Google spoke to more than 5,000 employees to discover these remote work best practices. They provide a lesson in emotional intelligence.
BY JUSTIN BARISO, AUTHOR, EQ APPLIED
photo: Getty Images
As companies debate whether or not to bring employees back to the office full-time, they scramble to refine their remote work policies.
One company they could learn a lot from: Google.
Chief executive Sundar Pichai recently announced that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Google would extend its work from home policy until at least July 2021. That’s a telling decision considering that Google quite possibly has access to some of the richest data sets in the world.
Among that data is research the company published last year. A team surveyed more than 5,000 Google employees and held focus groups with about a hundred more to better understand the impact of distributed work.
They focused on measuring:
- well-being,
- performance,
- connectedness, and
- productivity.
Google came up with several recommendations on how to keep things as consistent as possible for teams that are spread out. I couldn’t help but notice how many of these practices are founded on emotional intelligence–the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions.
Here are some of the highlights, along with my own comments.
1. Make team meetings a priority.
Team meetings “are often some of the only interactions you’ll have with your team when working apart so schedule them, prioritize them even if it there isn’t anything urgent, and be socially present,” says Google.
While written communication is the lifeblood of a remote work environment, a lot can get lost in the medium. Humor and tone can be easily misinterpreted, and there’s no chance to hear a person’s voice, see the expression on their face, or read their body language.
In contrast, virtual meetings are a chance to get those emotional cues, and to build rapport with your teammates.
(Caution: Just be careful not to schedule too many meetings, or your team may feel like they don’t have enough time to actually get work done.)