Working remote - experiences from IT industry

What are the experiences in IT industry regarding the remote and hybrid work?How the work has changed since the COVID19 pandemic?

Presentation for the talk given at the SEEFF's congress "QUO VADIS LOGISTICS?" in Belgrade on May 11th, 2024. https://www.quovadislogistics.com/

1. Working remote - experiences from IT industry SEEFF congress "QUO VADIS LOGISTICS?” Belgrade, May 11th, 2024. Dejan Vukmirović

2. In 2006 Graduated at Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Since 2005 worked in various software engineering positions. 2015-2018 in Ticketmaster as Engineering Manager. 2019-2022 in Ava Women as Engineering Director. From 2022 in Bakson as Chief Technology Officer. My experience stopped coding, focused on people and processes

3. Ideal industry for remote work. Digital nature of assets and products, no need for physical exchange. Remote work practice was present since the late 1990s due to rise in personal computer purchases and internet connectivity in homes. Companies embraced this to access the global talent pool, but also not to lose current employees to more flexible competitors. IT industry

4. Timeline COVID-19 pandemic The "New Normal" of remote work Remote is option in some companies

5. Industry was ready Same tools. Slightly changed mindset.

6. For employees clearly it is better work-life balance. But also possibility to work for companies on other geographical locations. For companies : Reduced operational costs (office, equipment, benefits…). Access to bigger talent pool (hiring across the country, or even globally). Reduced absenteeism. Longer working hours. Increased productivity (per some studies, questionable ). Benefits

7. On organization level: “Zoom fatigue” as everything is a meeting. Unclear status of work in progress. Syncing difficulties due to different personal schedules. Ineffective meetings when discussing complex topics. Distribution of domain knowledge. Observed issues On personal level: Unaware of important information → confusion and fear. Lack of bonding to team → easier to leave. Not knowing people outside of team → “Us vs Them” mentality → long chains of communication via upper management. Abusing the remote work to slack or do multiple jobs.

8. On organization level: Transparency and not Control . Battling observed issues On personal level: Support a nd not Policies . To be fair, you do need some Control and Policies.

9. Agile methodoliges like Scrum , Lean , Kanban , SAFe … → small chunks of work → work in smaller iterations (1-2 weeks) → daily syncs and status checks Tools to support work like JIRA, Trello, Asana… and Slack, MS Teams… → centralized planning and history tracking → always visible dashboards → automated notifications on status updates → centralized and public communication Achieving transparency

10. Introduce “no meeting” blocks: during a day, or full days. Timebox meetings to not exceed one hour. If meeting(s) run outside agreed block, then have mandatory breaks (~ 30 mins). What does not work? Putting the “do not disturb” status. Preventing fatigue

11. Meet occasionally in the office (once in 2 weeks, or few times in month). These days are unproductive, but they show results long term. Whenever possible organize travels between offices. “Camera ON” policy. Remove “tower of power” in communication, delegate to all team members to speak with other teams/departments. Onboarding of new employees happens in the office, it takes several days until everyone feels comfortable to go back to remote. Increasing bonding

12. Each important information must be presented: In a call, to support discussion and additional clarifications. Via mail, to have it in written form for future reference. Working hours and important segments ( eg. responsiveness) must be defined formally via contract documents or company policies. Establish feedback culture on multiple levels, regular 1-on-1s with people manager and team retrospectives, to get the pulse of the organization and have space to react or steer. Avoiding confusion and malicious behaviour

13. Pandemic also resulted in creation of variety of tools to support remote work. “Virtual office” tools… gamifications of different aspects… collaborative designing and whiteboards… But it is questionable if they work on a long run, after initial thrill is over, and reaction is very team specific. Extra options

14. Virtual company Full remote Remote friendly Remote first Hybrid with flexible days when to come to office Hybrid with fixed days when must come to office Remote as benefit that can be used limited number of days Most of observed issues, and related battling approaches, are same in all setups. At least in the IT industry. Possible setups

15. Questions?

16. CONTACT US: BAKSON LTD. Company reg. number: 20102349 Address: Bulevar vojvode Misica 51, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Telephone: [phone] Email: contact@bakson ltd.com Web: www.baksonltd.com MILOS BABIC , CEO Telephone: [phone] Email: milos.babic@bakson ltd.com ARSEN KOSTIC , COO Telephone: [phone] Email: arsen.kostic@bakson ltd.com DEJAN VUKMIROVIC , CTO Telephone: [phone] Email: dejan.vukmirovic@bakson ltd.com