THE FUTURE OF REMOTE WORK — PART 3

Now is the Time for Your Team to Implement Virtual Office Hours

Reserving up to an hour a week will reduce miscommunication and unlock productive time.

The trend of remote work has been growing steadily over the last year. Companies that were able to embrace the trend have found that it has been beneficial for employers and employees. Increased productivity and flexibility for employees are among the top benefits of this growing trend.

Some companies are quickly adapting to this change and have started to consider different ways to implement this new working model. They are focusing on ways to make remote, distributed, and virtual teams work together.

Spotify recently announced a “Work from Anywhere” model, which will allow employees to choose whether they want to be in the office full time. Other companies announcing similar changes include Salesforce, Twitter, Square, Microsoft.

Many leaders and managers are starting to realize the need to develop and implement new practices and habits with their colleagues to reach long-term success. However, there’s an old practice, which has been commonly used in academia, that I believe fits perfectly in this new world of remote work.

And it is Office Hours.

Office Hours have always been beneficial for teachers who use them to answer students' questions beyond the classroom.

Implementing the concept in the virtual business environment has some clear benefits. Let’s start with the basics.

What are Virtual Office Hours?

These are dedicated times when a person or a team is virtually available to have a conversation. This availability can be via open video conference (i.e., Zoom or Teams) or a subject-specific message channel (i.e., slack group).

The purpose of blocking this time is to provide space for colleagues to answer questions and assist others with a problem.

Why are Virtual Office Hours needed?

On a typical day for most remote and distributed workers, they are inundated with distraction; it’s like a conveyor belt!

Many of these interruptions tend to be repetitive questions that an expert could quickly answer, and most of them do not need an immediate response.

Yet, we have become accustomed to answering them as quickly as possible and stopping what we were working on. These constant start/stop cycles impede the ability to get meaningful work done. It also makes the team-member feel more like ticket takers instead of strategic thinkers.

What are some use cases or examples?

Virtual office hours have multiple use cases; here are some.

Manager Open Hours. A team manager can set a recurring weekly meeting on his calendar for his colleagues to join and discuss topics beyond the one-on-ones.

Team leaders can use this time to address any questions or concerns that may appear through the week in which there’s no immediate action required.

These recurring and open meetings will lead to reduced interruptions to the management team. It will also decrease stress that is derived from being hesitant to interrupt others.

Specialty Team Office Hours. A Sales Operations, Engineering, or Analytics team can set a recurring meeting for colleagues to join and address any questions or ask for help from a Subject Matter Expert.

These meetings can be hosted by different individuals in each specialty team, thus reducing contact-switching that many experience throughout a day when individuals reach them directly.

Let me share a scenario from my work. I was working on finishing my Key Results commitment for the quarter. To quantify my target, I had to gather historical revenue data to identify the dollar amount for 2021.

At first, I was struggling in completing the query to get the most accurate information. Then, for a brief moment, I considered reaching out to a colleague on the Data Analytics team to validate my query.

That’s when I remembered that the team had office hours. So, I opted to send my inquiry during office hours, and the colleague in charge at the moment was able to help me promptly.

As a result, I was able to get the information I needed while also reducing the distraction to another colleague who was in the middle of deep-work for a high-priority project. It was the desirable win-win scenario.

What are the potential benefits?

Although these meetings may seem counterproductive at first sight, when looking into them more strategically. You realize that these meetings increase the focus and productivity of experts who are frequently interrupted.

By providing clear and distinct time windows — where anyone can choose to attend and ask questions. The company can reduce the daily start/stop cycles and allow the team members to focus on delivering high-quality work.

Here are some other positive side effects:

• Reduced sense of immediacy. Not everyone's question needs an immediate answer. The ASAP expectation can be toxic to both parties. Allowing people to focus on their primary responsibility without feeling the burden of stopping can increase an employee’s sense of mindfulness/calm.
• Better Time Management. Providing a designated block of time for people to ask questions can work as a forcing mechanism for team members to improve their time management. For example, a Sales Operation Analyst can forecast her workweek more clearly when she knows that she won’t be interrupted for questions that she will address in her session.
• Increased Team’s Effectiveness. Instead of spending the day reacting, office hours let you take control of your schedule. When you’re in control, you can be more productive and reduce busy/repetitive work.

What should we do next?

First, it’s suggested to get buy-in from key stakeholders for this initiative.

Then, it’s essential to identify the specialty teams that are a resource to many groups and propose to them to host virtual office hours to run the initial trial.

The Virtual Office Hours can be as simple as setting a topic-specific Slack channel and rotate assignments for an expert to be in charge of a time.

Here are some examples of teams that would benefit by routing questions to official virtual office hours.

• Sales Operations Team
• Data and Analytics Team
• Product Team
• Marketing Team

Lastly, communicate the initiative to a broader group and begin to gather and analyze the feedback.

Final Thoughts…

Effective communication has been at the top of the list as the biggest challenge that remote teams experience. Implementing virtual office hours for your team can help mitigate communication issues by providing a structured time for workers to ask any questions.

I believe it’s time for businesses to join the Office Hours movement. Company leaders and managers should start carving out an hour or two a week, tell their colleagues that they have cleared their schedule, and that you’ll be hosting virtual office hours, and that you hope to hear what they’re worried about or excited about.

It’s nothing fancy, but it may be your most productive time of the entire week.

*This is part three of a series on the future of remote work.

Part 1 — Why You Need a Virtual First Mindset

Part 2 — The Go-To Guide for Remote Meetings