Are Wellness Programs Right for Your Small Business?

By Alex Yohn

Jul 5, 2016

This is the first in a multi-part series about wellness programs in small businesses. This article looks at what’s involved in providing a wellness program that supports employee well-being, and ultimately creates a healthier organization.

Turn on the news, or look at the front page of any news outlet, and chances are you’ll see a report about America’s health crisis. It’s no secret that the majority of Americans (nearly 70% in 2011) fall into the “overweight and obese” category. According to the State of Obesity Project, obesity is “one of the biggest drivers of preventable chronic diseases and healthcare costs in the United States.”

Estimates indicate that healthcare costs in the U.S. range between $147 billion to more than $200 billion per year. Whether they’re a large or small organization, today’s employers are on the frontline when it comes to feeling the impact of those costs in the workplace. Increased health insurance premiums and other business expenses (larger chairs, sturdier toilets, more spacious office spaces, etc.) are taking a toll on company budgets across the country.

Offering health and wellness is no longer optional; for many companies it’s become a financial imperative. In 2012, the National Small Business Association conducted a survey of more than 1,000 small business owners that found:

• 93% of respondents said the health of their employees was important to their bottom line, while only 22% offered health and wellness programs.
• High stress levels were a top health concern, followed by psychological well-being, weight management, and drug or alcohol addictions.
• More than half of the small businesses employing more than 50 said health and wellness programs are critical for employee recruitment and retention.
• Lowering long-term healthcare costs, followed by improved morale and increased productivity, were the biggest motivators driving workplace wellness programs.

Source: National Small Business Association

Like larger corporations that have been implementing programs for several years, many small businesses are looking for cost-effective and smart ways to help employees get—or stay—healthy.

Here are three considerations when creating a wellness program for a small business:

Wellness programs come in different shapes and sizes

At first glance, a fear of policies, “environmental supports” and program costs might be what make small business owners back away from the idea of providing a wellness program for employees. But programs don’t need to be extensive to be effective.

Employer wellness strategies vary when it comes to what programs they offer. Components might include:

• Screening activities to identify health risks (e.g., measurement of body weight)
• Prevention interventions or lifestyle management (e.g., health coaching)
• Health promotion activities (e.g., free gym membership)

Some programs also incorporate incentives to encourage employees to take advantage of workplace wellness benefits. Those incentives might be linked to program participation, or to changes in health behaviors such as quitting smoking or decreasing body weight.

Research conducted by the Small Business Majority found that the most common wellness programs offered by small businesses (up to 100 employees) are flu vaccinations and health risk assessments. Other popular wellness programs address nutrition, tobacco cessation, alcohol and substance abuse, and fitness.

“I offer my employees a $100 per month budget for them to use on health benefits such as a gym membership, or other health benefits they choose,” says AJ Saleem, Director of Suprex Learning, a private tutoring and test prep company based in Houston, Texas.

Saleem has offered this benefit since Suprex Learning opened its doors in 2011. With nine employees on staff, the program and process is fairly simple. Employees choose where they will spend their health budget, and then submit a receipt (up to $100/month) for the cost (e.g., gym membership, physical check-up, etc.). Suprex Learning then reimburses the employee for that approved, health-related cost.

“I decided, why spend money on expensive insurance policies when I can offer employees proactive opportunities to protect their health instead,” Saleem says.

Wellness programs benefit employees and the business

For many small business owners, an important outcome of a wellness program is a happier, healthier employee. Survey results gathered by the Small Business Majority indicate that small business owners see additional positive outcomes of implementing a wellness program, including:

• increasing employee productivity
• improving morale
• reducing insurance rates
• helping to lower costs in the healthcare system overall
• reducing on-the-job injuries
• utilizing a federal or state tax incentive

An investment in health can really pay off for employees, as shown in the wellness program which began in 2009 at Allegacy Federal Credit Union, an organization with about 300 employees in North Carolina.

“Allegacy employees have seen a 50 percent reduction in risk factors since the wellness program began. Biennial culture surveys have also shown measurable increases in both employee engagement and trust during that same timeframe,” said Garrick Throckmorton, assistant vice president, organization development at Allegacy.

The investment pays off for the business, too.

“Our research has shown that for every dollar we invest in employee well-being, we are receiving a two dollar return,” said Throckmorton.

Health Affairs, a journal of health policy thought and research, reports similar findings based on their analysis of available data regarding wellness programs. Their analysis indicates that medical costs “fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent.”

Although these findings require further research to determine their applicability, the initial exploration indicates that businesses experience a return on investment. Offering a wellness program can be beneficial for small business budgets, while also improving employee health.

