Working virtually requires that same sort of commitment to sticking through things.  It’s tougher than people think.  There are noises we are unaccustomed to in the office – like a neighbor’s leaf blower.  There is the needy companion, mostly the 4 legged kind.  Despite what we say about a noisy office, there is the distraction of silence in the absence of the din.  And there is the loudness of those cookies in the kitchen calling out to us as we walk through the room.  Working remotely is wonderful and virtual workers learn quickly what they need: to be in touch,  to be informed, to have as much as possible in one place – the virtual worker’s “mis en place”.  That is why we created www.myvirtualwirks.com; a place to find so may things people working remotely need.  Communication, collaboration, and connection are only the beginning.  As it continues to grow, you’ll find places to get jobs, get guidance and get in touch.  Stop by to find something that makes your virtual work experience exciting, something that sticks out.  Stop by, bring a friend, and stick around.

If you work in a traditional office environment, think about your workplace for moment.  What interrupts your ability to focus on accomplishing things?  How often do people interrupt your work by dropping by for “a real quick question”?  How likely are you to be summoned to someone else’s office “for a moment”?  How many meetings must you attend?  Do they start on time?  Are they really necessary?  And thinking about your personal habits: Do you keep e-mail open all the time?  If so, how often do you react when the new mail notification window pops-in, taking you away from the task you were on?  Does your office use chat or IM?  How frequently does it go off?  How rapidly are you expected to respond to notes, texts, or chats?  These are cultural factors of being in an office environment that most businesses turn a blind eye toward in the name of “responsiveness”, but they really diminish the focus. 

They are also conditions mitigated by working from home or working remotely.  Studies abound that show people working remotely are more productive than in an office environment.  Strangely enough, they usually cite things like time spent getting ready for work, time spent commuting, or other obvious things to make the case.  What they don’t typically discuss is focus; or the culture of distraction.  Therefore, we like to talk about it.  While managing e-mail notifications, internet peeks, chat sessions and text messages are up to the individual, we find that there is more than ample time each day for those things when the worker doesn’t have to contend with the time lost to the many pop-ins, the meeting assembly time, the hovering outside the boss’s office waiting, the phone ringing, the fire drills, or countless other things that ruin productive focus.  So think about your company’s culture of distraction.  Tell us about it on our sister company’s forum page: http://myvirtualwirks.com/community/viewthread/22/.  And focus on fixing it through virtual work.

Responding to their environment?  Correct.  Foraging for what they need to be successful?  Right.  Practicing their trade where it is best provided?  Bingo!  And all of this is encouraging because as much as popular media may talk about virtual work being new, it is as old as the migratory civilizations of prior centuries.  As much as people may think it is a recent trait, it has roots in the human desire to explore, and make another path.  As much as virtual workers are thought of as being stand-alone or soloists, they really are finding ways to pursue what they need and practice it best. 

At virtualwirks, we’re all about those things and particularly that last part.  How to make the digital nomadic spirit best suit the worker, the business, the customer, and the culture.  To us it’s fun, it’s tapping into another frontier, and fulfilling the spirit and possibilities that lie within us.  And we have lots of ways to practice it best.  So let’s roam…together.

 So what does this have to do with working virtually?  Well, there are some important parallels with the flatness of the world of information, custom, celebration and observation to that of being able to work anywhere.  This year, I received Christmas greetings from people of 6 continents, all via a direct connection made instantly and all representing some differing aspect of celebrating the holiday.  In the end, we are all recognizing the same ideal, albeit differently, and in contact instantly, virtually, and powerfully.  Being connected makes the world smaller, our understanding of each other more coherent, and the appreciation of our differences and commonalities greater. And as a result, we work better as individuals, as workers, and as people.

 As 2012 begins, virtualwirks is preparing to move from only supporting businesses in their quest for virtual work success to helping the workers themselves.  We will be launching a suite of resources and tools for people who work virtually, enabling all of us to be even better connected and share our common ideals more readily.  We hope you’ll come along.  And like Santa (or whatever you call him), be made jolly in the process.  Happy holiday season, and cheers for a new year ahead.

