As the world begins regularly working from home, for many, this is new and challenging. For us here at ConsilieX, this is the norm. The ConsilieX Group is a virtual company. Our business and talent model is hiring smart people and let them live where they want. Where working from home/remote is commonplace for many of our team members.
Written by
Matthew Kruchko
Written on
March 30, 2020
As the world begins regularly working from home, for many, this is new and challenging. For us here at ConsilieX, this is the norm. The ConsilieX Group is a virtual company. Our business and talent model is hiring smart people and let them live where they want. Where working from home/remote is commonplace for many of our team members. With these unknown times, we wanted to share some of our approaches that have increased productivity and created a thriving culture at ConsilieX.
As Mark Cuban said early this week about our situation, “Not only is it a safety issue, it’s a business issue.” How you approach working from home routine can have a positive or negative impact on your business, your company’s brand, and even your personal brand.
ConsilieX Remote Setup. Twelve things to thrive working virtually.
Mandate a video-first culture: Using video regularly for internal and external communications quickly builds trust and shorter meetings.
Use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, or others,
Leverage custom background images in Zoom,
Leverage blur option in Teams, and
Set behaviors [communications and actions] for internal and external meeting
Tip: Have a daily video stand up [10-15 min to begin every day] with your company and team. A daily video standup allows for efficient and transparent communications to focus on productivity and focus for your teams.
Tip: When possible, send meeting materials in advance, including an agenda. Advanced meeting materials will help to keep the duration shorter, which will be a plus, given all the potential distractions at this time.
Technology needs:
Wi-Fi: Usually, your home Wi-Fi is not as robust at your business’. Look into an upgrade to 100 MBS down, 20 MBS up. Higher bandwidth will allow for reliable video conference calls. Check your speed at different times of the day, ex. undefined
Laptop or Tablet: check to make sure your device has the video card that supports video calls and has the power needed
At ConsilieX, we use Microsoft Surface Book 2 as our primary laptops. Except for our Chief Science Officer, who has computer specs like a portable server to run all of our segmentation and pricing models (with 128 GB of RAM and quad i7’s to run all models locally.)
Computer Speaker: Leverage an external speaker for better quality sound for conference calls, upside better music listening too. Couple speakers, we use with our team:
Camera: Your laptop’s camera works, but hinders the angle viewed. Look into a 4k ultra high-def camera delivers better resolution, smooth streaming, plus may have great microphones built-in.
Many of us at ConsilieX use the Logitech BRIO with RightLight 3 – you will always look your best. We attach our BRIOs to our external monitors. One plus, with Logitech BRIO, you can use for facial recognition for Windows Hello.
Monitors: Your laptop screen works too, but often they are not big enough to allow for split screens, so consider a second monitor. Not only does this allow you to have multiple applications up while in a call, but it also can mitigate the risk of pop-ups is you use one screen for the call only.
Bring up PPT in presentation mode on your PC. Dual Monitor select Share the second monitor display. This way, all the controls are not seen by your audience.
White Boarding: Many virtual workers do not realize that many virtual call applications have an embedded whiteboard for team use while on calls (ex. Zoom, and TEAMS). Alternatively, you can bring up MS Whiteboard and share this on-screen if your current virtual call application does not have an embedded version.
Microphone: Using your laptop microphone is easy but can have some quality issues. For example, this microphone tends to pick up keystroke sounds from your keyboard. We recommend using an external microphone. Many of us use our external camera’s microphone [Logitech BRIO]; otherwise, look at syncing your headphones (i.e., AirPods) to your computer for video calls. Both solutions will provide higher quality audio and less background noise.
Room needs:
Room: Establish a designated work area for everyday use and set up your space for productivity. Whether you have a dedicated room, using a spare bedroom, or out in your living room. Think about the type of audience on your video calls.
What is your background? Again, with Zoom and MS Teams, you can adjust your background image that viewers are seeing.
Close your door to the room if you can.
Noise/distractions: How can you control noise at home with kids, pets, and everything else going on?
Tip: Set up guidelines, have a morning meeting with your family. Let them be fully aware of your day. What your schedule is so they can set times to be quiet or go outside for essential calls.
10. Lighting: Lighting is everything for reliable, professional video calls. Position your workspace near natural light if possible. If you need extra light besides your window or desk lamp, get a small laptop light. Two lighting sources we use at ConsilieX:
Elgato Key Light Air, professional LED panel with 1400 lumens, multi-layer diffusion technology, app-enabled, color temperature adjustable for Mac/Windows/iPhone/Android
11. Desk: make sure you are sitting at a desk that reinforces ergonomics, the last thing you want it to develop body pain from working remotely, which could become the norm. Many of us use Standing Desks. Three examples of work stations:
The purchased standing desk . This example also uses a balance board to stand on by FluidStance. This set up uses a BookArc by twelvesouth to save space with the Surface Book 2.
Samsung Curved Monitor, Logitech Brio Camera
DIY Standing Desk: Turned a garage workbench (#Gladiator by Whirlpool Corporation) into a standing desk during the stay at home period.
Turned a garage workbench into a standing desk.
Leveraging existing desks and chairs
Leveraging existing desk and chair
12. Appearance: Keep your work schedule. Workout in the morning, get dressed for the office as you would normally.
In closing, remember to continue the activities you did before working from home. Take breaks regularly, get outside. Get up and stretch, even if you have a standing desk like many of our team members do, and lastly, avoid isolation: have virtual lunches with your team as we have been doing.
The one we all look forward to VHH, a Virtual Happy Hour, with your team via video so you can cheer and close your day out with a group.
Don’t just start working from home. Thrive working from home.
Remember, we are all in the same boat. By taking adopting the suggestions above will give you a foundation that will have a positive impact on your business, your company’s brand, and your brand.
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