefined or corrections made to reach the established goals. Everything else is incidental, and what the global Covid pandemic has shown us is that a paradigm shift is possible. Have I already said that we are a 100% teleworking organization?

Ramón Novoa, leader of the Artificial Intelligence department of Ártica PFMS

First of all, it is very important to define what is understood by teleworking and adapt the procedures to each situation. An offshoring team is not managed the same way as one that occasionally allows teleworking.Communication in hybrid teams in which one part works remotely and the other actually present is particularly complicated.

Examples of good practices that have helped us so far are: maintaining good documentation, easily accessible and without duplication; establish procedures and expedited communication channels that avoid misunderstandings; define clear goals and measurable objectives; etc.

Having the right tools to carry out these tasks is no less important, but today it is easier thanks to the number of applications available in the cloud. In any case, they must be well documented to avoid compatibility problems. Open formats can be of great help.

Finally, I would like to highlight the importance of fostering informal communication to improve personal relationships. We have to be able to take advantage of the many advantages that teleworking offers, and minimize the inconveniences.

And that was it, I know that our program of testimonies of the departmental heads about good telework practices seemed short. Any day we will create something like the Opra’s…, “Pandora’s”, what do you think? Would you like it? We would make loads of money with that talking show.

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