The same is true for business in the virtual word – information security is critical, but the benefits of a virtual presence are paramount. Organizations are right to have concerns over the safety of their own and their client’s information – after-all, the impact of one incident can be catastrophic enough to bring a company to its knees. The quagmire that many businesses wrestle with is how to balance the risk-benefit factors, and minimize threats while gaining the benefits of a virtual model. This is especially true of organizations that want to benefit from all of the positive factors that come through having a dispersed work force. One of the biggest challenges for such companies is to relinquish the myth that the only answer to keeping information safe is keeping employees on site. Additionally, one of the common pitfalls that management fall into is thinking that information security is only solved through technology or restrictive access. It is true that those practices have a strong impact; however, business processes, people, and culture have just as much impact on information security as the technological solutions that are established to safeguard against the risks. Process controls with appropriate levels of checks and balances need to be in place to complement the efforts of the technological solutions, and having the right people with a business culture of trust and integrity is crucial.

But how do you implement process controls and how do you cultivate a desired culture in the remote word where virtually everyone physically sits apart from one another? We created virtualwirks to help organizations align around these fundamentals, and to help them deploy these strategies across their remote business models, and we have been doing just that for our clients over the past two years. With so many questions and concerns about information security in today’s world, and with all of the positive attributes of having a dispersed workforce, it is a challenge to find the right balance between the risks and the rewards of a virtual business model. The good news that the risks can be minimized and the model can be successful – provided the right approach is used.
 

 Our mission to help people thrive working virtually got a boost from the continuing growth of the remote work model itself.  A range of tools, from the heralded iPad to the less well known Dropbox make it easier than ever before to work anywhere.  The US government joined the party by passing Telework legislation and incentives to make it a reality.  And most endearing to us is the continuing erosion of reluctance among businesses to the model as they become more familiar with its security, stability and success.  Our blog has often written that virtual work is personal and about people above all.  Over the last year, we’ve worked with people whose lives were changed by the continuing virtualization of work, some for the health benefit, some for the wealth benefit and some for whom the benefit is yet unknown.  As we look to launch a series of products and services that aim toward those people in 2011, I can’t help but be excited about who we’ll meet in the months ahead, and how we’ll change each other a little.   That means we’ll grow up a little more.

 A friend of mine made a comment that any year that starts out with 1/1/11 has to be good.  I like that line of thinking, and can feel the energy.  Her excitement makes me feel a bit like a little kid for all the things we have planned to do.   Happy 2011, can you come outside and play in it?

– Jim

About 4 months ago my fiancé and I got a dog. As we were not engaged at the time, aside from moving in together, this was one of the first really “big steps” (as they say) in the relationship. We both knew of the obvious reasons of why this was going to be a large step for us – adding a new component of shared responsibilities, commitments, and decisions to the picture. We both fully anticipated the obvious things that come along with having a dog, such as taking him for walks every day, the chores of picking up after him, feeding him, periodic visits to the vet, etc… However, although we were aware of these things, we may not have been fully aware of the magnitude at which those activities were going to change the way that we lived our lives. Now, with that said, I can confidently say that things have changed in positive way for both of us, and we couldn’t be happier with Cooper in the mix. We have, however, had to adjust to some of the more subtle impacts of owning a dog, such as the flexibility of our schedules and having to always plan around being home for him so that he is not by himself for too long. One of the unanticipated side effects for me since I work from home was that I now have a new office mate – which can be both a good thing and a bad thing… As I was out walking Cooper yesterday, I ran into a new neighbor who introduced herself to me as we strolled by. As we chatted for a while she asked me if I worked because she always sees me out walking my dog in the middle of the day. As I explained to her that I work from home, I got a response from her that I get about 50 percent of the time when I tell people that I work from home: “I don’t know how you can do that – I could never work from home”. To this reaction I tell them, “at least you know that about yourself and/or your situation…” I usually follow up that comment by asking them why they think that they could never do [it]. The answers vary greatly ranging from personality factors to company philosophy. The fact is, working from home will not work for everyone and a lot of factors come into play that will determine the feasibility and success of the option. The obvious topics (such as whether or not your company will allow for it, if the job type is right, or if there is any desire to work from home from the employee) are the easy questions to identify and anticipate when weighing one’s decision to try the remote work model. However, the unanticipated and the unknown factors of working from home are the ones that usually end up making it tough for people. “It isn’t as easy as you might think.”  We say this time and time again to our clients and those that want to know more about how to put a successful remote work model together. The dynamics of the model and fitting it into a tradition business structure can be quite complex for both the organization and the employee, but the benefits for both parties can be great with the appropriate knowledge, planning, and preparation. When we say it isn’t easy, it isn’t just because different processes and tools are required – it also has to do with understanding the employee’s environment and anticipating the issues and challenges that employees might have adjusting to working in a remote workplace. Employees often find that working from home drives a different set of habits and behaviors than what they expected. For example, eating habits may change due to having constant access to your own kitchen, the amount of physical exercise that you no longer get from walking through a large building, water cooler social interactions have a different setting, and drawing work-life boundaries can be a challenging when your home is where you work and vice versa. Companies that are aware of these factors can incorporate them into their management strategies and tactics and can help employees adjust by making them aware of the challenges and providing tips and direction on how to address them effectively. Virtualwirks is helping organizations manage these aspects of the remote work model more effectively not only by helping them recognize and understand the differences but identifying solutions that address these factors. Some of the solutions are complex process adjustments, and others are a simple as giving the employees more guidance on how to combat the unanticipated differences. One of the best tips that we give employees that work from home is to get out of the house at least once every day – if only for a short while. This became a reality to me after getting a dog as it got me out of the house multiple times a day just to take him for a walk. I felt the improvements to my productivity increase immediately as it forced me to take a bit of my own advice and step away a few times a day to clear my head. I knew when we picked Cooper up from the shelter that I was gaining a best friend, but I didn’t know that I was getting a new office partner that would help me be more productive, as well.
 