Wellness programs depend on financial and organizational readiness

Before offering a wellness program, it’s important to consider if it’s the right decision and at the right time for the business. It’s critical to take time to evaluate three important factors that will help identify if the organization is ready:

• Financial Costs: Wellness programs save money in the long run, but small businesses should identify and evaluate any up-front costs (e.g., sign-up fees, equipment, training expenses, etc.) before launching a program. To engage employees and realize the financial benefits, you must be able to commit to offering a wellness program for the long-term. Start small—identify how much money is available to allocate to a wellness program now, and plan to expand the program in the future, as your budget increases.
• Administrative Requirements: Maintaining a wellness program (even if it’s just tracking involvement, or communicating about the plan) requires at least a few hours from a staff member each month. If you’re going to run the program in-house, be sure you have staff available to keep the program running. If you’re hiring an outside firm or vendor, be sure you know what administration covers and what it will cost.
• Organizational Readiness: The success of your program depends on the readiness of your leadership team, as well as employees. Leaders need to be ready to support and communicate about the benefits of what you’re offering. Their demonstrated commitment to making health and wellness a priority makes it much more likely the program will succeed. Likewise, before you begin setting a strategy, confirm that your employees are interested, willing, and prepared to take action to improve their health. Engaged employees who are ready to participate will help the program gain traction among the larger employee population.

These factors are the foundation of building a successful program. Once readiness for a wellness program is confirmed, a plan needs to be put in place. Companies that have effective programs are anything but random in their approach.

“We know from research—and personal experience—that random wellness programs rarely thrive or provide the desired results over time.  It’s only when an organization builds a strategic plan for creating a culture of health that is unique to their needs that sustentative and sustained results are seen,” said Throckmorton regarding the wellness program at Allegacy Federal Credit Union.

Allegacy’s wellness program—called AllHealth—began with goals focused on doing the right thing for the wellbeing of their employees. Over the last seven years, the program has evolved and now incorporates a holistic approach towards wellness. Today AllHealth addresses the many dimensions of wellness including physical, mental, social, financial, and individual purpose. Clearly, Allegacy is doing something right when it comes to wellness. In May 2016, the credit union once again earned the Best in Class honor in the Triad’s Healthiest Employers Awards; it’s their fifth such award since 2011.

Whether or not they’re winning awards, small business owners want the best for their employees. For companies that demonstrate financial and organizational readiness, a wellness program provides a way for businesses to contribute to their employee’s success. It’s an opportunity to positively impact employees’ health, increase overall engagement, and realize the economic benefits of a healthier workforce.

When the U.S. is faced with a health crisis that costs more than $200 billion a year, employers that provide wellness programs are also making a contribution to our society. A lot of good can come from helping employees learn and adopt new life skills that lead toward balanced and healthy lifestyle choices. Those choices will ultimately benefit not only the employee and the workplace, but the larger community as well.

images by:
Pete Nowicki

By Alex Yohn

Jun 27, 2016

Craig Bryant, Founder and CEO of Kin, and Emily Powers, Director of Operations and Finance at Fresh Tilled Soil, have joined forces to uncover the mysteries of the modern workplace. The following is the fourth chapter of an eight-part series featuring some of the greatest debates, struggles, and solutions surrounding how we work.

After ten years of reviewing resumés, I’ll confess that job hoppers still carry a stigma of being non-committal and risky to our company. Short stints at multiple companies within a couple of years throws up a red flag that the cost of onboarding and training may be for naught. Considering the cost of replacing an employee can be upwards of 2x their salary, why risk it?

With some cultural norms finally settling between employers and the millennial workforce though, it may be time to think about job hopping differently by combating its negatives and embracing its positives. Here are a few ways employers can do their part, and a few tips for would-be employees who may have a few too many lines in their resumé.

How companies should handle job hoppers.

Expect new workers to iterate.

It’s normal to move between companies and jobs early in one’s career. Just like in product design, iteration helps new workers home in on the company characteristics and responsibilities they’re best aligned with. So, is the candidate new to the job market? Give ’em the benefit of the doubt and discuss their experience with them before passing them over.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve seen job candidates with ten plus years of one to two year stints. If there are other qualifiers about the person that catch your eye, dig in and ask about their record – it could be they’re still the right match for the company despite the skipping around.

“Many people follow a trajectory toward success that involves them moving between jobs. I don’t necessarily see it is a problem. I do believe it creates a great opportunity to inquire and seek information about the roles and the evolution of the potential hire. What have they learned from their jobs, what are they looking for in a new position and how can our company culture fit (or not fit) this particular person?”

Deborah Sweeney, CEO of www.mycorporation.com

Job hopping can also happen within a company. We have folks on our team who are on their second or even third job. I’m not talking about moving from a junior to senior position either. Lindsay Sanders, our customer manager at Kin, moved jobs two times internally before finding her true love of helping our Kin customers. Employers who are accommodating to employees who are still finding their professional rhythm will spend less money and time on churn, and reap the rewards of long term allegiance to their company.

Job hopping isn’t always a choice

Job hopping doesn’t always imply a lack of fortitude in the worker. Employers, the economy, and life circumstances are as much to blame for the recent increase of job hopping, and it’s workers who often find themselves stitching careers together with multiple employers, especially those newer to the job market working entry-level positions.

People come, people go. Handle it elegantly.

When I think of high churn jobs I think of sales and retail. In our industry though, in-demand skills mean people leave jobs even if they love the company they’re working for. Passionate designers and engineers are always on the lookout for the next big challenge, and often times a single employer can’t satisfy those needs.

Employers can handle this in two ways. First, companies with solid hiring, onboarding, and career development plans will undoubtedly be more resilient with the natural churn of employees and see a lot less turnover of those employees who’ll make a positive impact over the long term at a company. Second, an employer with its employees’ best interests at heart will recognize the value in helping employees find opportunities outside of their company when it’s no longer able to meet someone’s expectations.

