How we keep our remote team productive and connected

Want to keep a remote team connected and productive? Here are our tips from our spread-out offices and team members

Virtual mailboxes help companies across the world operate remote offices. At Earth Class Mail, we help many of our customers operate their businesses without a physical office by providing a virtual address for them to use instead of a home address or PO Box. We also digitize their mail so that everyone on their team can access important business documents while they work from home. 

But we know that virtual addresses and virtual mailboxes are just part of the solution - because we’ve done the remote work, too. Before the COVID-19 pandemic sent many of us to our home offices, Earth Class Mail already connected team members in its three main offices that are separated by nearly 5,500 miles. 

Our operations center and the birthplace of Earth Class Mail is in Beaverton, Oregon. Since 2016, our headquarters and business offices are in San Antonio, Texas. We also have a core product development team in Krakow, Poland. Besides these offices, we also have remote employees who work from home. 

So how do we do it? First of all, we’re our own customer - We digitize all our business mail so we can share important documents easily between teams. We also rely on collaboration tools for remote work that make it easier to manage projects when we aren’t together in a physical meeting room. We asked some of our distributed team members what they do to make their virtual office feel more like a traditional office. 

Daniel Twardowski is a software engineer based in Nawojowa, Poland and works with our development team in Krakow, Poland and with team members across the United States. 

What's your favorite tool/trick/advice to keep in touch with a spread-out team?

I like to have short but frequent conversations or video calls between team members. Staying in constant contact can be really helpful to facilitate more effective communication.

For daily communication purposes, we use Slack for messaging as well as Google Meet for video chat meetings. I can truly say that I really like both apps.

What's the biggest perk of working with a remote team?

In my opinion, the biggest advantage is that the remote team has more freedom in terms of working time as well as where each team member can work from.

Do you do anything to make your home workspace feel more like an office?

Yes, I decided to rearrange my room a bit to make it more like an office and to make me feel more comfortable in it during my daily work.

Tere Kovacs is the Director of Product Marketing and works remotely from Austin, Texas

What's your favorite tool/trick/advice to keep in touch with a spread-out team?

 I keep Slack open at all times on my computer and have the app on my phone with notification alerts. I also use Slack as a project management tool. I create Slack channels for priority projects so the team can see everyone's comments and stay in sync. We use the file sharing ability and link documents from Google Drive to cut down on email traffic back and forth. 

Do you do anything to make your home workspace feel more like an office? 

I bought a very comfortable ergonomic office chair, an adjustable desk, and 2 monitors. I feel that equipment and proper body posture help me be more productive and the investment is well worth it. 

What's the biggest perk of working with a remote team? 

Working with a global team helps me get better organized as half of my day is in meetings with the teams I work with and the other half to get my work completed. I am more productive with remote jobs since I get about 2 more hours a day that I previously spent in traffic. 

Joe Gorman is a customer support agent in our New York City office.

What's your favorite tool/trick/advice to keep in touch with a spread-out team? 

Always be available! I have my phone and computer by me at all times to ensure I'm available for my team. I also have an app that shows the current times in the locations my teammates are in so I am sure not to bother them too early or too late in the day.

Do you do anything to make your home workspace feel more like an office?

Lots of plants, plenty of coffee, and some classical music playing in the background always help me make the most of my day.

What's the biggest perk of working with a remote team?

I can wear pajamas during the day and while there is no scientific reasoning behind it, I feel like it makes me 15% more effective at my job.

Mike Kassis is the Director of Logistics who splits his time between remote work in Los Angeles and our operations center in Beaverton, Oregon 

What's your favorite tool/trick/advice to keep in touch with a spread-out team? 

Spontaneous Slack video messages, facetimes, or phone calls to say hello. If we need to quickly work out an issue, we jump on a video call and use screen sharing so we can tackle a project in real time. 

Do you do anything to make your home workspace feel more like an office?

Family photos on my desk along with a big whiteboard on the wall. I still wear my noise canceling headphones even though there is no noise as they put me in a certain deep work mode!

What's the biggest perk of working with a remote team?

Communication is constant. Never a lag in getting a response when needed. 

Remote workers and remote businesses don’t need to be in an office to work together.  Even if you’re working from across the world, work tools like apps, cloud storage and messaging can make it easy. We make it easier with virtual addresses that give you a real street address to use as your own and postal mail that’s digitized and delivered to your devices. Learn how digital mail works.