–Tadd

Do you remember your parents or grandparents telling you to “mind your manners” when you were a kid?  I was always baffled by what they took for poor manners – c’mon, what really is the difference between my elbows and my forearms when it comes to the edge of the table – but recently I’ve begun to think about this topic with a little more fervor.   Having just returned from 2 international trips in the last month, I am again struck by the differences in manners among the societies I have been in; and I find myself sounding a lot like those older folks wondering what has happened to manners in places like the US and UK.  In Japan, for example, they still queue to get on trains and buses, still willingly letting a person step in front if the arrival in line is a tie, and still keep one of the world’s largest cities amazingly clean.  When I posed the question as to how this could be on Facebook (a whole different discussion on manners), one of my friends replied that the difference is pride.

 Maybe it is especially acute as I write today, having just been through an airport where I can’t help but wonder why those who fly seem to lose all concept of decorum with their fellow passengers and the airline workers, and having just read an article about how smartphones make it easy and seemingly acceptable to be late to anything provided we text or email that we are.  What about the idea of e-mail manners, such as when to use – or not use – reply to all?  We have a client who refuses to reply to all, and yet another who replies to all when telling jokes or hurling  caustic electronic comments.  Maybe I’m becoming those parents and grandparents, but I can’t help but desire a world where I can go to the movies without people on the phones, fly on a plane without somebody’s diva-like temper tantrums, disagree on matters of policy without someone being “offended” and still have it be OK to hold the door for someone.  So Jim, what in the name of all that is proper does this have to do with virtual working?  Quite a lot, actually.

 People who work virtually have a strong interest in thinking about – and adjusting to – the manners of others.  In fact, when you work outside of the traditional office environment, it becomes even more important to think about how you interact with others and how you need them to interact with you; and then you can adjust accordingly.  When we don’t see people in person, body language is out of the equation but tone, inflection and the sound of the voice is.  When we communicate more through text, e-mail and other e-means, we need to be ever more vigilant about how we come across.  It means we have to take time to think about things from points of view beyond on own.  When we have instant access to getting our thoughts sent in an e-mail, a text,  a tweet, or a status we risk missing the luxury of taking a precious few minutes to stop, take a deep breath and reconsider whether what we want to say or do is really appropriate. At the end of it all, not everything that enters our head deserves to be posted.  Those who work remotely get this.  They have to, because to compromise it means they compromise the very nature of remote work itself.   Seems like that’s yet another reason I am so passionate about this remote work stuff.  It has the potential to make us better people.

This may seem like a preachy rant, and maybe it is.  If so, challenge me on it through your observations, comments and questions.  Remember it’s OK to disagree; just mind your manners.