Mentor, don’t just manage.

We consider management a fundamental service provided to employees, but peer mentoring is what we really believe helps embed employees in our workplace. Having a peer-sponsor to train, answer questions, and be a guiding light is integral to getting employees through their first several months when they’re most likely to abandon ship.  

Ugh, I’m a job hopper, help!

Focus on objectives and results in your resumé.

As an employer, I want to see measurable accomplishment at jobs from a candidate. If it’s hard to comb through a page of short term positions that tell me nothing about how you performed at their various jobs, it’s wasting your time and mine. If there are big objectives and accomplishments, call them out right at the top of the resumé. Hiring managers are less interested in what jobs you’ve done, than the results your contributions have made.  

Quit quitting.

There’s no such thing as a perfect employer. There is such thing as a good employer though, but many times it’s up to you, the employee, to challenge them for more. That’s right, working a job is a two way street: you need to manage yourself, your ambitions, and your career path just as much as your employer needs to offer up good operations and opportunities for you to stay on track. Keep in mind that it likely makes more financial sense for an employer to keep you on board and help you along than it does to lose you and hire your replacement.

“I work with every generation in the workforce and they all have one thing in common: none of my clients have ever expressed wanting to only stay at a job for 2 or 3 years. What they do express is that they don’t want to become stagnant.

Companies need to start looking at this as a company problem, not a staff problem. Employees always seek to evolve, learn and grow. There’s no reason why an organization can’t accommodate that. If an employee feels like every 2 or 3 years their skills are being used in new and interesting ways, they won’t have to go elsewhere. “

Lauren Milligan, Career Advancement Coach at http://resumayday.com/

Do it yourself! ACA, 401s, etc.

If you’re skipping around a lot, maybe you’re a permanent freelancer! That’s no crime, and with the abundance of group insurance options out there (and ACA), you may just earn more money and do cooler work working independently. Think about revising your resumé and portfolio though – position yourself as a business with clients, rather than an individual being pushed around to different companies.

Employers and workers: Look before you leap.

Hopping around different companies to work on projects that a potential employee is passionate about isn’t a crime. Job seekers should realize though that employers often get hundreds of job applications for a single position which means it’s your job to get noticed and not dismissed by something as simple as a long-scrolling work history.

Likewise, employers can do themselves a favor by looking deeper than just a resumé – self-recorded video introductions and questionnaires on the job application are just a couple of ways to buck the all-too-easy trend to page through a stack of job applications.

By Alex Yohn

Jun 23, 2016

Happy workers are productive workers.

As true as this old adage is — and employee happiness has been shown to correlate to a 12% increase in productivity — it sounds kind of robotic. Happiness in, productivity out.

People are much more complex than that. Creating an environment that lets your team members find their own happiness is nuanced and difficult, and it requires work from both employer and employee.

Ultimately, finding happiness at work is up to each individual person, but there are two things team leaders can do to support that pursuit: Keep employees engaged, and help everyone reduce stress at work.

Here is how employers and employees can meet in the middle to create a happy, productive workplace.

Engagement: An Employer’s Obligation

Employee engagement concerns many, if not most, executives because engagement is what keeps good people at their jobs. We all like to feel our contributions are valuable and recognized.

Fortunately, there is a pretty easy step executives and employers can take to make people feel more engaged in their work: They need to recognize each employee’s good work.

David Sturt, an EVP at HR consultancy O.C. Tanner Co., writes in the Harvard Business Review that his company surveyed more than 3,500 employees at a wide range of companies, and there is clear evidence that “recognition directly affects morale and engagement.”

“The data from it suggests a strong correlation between loyalty and acknowledgment,” Sturt says. “Among the 512 U.S. employees who say their company has strong recognition practices, 87% feel a strong relationship with their direct manager. That number dips to 51% among those who reported a lack of such practices at their companies.”

This is consistent with common sense. Everyone appreciates hearing that they’ve done a good job, whether that’s via a year-end awards banquet or a quick Wednesday morning email. The problem is many employees feel underappreciated.

• don’t feel recognized for their progress,
• don’t feel recognized for their accomplishments, and
• don’t receive timely feedback from their managers.

These employees then feel disconnected from the importance of their work, and they will be more likely to look for a job elsewhere.

It’s up to managers, team leaders and company executives to make that connection between each person’s work and the value it creates, and this requires clear and consistent communication.

In a post at The Muse, ShortStack CEO Jim Belosic lays out six questions a good leader should ask employees to keep them engaged. If your own team is struggling with engagement, that post is a good place to start.

How Employers and Employees Can Manage Workplace Stress

There are plenty of ways each of us can manage stress outside of work: Taking time to exercise, making sure we get plenty of sleep, making time to meet with friends and loved ones.

Stress will always be a part of work (that’s not necessarily a bad thing, either), so the key is to make it manageable.

What Employers Can Do

For team leaders, this means encouraging employees to take advantage of their downtime, whether those are lunch breaks or tiny rest breaks to let the mind relax.

“Whether your staff are always on the road or if they work remotely from time to time for family reasons, it’s important to encourage downtime, and the need to step away from that constant link to their inbox,” the team at UK-based insurance company Unum writes. “Even at the office, people are frequently skipping their lunch hours, or eating at their desk. Since 2009, the number of working days lost to stress, anxiety and depression — the most common of mental health issues — has risen by 24%.”

