Researchers have spent countless hours analyzing which office behaviors kill your productivity, but very little time on how these same behaviors help you connect with your coworkers. The water cooler, breakroom treats, and copy machine are known places for idle chitchat. However, when in a home office, many of us want to engage in those conversations to feel connected, informed, and socially satisfied. You’d think there must be a happy medium.
Technology has done wonders for all home-based workers. I’ve seen monitors on roving robots and always-on video conference rooms, but they feel impersonal or like an afterthought.
Building a New Way to Work
Now, there is a new way to work where you won’t feel isolated or unconnected in a windowless box. A virtual environment bridges the gap between your home and office like never before.
In 2016, I joined the board of directors of the parent company of eXp Realty, a then small, 1,500-agent real estate brokerage that existed only “in the cloud.” It was formed during the 2009 housing market crash to build a sustainable business that cut the overhead cost of brick-and-mortar offices. Today, that small brokerage now boasts more than 15,000 real estate agents and 300 staff across all 50 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.
This real estate brokerage did it all without physical offices. No water cooler wars over who took the last drop and no birthday cakes in the breakroom. With a focus on innovation, we are changing the way agents, staff, and consumers work together. Compared to the traditional real estate office, the company’s virtual office environment allows teams to work together from anywhere and in real time.
Thanks to virtual reality and a strong culture, this scrappy real estate brokerage grew 180 percent in the last year with super happy agents and staff. Proof: In 2018, the company was named a Glassdoor Best Place to Work and the founder was honored as a Glassdoor Top CEO.
Work Outside the Inbox
Visualize this.
A recent eXp World Holdings board meeting was similar to other board meetings I have participated in, but this meeting was hosted virtually on a cloud-based platform. I typed on my laptop and gave my voice to the avatar I’d developed to approximate my appearance—or a close facsimile thereof. My avatar sat in the executive boardroom of the virtual campus environment adjacent to fellow board members located from Calgary and Boston to Austin and Seattle. Zero travel, zero hotel rooms, zero jet lag.
But connecting, really connecting, with thousands of agents and coworkers across locations and time zones isn’t just a phone call or emoji-filled text away. Our virtual campus environment creates a third place for agents and staff to collaborate, learn, and have fun together, no matter where they might be located.
Cut the Commute, Not the Collaboration
I often hear from our agents and staff that they feel a sense of trust and camaraderie with each other, even though they’ve never met in real life. I was reminded of this during a recent company event with nearly 2,000 people, many of whom were meeting face to face for the first time. It was like a reunion of old friends where no time had passed since they last saw each other—which technically is true as they connect in their virtual office daily. What continues to amaze me is that cutting the commute has not led to less culture, communication, and collaboration. It has increased it.
We mix the old with the new by pairing this new way to work with a traditional set of core values that shape the company’s culture: community, service, sustainability, collaboration, transparency, integrity, innovation, agility, and fun. The team uses these core values every day to stay aligned. Not a day goes by where I don’t hear a team member refer to a core value.
How our team connects is a lot like what you’d experience in a physical office, but without the physical boundaries. While a completely virtual office may not be possible for you, here are a few ways you can build thriving virtual connections between members of your team:
Hold regular meetings. In a virtual environment (or with a video call), there’s no cost to bring everyone together once a week for an all-company meeting.
Establish team rooms. Many teams sit in a virtual great room all day, where members talk through issues and collaborate in real time.
Create chat groups. Teams or individuals can create single or group chats for quick, private conversations.
Nurture your community. We use Workplace, built by Facebook for the world of work, to share best practices, keep up on company news and events, and more.
Whether your home office serves as a gateway to a small group or large organization, staying connected, even in small ways, will keep you on the path to success.