 – Jim

Recently Jim and I received some feedback from a client who commented on how we have such different styles, skills, capabilities, strengths and mindsets between the two of us – which seems to have made for a very strong partnership and an enabling characteristic for what we do. Feedback from clients is always appreciated especially when it has such a positive undertone to it. However, the perspective wasn’t anything earth-shattering for either of us – we have had discussions with one another on numerous occasions about just that and it is something that we deliberately try to leverage in driving the decisions behind most everything that we do. To avoid saying that we are completely different, we do share many similarities in our capabilities, as well.  Our dynamic, though, has allowed us to be flexible, nimble, and think about things from many different perspectives which have enabled us to grow virtualwirks in ways that we may not have originally intended or thought. I write about this in this post not to blow our own horn, but to draw upon this as a parallel between two completely different business models that, when paired together, can deliver breakthrough accomplishments. Of course I am talking about virtual and premise based workforces – it is, after all, what we focus on and specialize in. Contrary to a lot of common misconceptions, having a large remote workforce requires a much different approach, skill set, resources, etc. than that of a premise based model. Both have their advantages and disadvantages in terms of some of their characteristics and each may be used to accomplish different objectives. One concept that is most commonly overlooked by organizations about the two is how they can work together to generate and elevate positive outcomes for a common objective in ways that are difficult – if not impossible – to achieve through the utilization of one or the other in solitude. For example companies have successfully leveraged part time employees to help balance and flex resources with the demands of the business to dramatically improve profitability while leveraging premise based full-time employees to fit the demands of the more static environment. This differs from more traditional mixtures of full and part-time models because the company is able to scale the business resources up or down without having to invest in or repurpose other assets such as facilities and equipment. You can really start to see trends in business shifting in this direction across many industries and job types as it is becoming more apparent about the gains that can be realized. Contact centers, for instance, have really started to invest heavily in this capability in order to not only save millions of dollars in capital on facilities, rent, and equipment, but to be able staff employees more efficiently during time of high call volumes such as lunch hours and evening when consumers have time in their day to take care of such tasks. Using part time employees that work from home, contact centers can staff employees for shorter shifts that fit into small pockets of high demand. The challenge that a lot of organizations run up against in trying to achieve this sort of flexibility is that it really isn’t as easy as just sending employees home with a computer and a VPN connection. When deploying a remote workforce on a large scale deliberate planning, processes, and tools need to be in place to really capture the full potential in the model. In addition to that challenge, companies often fail to realize the potential that remote work process have for their bricks and mortar operations, as well, and so they miss out on a large part of the return on their investment when pricing out  and considering the costs to develop a remote workforce model. For example, much of the recruiting processes and tools that are necessary to hire employees without ever physically meeting them are much more efficient because of things like electronic paperwork, signatures, and data processing. In many brick and mortar based hiring practices, these things are done through paper intensive and manual processes that cost money and time to complete. These practices that are critical and essential to a remote based model can be adopted and deployed through the rest of the organization to drive greater gains in efficiency and productivity… However, they are often overlooked when the numbers are getting crunched for expected rates of returns on capital investment. We are proud to say (and I will blow our own horn here) that Virtualwirks has successfully aided companies in finding and realizing the gains in a good marriage between the two models. It is difficult and will challenge employees to think and manage the business in less traditional ways, but when invested in and pursued properly (which I cannot stress enough) it can really produce breakthrough achievements for the entire organization.

–TADD

Brad Krinhop is a seasoned executive in the customer care and sales arenas with a career spanning over 20 years.  Most recently, he was Vice President of Operations, in the Customer Management line of business for Convergys Corporation.  Brad was the general manager overseeing all functions for the Convergys Home Agent Program. He also managed some of the companies’ largest clients with global operational footprints in the technology, telecommunications and automotive verticals.

Before joining Convergys, Krinhop was the Senior Vice President of Operations for Alpine Access, Inc.  He led all operational functions and client relationships for the pioneer in the virtual customer care outsourcing space.  Additionally, he was responsible for the strategic direction and performance of over 4200 virtual agents on 12 client programs located across the United States.  He also served as interim CEO for 6 months during his tenure.

 Previously, Brad served as Vice President of North American Customer Service for Ebay, Inc., where he managed the customer service and fraud operations for the world’s largest online trading company.  He also managed the training and quality departments, and was directly involved in global site expansion and support.  Brad held prior management positions with May Department Stores, MCI, Netlink, Primestar, DirecTV, AT&T Broadband and Comcast.

Brad earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and Marketing at Colorado State University.  Brad, his wife Laura and son Connor live in Denver, Colorado.