Simply being mindful that every person needs to disengage from their workplace stressors will go a long way to fostering a healthier environment.

What Employees Can Do

For employees, one of the best stress-relievers is monotasking, or taking work one item at a time. This has the dual benefit of keeping our minds more relaxed and making us more productive.

This is easier said than done because our brains actually love to multitask — and with email, phones, Skype and whatever other points of contact we maintain, there are plenty of multitasking temptations available. These devices wear us out at a biological level.

“Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task,” neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin writes in The Guardian. “And the kind of rapid, continual shifting we do with multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time.”

Levitin says that using up our brain’s fuel so quickly can hamper our ability to think and can lead to anxiety, which causes a secondary reaction in which cortisol floods our brains, prompting us to act aggressively and impulsively.

Leo Widrich at Buffer cites research from Ohio State University that found our brains actually get a feeling of satisfaction when we try to do many things at once. Checking email while watching TV and talking on the phone? That feels productive to our brains, which is subject to its own, sometimes-unhelpful neurochemical rewards.

Our brains are rewarding themselves for bad behavior when we multitask.

Wordstream founder Larry Kim offers a tip he uses to keep himself focused: Check your email three times per day, and turn off push notifications on your phone. Set aside specific times to deal with text messages, but manage these on a schedule that works for you.

Practicing Happiness: 4 Tips for Employees Everywhere

Many of us fall into the trap of thinking that happiness is something that happens to us. When something good happens to us, the thinking goes, we feel happy. When something bad happens, we feel unhappy.

Author Shawn Achor turns that belief upside down in a classic piece he wrote for the Harvard Business Review. “Research shows that when people work with a positive mind-set, performance on nearly every level — productivity, creativity, engagement — improves. Yet happiness is perhaps the most misunderstood driver of performance.

“For one, most people believe that success precedes happiness. ‘Once I get a promotion, I’ll be happy,’ they think. Or, ‘Once I hit my sales target, I’ll feel great.’ But because success is a moving target — as soon as you hit your target, you raise it again — the happiness that results from success is fleeting.

“In fact, it works the other way around: People who cultivate a positive mind-set perform better in the face of challenge.”

Happiness isn’t the result of something positive. Happiness is actually a skill that you have to work at and practice. So, here are four tips from that perspective. These aren’t tips that will help you find happiness. Instead, they will help you cultivate a mindset that will make practicing happiness easier.

1. When you feel the need, take two minutes to do nothing at all.

This sounds like counterintuitive advice in a post that connects happiness with productivity, but taking a moment to just shut off is actually a really useful way to bring your mind back to the present.

It also helps you deal with any pressure you might feel to always be on. “Do nothing for 2 minutes,” behavioral psychology researcher James Clear writes. “Guess what happens? Nothing! You didn’t lose your job. Your family didn’t leave you. You’re not a failure. Nobody judged you. In fact, the only thing that really happened was that you realized that you can make time for yourself and enjoy your own presence without consuming something (eating, watching TV, etc).”

2. Make time to be social at work.

“Office environments exist for a reason,” AudienceBloom’s Jayson DeMers writes. “While working from home can be a valuable means of boosting your productivity, the happiest workers in the country tend to be ones who socialize regularly — and that doesn’t mean attending the greatest number of meetings.”

Instead, spend a few minutes chatting over the water cooler, or invite coworkers to lunch with you, or simply open your door / take off your headphones to signal that you’re open to chat. Real, human interaction makes us all happier people.

3. Pay attention to your own rhythms.

“Evaluate your daily activities and pay attention to your body and energy levels to see when you can get the most done,” the team at GoodTherapy.org writes. “Everybody works differently. Perhaps you truly aren’t a morning person. Maybe you tend to be more creative at night or more productive in the afternoon. Pay attention to your patterns and find what works for you. Create a daily schedule that honors your mind, body, and spirit rather than constricting it.”

Your work’s schedule might constrain this rhythm a little bit (it’s not a good idea to cold call prospects at 2 a.m., even if you’re a night owl), but you can prioritize more mentally intensive work for the part of the day when your brain feels most active.

4. Practice gratitude: List three good things that happened to you each day.

This is the secret to connecting the good things that happen to us with the happiness that we’re trying to cultivate. Take a moment to recognize these good things, then practice the art of being grateful for those things.

“They can be anything from a really good cup of coffee or a compliment from your boss,” Pearl McLeod writes at Mindful.org. “By listing good things in your day, you are focusing on the positive aspects of your work, which can help you feel happier.”

Gratitude is the secret sauce in this whole recipe. Even if you’ve received a glowing note from your manager, you still need to have the clarity of thought to recognize that praise in the moment and be in the habit of being grateful for these nice moments.

That’s how employee engagement, stress management and happiness reinforce one another and build great workplaces.

images by:
Gerrit Vermeulen, mickey970, Sander Smeeke

By Alex Yohn

Jun 21, 2016

Craig Bryant, Founder and CEO of Kin, and Emily Powers, Director of Operations and Finance at Fresh Tilled Soil, have joined forces to uncover the mysteries of the modern workplace. The following is the third chapter of an eight-part series featuring some of the greatest debates, struggles, and solutions surrounding how we work.

