Looking Ahead: Arvo Embraces Remote-First

Looking Ahead: Arvo Embraces Remote-First

It's no secret that the way we work is changing. With advancements in technology, more and more people are working remotely. Arvo embraces remote-first hiring employees from all around the world. Few of us live where the office is located, so no one is regularly required to perform their jobs from our centralized office.

“Remote-first” is an organizational strategy that makes working remotely the primary option for most or all employees.

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According to Zippia:

• 66% of U.S. employees work remotely, at least part-time.
• Currently, 68% of Americans would prefer to be fully remote.
• 16% of companies are fully remote.
• From 2018 to 2021, the number of fully remote workers increased by over four times.
• Experts predict that there will be 36.2 million Americans working remotely by 2025.
• 81% of workers expect their employer to continue supporting remote work.

The above stats are proof that it's important to look ahead and prepare for the years to come. This presents a unique challenge for managers: how do you manage a remote team effectively? Because Arvo is remote-first, we have a lot of experience with what works and what doesn't when it comes to managing remote teams.In this blog post, we will discuss some tips for how Arvo makes it easy to manage a remote team and hire remote employees. We will also share our onboarding process for remote employees and how to make them feel welcome and part of a team using Arvo.

Managing Remote Teams

You need a way to train your employees but more importantly, how to get company knowledge out of people’s heads and into a format that can be reused. So many managers and company owners have their entire day eaten up by questions from their team, remote or not. They have to spend long hours catching up on work they needed to get done that day. By creating playbooks in Arvo, you are building a centralized knowledge base for the company that anyone, anywhere can contribute to. You can also use Arvo to give your team members the ability to answer their own questions by browsing through searchable playbooks.

Hiring Remote Employees

When you hire remote employees, you're able to be more diverse and inclusive in your hiring practices. This means you can hire more people from various geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. See how we incorporate Arvo into our hiring process to show diversity within our company. As an individual, it means you likely have a greater chance of getting hired since remote companies can hire beyond their specific locale.

Remote Onboarding Process

When you hire a remote employee, the onboarding process is a bit different than if they were in the office. You need to be intentional about making them feel welcome and part of the team from day one.The first step in our remote onboarding process is sending the new hire a First Day Companion playbook. This playbook includes an introduction, information about the company, and a first-week to-do list. We also include a welcome video -- this is a nice touch if you're trying to make remote employees get to know you better.

Here are some tips for onboarding remote employees:

• Schedule regular check-ins: Set up weekly or biweekly check-ins with your remote employees. This will give you a chance to catch up on projects, discuss any challenges, and answer any questions they may have.
• Get to know them with personality playbooks: Take some time to get to know your remote employees on a personal level. Use our free personality playbook template to find out about their personality style, hobbies, family, pets, etc. Getting to know them as a person will help create a stronger bond with them.
• Make sure they feel included: One of the challenges of working remotely is feeling isolated from the rest of the team. Because we are remote-first, we want to make sure we include everyone in team events and activities. Each month, we do an All-Hands Zoom meeting where we all come together and share department updates, shout out team members, and we always include a fun activity!

By following these tips, you can effectively manage your remote team, and successfully hire and onboard remote employees. Incorporating Arvo in all of these processes has been a complete game-changer for us. We have a playbook for our remote hiring process, onboarding process, and specific department how-tos. Our goal is to be able to share a playbook with anyone on the team and they have everything they need to complete their task. When it comes to managing remote teams, this is a game-changer.

‍Questions about how playbooks can help you manage your remote teams? Send us a message at getanswers@askarvo.com or use the chat feature on our website!