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Sharing the Ibiliti way of remote working

We are going through the most significant remote working experience in history. Some of our valued brokers will choose to continue to work remotely even when the lockdown ends.

We thought it might add value to share our productive way of working virtually with you from home. Hopefully, you will find some inspiration from this blog and share some of your ideas with us so we can all rise stronger and smarter than ever before.

The reality is we may never be able to go back to the way we did things in the past. Therefore, it makes only sense that we adopt an attitude to become the best virtual teams we can be.

There are numerous benefits to get your team to work successfully in a virtual environment. We found it gives everyone a little bit more autonomy which is high on most team members values. Unfortunately, there are just as many obstacles with virtual teams – for example, it robs us from our sense of belonging and need for human connection.

By embracing both office and remote work, you increase the skillset of your employees to work in a much more creative way in the future.

Apart from having a morning routine, planning your life, setting boundaries, drinking water, moving about regularly, getting changed to something other than your PJ’s, we have done a few things differently that may add value to your business.

Operational
Most functions in our company have been paperless, cloud-based, automated and digitised. It helped us a lot to adapt rapidly to working remotely on a full-time basis. Our IT department helped us make a few changes to our security and connected our VOIP lines to an application that allows people who dial our office number to reach us via our desk phones or cell phones.

New team standards
After announcing the lockdown, we immediately paid attention to our HR policy and adapted it to everyone working from home. It was an interesting exercise as it challenged the traditional status quo and helped us to rewrite it in a more creative, collaborative and inspiring way.

Check-in
As a team, we check in at 8 am every morning on a WhatsApp group to let our fellow teammates know we are up and running and ready for our working day. As we clock in, each of us shares gratitude for three things in our life that we value and appreciate. By the time everyone shared their three thoughts, every new morning at Ibiliti brings a new perspective. Having appreciation, no matter the circumstances open up our hearts to assist our clients and policyholders better. We firmly believe this creates a space for us to develop a state of poise and mental order.

Morning meetings
To give everyone time to enjoy a cup of coffee, we have a team meeting on Zoom every morning at 8:30 am. Connecting to discuss what needs to get done during the day is crucial, as we cannot bounce things off each other at the office anymore. Zoom is also ideal for sharing presentations, working through documentation and explaining ideas by using a digital drawing board. Instead of jumping straight into a meeting, virtual meeting rooms is also an excellent platform for a team to have a quick chat or laugh, which is good for morale. If you and your team need help on how to use it, we will gladly assist in getting you going.

A different perspective
We all have fears almost every day during this lockdown. Some moments during this lockdown have shaken all of us in different ways at various times. We challenge our team to ask: How the situation benefits them, the company and humanity at large? This simple question helps everyone to gain a different perspective. It is not an easy process, but by the time you have listed between a 100 to 200 benefits, an individual’s nervous system starts to calm down, and their resilience increases tremendously. Our senses drown in a sea of media selling us gloom and doom. Having a peek at the other side helps to form a more resilient awareness.

Zoom Zoom Zoom
We encourage everybody in our office to use Zoom for quick meetings with brokers as at is a brilliant application to share screen content and resolve complicated queries, primarily when visuals can assist auditory explanations. Face to face meetings is irreplaceable, but video conferencing is the next best thing!
Because meetings are so easy to set up, we use it for mini calls as well, which makes working remotely more personal and keeps everyone accountable for making sure they are presentable and practice self-care every day. It also feels more social as opposed to seeing anyone at all!

On a high note
To end our work days at home on a high note, we have a catchup session on Zoom in the afternoon to wrap things up and to learn some new skills.
There you have it! With this easy routine, we maintain momentum every day and keep our eyes on our mission and our vision.

Team rituals
During this lockdown, it is crucial to introduce daily team projects in quality, fun and meaningful ways. Games and meaningless exercises will distract everyone from the mission. Everyone needs to have a platform, to be honest, and direct with each other to avoid disconnection and lack of trust. Connection, engagement and belonging is a process that never stops!

Your new way of working needs to become co-created religious rituals combatting loneliness and disconnection and giving everyone meaning and purpose. Some ideas include imagining the future or a new business or engaging learning and development sessions.

Let us know if there is anything we can do to make it easier for you to work remotely.

We look forward to you sharing your ideas! Sharing is caring 😉

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