Working remotely isn’t a recent innovation – the earliest documented examples of telecommuting stretch back hundreds of years. Over the last twenty years though the concept of a distributed workforce has evolved into a mainstream organizational design that helps companies hire talented people wherever they’re happiest.

Today’s brand of remote workplace is the product of technological advances, employee work/life values, and companies doing whatever they can to hire the people they need to succeed. Smack dab in the middle of it all is a growing collective of companies like Kin and Fresh Tilled Soil learning the in’s and out’s of building a resilient distributed workforce.

In this week’s article, we take a look at remote work from three vantage points. First, Craig shares some key organizational factors that make the fully-distributed workplace of Kin and its sister-companies, We Are Mammoth and DoneDone, possible. Then, Emily drills into Fresh Tilled Soil’s approach to a co-located workplace. We wrap up the piece with a list of the business-critical tools companies like ours use to keep these modern workplaces afloat.

WAMDunKin: Three companies, thirty people, seventeen states

Five years ago a team member at Kin’s parent company, We Are Mammoth, had a dilemma. She loved her job but wanted to move to the west coast. The question for our business was, do we want to say goodbye to an exceptional team member because she didn’t want to live in Chicago anymore? We mutually decided she’d become our first remote employee in what would ultimately become a fully distributed company, the experience of which I documented on the We Are Mammoth blog.

Our shop isn’t a collective of freelancers. We’re full time employees working on big projects that require synchronous teamwork. This gets challenging with everyone communicating via glowing rectangular screens, and it’s taken a few years to find the right recipe of people, process, and technology to keep our thirty people humming along across four time zones and seventeen states.

Who are you remotely?

About a year ago, I made peace with my business partner’s decision to hire a new team member without having ever met the candidate in person. His reasoning was that ninety-nine percent of our work interactions are done remotely so, for some positions, it was more important to hire based on the “remote” version of the person than the “in-person” version. It’s still a strange notion for me. I’m one of five team members who still live in Chicago and I never moved away from our headquarters, so I’m one of the last people to have fully transitioned to our distributed work culture. You read that right: the CEO of a distributed company has taken a very long time to get used to working remotely.   

Many people aren’t prepared for the unique challenges of remote teamwork. We pitch working “wherever you’re happiest,” but maintaining a clear division between the job and non-work life is challenging. Many folks work too much and have a hard time disconnecting at the end of the day. Others are too easily lured away from work by life outside of their home office.

You read that right: the CEO of a distributed company has taken a very long time to get used to working remotely.   

Remote teams also can’t depend on the built-in social cues that help foster team culture at onsite companies. We don’t have body language, team lunches, or serendipitous hallway conversations. So, one of the biggest success factors in a remote employee is how well he/she can create a sense of “being there” in a time of need via the tech tools and processes we’ve established. Remote team members need to over-communicate to establish their “presence” – the digital equivalent of being at your desk, in your office, available to collaborate or, likewise, heads down working on a complex task. It takes practice to get it right.

Remote operations for remote employees

One of the greatest compliments for our operations team is when new hires report feeling dialed in to the company’s community. That experience is by design and something the team still strives to improve with every new hire.  

Employee experience at remote companies needs explicit planning because it simply doesn’t happen by itself.

Employee experience at remote companies needs explicit planning because it simply doesn’t happen by itself. Picking up paychecks, chatting in the kitchen, getting a computer fixed, or dropping by a manager’s office are just a few opportunities for an employee and employer to connect at physical offices. None of these exchanges happen incidentally at remote companies – but they’re important to employee engagement and organizational health.

Teams that get together stay together

We’re social creatures and we often solve problems best when we’re together in the same space. For really important team events or work that simply can’t be accomplished remotely (design sprints, client meetings, for example), we get folks together at a mutual location – usually our Chicago office. We do this on an entire-company level once a year, but we also encourage teams to get together during the final sprint of big projects where morale, support, and in-person communication is mission critical.

Traveling takes a lot of time though,  and time is what engineers and design folks need the most of, so we use travel only when we know it’ll facilitate productivity long term instead of tiring folks out even more.

Different states == different employment laws and taxes

Every state has its own set of rules to follow when it comes to employment laws and taxes, so things can get complicated.

Our companies’ teams are in seventeen states, which means we have a lot of tax obligations and, to boot, we need to be mindful of state-specific employment laws. For example, California and New York are at the forefront of employee and family protection, while Illinois is pretty lax about employer obligations. So, what’s an Illinois-based company that has employees in NY and CA to do?

As a remote company it’s hard to stay on top of every single combination of federal and state law.

While we always have our team’s best interests at heart, as a remote company it’s hard to stay on top of every single combination of federal and state law, especially when they’re changing so rapidly. Luckily there are accountants and employment attorneys out there to help us stay on the right side of the law. Getting started early with corporate taxes each year is a great idea, as is finding experts who regularly publish articles on new mandates and laws, such as payroll companies.  

Work where you’re happiest, but stay happy

Embracing a distributed workplace has been one of the most important economic opportunities our company has pursued in its first ten years. What technology has enabled companies like ours to do is to hire the best people wherever they’re happiest, and the growing familiarity with the model means less friction with clients and talent alike. It requires extra discipline from every team member and some out of the box organizational thinking, but once every one’s rowing in the same direction (CEO included!), it truly is a liberating way to work and live.

