Communication & Document Management Lessons to Learn from Remote-First Companies

Now that the world has been plunged into working from home, we all have a lesson to learn from the companies that were prepared for this. These companies—which promote a remote-focused work environment—are being looked at as a role model to follow in the current crisis. Remote-first companies include leaders like Stripe in finance, Zapier in automation, InVision and Sketch in design, and Doist in project management.

What puts remote-first companies ahead of ‘remote-friendly’ ones is their commitment to fully digitizing their workspace. Sure, every company can handle letting a few employees work from home, but in the current COVID-19 crisis, these remote-friendly companies are  struggling to operate their business outside of a designated work environment. To combat this, here’s some lessons we can learn from remote-first companies on how to carry on business as usual during a pandemic.

How to communicate (effectively) outside a physical space

One of the benefits of working out of a central, physical place is being able to communicate the way we have for all of human history. Phones, text threads, emails and video calls are a recent invention—it makes communication faster and convenient, but we can’t always wrap our heads around it. As humans, we need to interact, read each others’ faces, and hear each other's voices; this is one of the biggest downsides of working under lockdown.

Since we have to work with what we’ve got, remote-first companies recommend using asynchronous means of communication. Asynchronous communication is the opposite of a chaotic ‘group chat’ where everyone gives their input in real time. Asynchronous communication works best in thread-based messengers where employees can give feedback in an organized manner; where there’s no pressure to immediately respond to a message. This boosts productivity and aids concentration on the work at hand.

How to use a document management solution to run your operations

How can a company go fully remote if there’s no place for physical documents? The answer: with the help of a cloud-based DMS.

Right now, a lot of organizations are struggling to function thanks to their closed office doors, which house all the files they need for reference. With the help of a cloud-based document management solution, remote-first companies have avoided this tangled mess, since all their files are stored on a secure server, ready to be accessed through appropriate credentials, from anywhere at any time. This strategy has saved their operations from being consumed by the current lockdown. A cloud-based DMS is safe and accessible, alongside being very affordable for companies of all sizes. With the help of a good communication system, you can run your company entirely from your homes using DMS.

If you’re under lockdown and looking for more resources on cloud-DMS, communication & workflows, or productivity in general, we have a selection of them on our blog here. If you are interested in knowing more about DMS, feel free to contact us here—we’re always glad to help you. Have a safe quarantine!