Mixed-Terrain: Fresh Tilled Soil’s everywhere workplace

Fresh Tilled Soil is a majority co-located company that flirts heavily with being distributed. We are a team of 27, with 2 fully remote, 3 majority remote, and the remaining 22 operating from our Watertown office but working from elsewhere frequently, at their discretion. It’s safe to categorize us in that awkward middle ground between co-located and distributed.

Let me tell you, these are dangerous waters my friend. In a co-located company, everyone is always on site collaborating, joking, and talking about their weekends around the water cooler. In a successfully distributed team, there is time allocated for these same exact interactions to occur online. In the awkward middle land where we sit, remote team members are certainly a part of working meetings and collaboration during video conferences and chats, however, they are often missing out in the bonding, sharing, and joking that occurs in between meetings. If someone tells a funny joke in the office that makes everyone crack up, is someone then going to run to their computer to make sure that joke hits Slack for the remote folks? Likely not, and that’s not okay.  

I myself am one of those 3 majority remote team members. This means I feel every single flaw in our remote inclusion culture first hand.

At Fresh, we have one huge, nagging factor on our side: I myself am one of those 3 majority remote team members. This means I feel every single flaw in our remote inclusion culture first hand. Here are a few examples of ground-rules we’ve established to support working remotely:

1. We don’t ask questions: If someone makes the choice to work from home, we fully trust their decision and carry on.
2. If the run club heads out for a run from the office, all remote team members are encouraged to get some fresh air at that same time.
3. If we head out for a company hike, remote folks are encouraged to take one too!
4. When we arrange for our masseuse to come to the office, we offer our remote folks a massage at their local spot as well.
5. Technology is everything: We’ve researched an upgrade to all our conference room cameras and mics to make any remote participants feel like they truly are in the room and at the table.
6. We fly our remote team members out approximately once a month to get face time with the team.
7. We make sure everyone who works from home (even occasionally) has an equipment set-up that is equally as effective in the office and at home.

Emily’s take on maintaining professionalism

When I speak to friends and family members about the fact that I work from home four days a week, they are just flabbergasted. They think it’s just the greatest thing in the world that I can “roll out of bed, grab some coffee, and sit down to work at the kitchen table in PJs.” In fact, if you Google image search “working from home” this is the very first result you’ll find. This could be my type-A roaring its ugly head, but this is not how I operate, and it’s not my recommendation for others. This PJ-laden stereotype has wreaked havoc on the image of working from home. In my experience, there are a few keys to successfully working from home (or anywhere really).

Mental prep

I still wake up at 6:00 every morning to get in exercise, coffee, breakfast, and time for personal emails (not work emails), just as I did in the days when I was commuting. I think we are so much better at mentally preparing for getting out the door. However, these morning routines to prep your brain for the day ahead are critical whether you are hitting the road or staying put. For some people it will be meditation, a cup of tea, or rolling around on the floor with your kids and/or dogs. Make time for whatever sets your head straight for the day ahead, and do not start working before it’s time!   

Physical prep

Yup, I’m going to tell you to get dressed. I’m not telling you to put on a suit, but I am telling you to get dressed as though you were going out into the real world. And this is not just for those of us who video conference all day long and need to keep up appearances, this is for everyone.  There is something about showering and dressing that flips a switch in our minds, it tells us we’re prepared for something, it provides a clean break between not working and working. Again, this is key for the mental prep.

Claim your space

Make sure you have a clean, well-lit, designated area where you do work. For those who video conference, be sure you have a simple, professional background (yes, we can see the piles of laundry you wish were invisible).

Having a completely separate space will also provide that clean break from not working and work. You enter your “office” in the morning and dive into work, head out for lunch, dive back in for the afternoon, and get the heck out when you’ve wrapped up for the day. I make a strong point of closing my computer and immediately leaving the house for a hike or run when my work day has ended.

I make a strong point of closing my computer and immediately leaving the house for a hike or run when my work day has ended.

Claiming and defending (yes, put up a sign if needed) your space should also limit distractions – discouraging pets and random drop-ins if these are big distractors.

The Tools of the Trade

Communication tools are vital to establishing a successful remote working culture. Every single member of your team needs to be fully informed of the ongoing company minutia, regardless of their location. There should be no barriers to communication whatsoever, and it should be easy. If you have even one team member (or client for that matter) who’s remote, you need to take a serious look at how supportive your remote working culture is. A wise colleague from Four Kitchens (a fully distributed team) once said, “The moment one person goes remote, the ENTIRE team must go remote.” When they hired their first fully remote employee, all meetings became Google Hangouts. That’s right, even with 15 people sitting in the office next to one another, everyone got in front of their computers to meet on Hangout, so everyone in the entire company had the same working experience. Now that’s leveling the playing field!

The following is a list of tried-and-tested tools we recommend to build a supportive work-from-anywhere culture. If you’d like a more extensive list, check out The Next Web’s list here.

Messaging

Messaging is vital for super quick back and forth communication. It’s also great for building company culture and morale through joking and play. Kin recently moved to Slack from Hipchat because team messaging is business critical and Hipchat’s service didn’t reflect that. A vast majority of team communication happens via Slack, and it’s an incredibly useful tool to get caught up on past project conversations – it’s like a transcript of a project’s team collaboration.

• Slack
• HipChat  

Video Chat and Screenshare

Nothing can take the place of face-to-face conversations when time and tone matter most. Since we can’t meet face-to-face on a whim, video chats and screenshares play the role. Kin uses GoToMeeting for extended-team meetings because their video streaming quality is superior to most other solutions. For smaller 1:1’s or project team video chats, Hangouts are the go-to because it’s so dang easy to fire one up. Fresh uses Zoom for 95% of meetings, occasionally throwing in Hangouts here and there for the remaining 5%.

• GoToMeeting
• Zoom
• Google Hangouts

Operations Software Apps

We’re fortunate to work in an industry where most everyone is accustomed to interfacing with their employer’s operations via software app. The key to these apps, like Kin and DoneDone, is to ensure the experience using them is productive and memorable. There’s a quick slide into wasted resources if these online tools aren’t more efficient than simply rolling up the sleeves and doing things manually. You can find a webapp for just about every single operational function from hiring, to performance management, to to-do lists, but here are a few we recommend:  

• Kin: Everything HR  
• DoneDone: Issue-tracking
• Basecamp: Project management
• Harvest: Time-tracking

In closing, working from wherever is fast becoming the norm. Keeping your company running smoothly regardless of where your team is located is possible with a great deal of planning and consideration including: Crafting a culture and expectations around how to work remotely, dedicating resources to the technology and tools necessary for keeping the team in close touch, getting your legal ducks in a row, and understanding that once you’ve successfully distributed your team, you still need to bring them back together pretty regularly to enjoy one another’s company.

About the author: Emily Powers is Director of Operations and Finance at Fresh Tilled Soil.

By Alex Yohn

Jun 17, 2016

If you’ve ever managed an in-office team before, you know that it’s fairly different from managing a remote one. But if you want to get the most out of your telecommuting staff, here are five remote team leadership best practices to follow.

Be realistic—and respectful.

By its very nature, having a remote staff means that your workers have greater autonomy and control over their schedules. And because they are able to balance their work needs with their personal ones, they have more time to take care of the things that truly matter. At FlexJobs, we’ve seen people work from hospital rooms while a family member recovers from major surgery and from hotel rooms while searching for a loved one who has disappeared. We’ve even had a director working from bed as she recovered from a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. The ability to keep working actually helped them get through difficult times and situations. Knowing that your workers will use their time off to take care of personal matters or pursue their interests—and still get their work done—can help reinforce a strong bond between managers and their teams.

Focus on talent, not location.

One of the biggest benefits of having a remote team is the ability to hire top-tier talent no matter where they are located. So even if you’d ideally like to hire someone who lives somewhat near your company’s headquarters (if you still have a brick-and-mortar one) or if you’re looking for workers who live near each other, it’s best to focus on hiring the best worker for the position with no geographical boundaries. And once you hire remote workers, encourage them to get out into the world! We’ve had people working from the beaches in Hawaii, on summer-long road trips across the United States, and in the mountains of Germany. We really encourage people to take advantage of the fact that they can work from any location with Internet access.

Schedule check-ins.

Sure, without a proverbial water cooler to hang around or the ability to physically swing into an employee’s office, it can be tricky to gauge how a remote worker might be doing. That’s why it’s critical to set up certain protocols to ensure that your workers are doing well, both professionally and personally. FlexJobs is results-oriented by necessity; we’ve identified key metrics for most of our teams that allow us to see results. We also have team meetings that focus on progress, plans, and problems. It allows individuals to update on projects that are in motion, what is coming next, and any blockers that might be slowing them down. It’s actually a lot easier than leaders in brick-and-mortar environments expect it to be; it simply requires managers to be focused on the tangibles instead of who is physically present.

Create communication channels.

Communication is the cornerstone for the overall success of a remote company. After all, without crystal clear communication, there are many potential pitfalls that can occur, from missed deadlines to a loss of employee engagement. There are a plethora of possible communication tools that companies can use to keep their employees in constant contact with each other, from emails to IMs, phone calls to video conferencing. FlexJobs favors platforms like Sococo, which functions as our virtual office. With person-to-person and group chats, as well as the ability to talk or have a video call with people, it has allowed for more natural and impromptu conversations. We also use Yammer as a knowledge database and a virtual water cooler of sorts. We ask questions designed to spark conversation.

Learn something new.

If you thought that setting up a remote work policy was a one-and-done deal, think again. The world of remote work keeps continuing to grow, and remote companies know that in order to stay competitive it’s a smart idea to focus on education—for both employees and managers. Top management needs to be aware of changes in flexible work and one way to do that is by attending webinars, meetings, and yes, conferences. The TRaD Conference (Telecommuting, Remote, and Distributed) is designed as a community event to bring companies together that are already remote, as well as offer insight to those who are looking to bring their workforce into a more modern way of conducting business.

Remote companies can help achieve the best leadership practices by implementing some of the above-mentioned ideas. It will help ensure that their company stays at the cutting edge of its field and boasts a remote workforce that is productive, engaged, and most of all, happy.

Carol Cochran is the Director of People & Culture and a contributing writer at FlexJobs, as well as a mom of two amazing children. She oversees all aspects of human resources, including recruiting, development, and retention, as well as provides flexible work, career, and job search advice to job seekers and employers. She has great hands-on experience and knowledge in recruiting, managing, and engaging a 100 percent virtual team.

By Alex Yohn

Jun 13, 2016

Craig Bryant, Founder and CEO of Kin, and Emily Powers, Director of Operations and Finance at Fresh Tilled Soil, have joined forces to uncover the mysteries of the modern workplace. The following is the second chapter of an eight-part series featuring some of the greatest debates, struggles, and solutions surrounding how we work.

In our intro post, we made one argument painfully clear: Technology has fully blurred the lines between work and home, granting us the limitless temptation to crank out work at any hour, from any location. Notifications from incoming email, messaging apps, and project management apps are pinging our phones at all hours, nudging you to just send that quick message back – from bed, at midnight, with a bowl of ice cream on your lap.

Sure, we can all wage a war against Slack, email, and notifications. Our CEO himself is often heard saying, “If I send you message on the weekend and it’s not important, just don’t respond” or, “shut off notifications.” Let’s be honest, that just doesn’t feel possible, and here’s why. At Fresh Tilled Soil, we’ve cultivated a team in which every single person possesses a quality that is nearly impossible to screen for ahead of time: an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. That’s right, a team of type-As constantly aiming to delight their coworkers and clients every day. This is a team of people who feel the pull of that phone ping at midnight. While I deeply appreciate hearing the reminder to shut-off from our CEO, this only scratches the surface.   

So, how do we combat this “always on” mentality? We tell our employees NOT to come to work. I suggest using three main tools to keep employees’ heads out of the game:

• Planned time off
• Boundaries
• Life outside of work

Planned time off

The modern workplace has seen a surge in policies encouraging and even requiring time off. Going well beyond the federal and state mandates for vacation, sick time, and parental leave, many companies are offering very generous time off allowances including unlimited paid time off. We’re not just talking about hoodie-wearing tech start-ups either. Corporations like GE, NetFlix, LinkedIn, and Virgin Group are offering unlimited PTO. In addition, according to a 2015 research report from the Society for Human Resources Management, 26% of employers are going well above and beyond the minimum FMLA parental leave requirements.

Now, for the Netflix’s of this world, unlimited PTO and unlimited paid parental leave are feasible. However, for many organizations, this type of policy is financially and culturally impossible. Here is the good news: There is a strong argument stating that policies providing no structure around time off result in employees taking less time off. That’s right, given the free-for-all that is unlimited paid time off, employees don’t plan for time off, and that means it doesn’t happen. At Fresh, we have seen this play out first hand. We offer unlimited PTO, however we began to notice this “I’ll take it later” mentality and knew we needed to be more forceful about taking time off. Today, we still offer unlimited paid time off, however at the beginning of each year we ask everyone to lightly map out a minimum of four weeks vacation. If you plan it, they will go (hopefully). Some companies take it even one step further. Authentic Jobs has a “Minimum Time Off” policy whereby checkins occur regularly to make sure people are taking time off at regular intervals throughout the year.

Boundaries

Though I gave our CEO a bit of a hard time earlier regarding his suggestion to “just not respond” to after hours messages, I’m now going to praise this behavior in a different context. Let me be clear, there will never be an end to boundary assertion. Just saying “don’t respond” once will never be enough. If you have a team like ours with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, you will be restating boundaries daily to keep the lines between working times and non-working times clear.

Some examples include: Telling a sick employee to just take the day off rather than suffer through the day working from home, discouraging after hours communication unless absolutely necessary, setting healthy expectations about how/when we communicate with clients, encouraging clear breaks to reset during the day (running, cycling, taking the dog for a walk), and not allowing lunch scarfing at desks (this is a huge rule for us). The boundaries will be different for every organization, but it’s a mindset I encourage you to try on for size. Effective managers that truly empower and trust their teams need to be spending just as much time coaching the practice of “not working” as they do on work performance.

Life outside of work  

Employees who have vibrant lives outside of work are very successful at truly separating from work, resetting, and returning to work focused and fresh. The research shows that productivity plummets when people work over 50 hours per week. Get them out of the workplace and work mindset! We allow time for and encourage life outside of work. We post photos and celebrate dog walks, hikes, bike rides, family time, charity work, and 50K run victories! We even encourage these activities during working hours through our wellness program.

To sum up: A company doesn’t need to offer over-the-top, expensive time off and leave policies to ensure their team is happy, rested and supported. In fact, I would argue that companies offering sweeping policies that put the onus on the employee are just being lazy. A truly supportive work culture is forged in the everyday details. It’s booking a massage for someone who is absolutely killing it, it’s telling that Type-A to get the heck out of the office at 1:00pm after wrapping up a stunning project, it’s arranging a team hike…I could go on forever.

Above all, your team needs to feel supported away from work. Generous time off policies, constant boundary assertion, and encouraging life outside of work means nothing if employees literally break out in a cold sweat at the thought of abandoning their to-do pile. They will never be able to mentally separate from work unless they know their responsibilities are taken care of. Back one another up, have open conversations about current projects, and clear their minds of that burden so they can really and truly disconnect.  

About the author: Emily Powers is Director of Operations and Finance at Fresh Tilled Soil.