If you had shown me in early 2020 where my company, Railbookers Group, stands today while abandoning in-office work across four continents\u2014I wouldn\u2019t have believed you. I had not envisioned or planned any remote work, let alone going 100 percent fully remote, but it has made all the difference in our growth. We have learned, and continue to learn, so many lessons with the work-at-home model, all while balancing skyrocketing growth and scaling to previously unimaginable levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m excited to share my tips and learnings about running a thriving company committed to fully remote work, which I\u2019ve broken down into seven categories:\u00a01) Corporate structure;\u00a02) Communications; 3)\u00a0Company culture;\u00a04) Technology;\u00a0 5) Training; 6)\u00a0Management;\u00a0and\u00a07) Processes\/reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But first, a quick history. When the world shut down in March 2020, we had offices in Boston and Laguna Hills, California, in the U.S., as well as global locations in London and Sydney. Our company, which is the world\u2019s leader in independent rail-based vacations, had been experiencing double-digit growth for eight straight years. As the Covid-19 pandemic endured, we were so fortunate that train travel was considered an essential service, so that our customers in each source market could travel domestically and maintain proper safety. Our most successful example of this was our Amtrak Vacations brand in the U.S., where travelers could ensure social distancing in private rooms on board while exploring America\u2019s national parks outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After six months at home, I noticed our company was operating very efficiently and effectively, while at the same time, we were able to hire many great people in our industry who lost their jobs, as we were no longer tied to specific geographic locations for our workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is when I committed to remaining 100 percent remote\u2014which is when the fun began, and where we remain today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our company has roles and departments now that simply would not have existed in the traditional office environment. We\u2019ve expanded our training\/onboarding as well as employee engagement teams, with each working in a completely different role than office staff with similar titles. For the former, the challenge of training and onboarding is so much larger with remote staff, so we had to counteract that with more staff each possessing different skills. As far as engagement, we ensure we measure our staff beyond the work level (emails, calls, meetings, etc.), but also their involvement in internal committees, monthly town halls, coffee chats and other groups and activities. To be successful remotely, it starts with the proper structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we expand and hire, no matter the role, we first decide where on Earth they should be located. Why does that matter for a remote company? Because we take advantage of time zones across the globe to ensure the whole company, regardless of department, can be operated around the clock like a 24\/7 assembly line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every person consumes communication differently. Our success comes in connecting with the person on an individual level\u2014requiring video cameras to be on for every meeting and call, no exceptions, but also providing opportunities for staff to connect. Whether it\u2019s monthly town halls with small-group breakout sessions, monthly internal newsletters or building an interactive SharePoint directory with pictures and videos, we want our staff to have the opportunity to get to know each other\u2014their interests, families, hobbies, expertise and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also implemented our mic emails\u2014as in, an open microphone\u2014where every person in the company wraps up the week answering three questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Each manager reviews the emails, but also at the department level, we use AI to globally summarize our staff\u2019s weekly feedback. It seems so simple, but it is extremely powerful and our company really gets behind it as everyone\u2019s voice is heard\u2014hence the name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My biggest area of concern at first was maintaining a fun-loving, hard-working, competitive yet lighthearted culture that is 100 percent customer focused. We\u2019ve succeeded in this area in a few ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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All of these tactics enhance the culture while also giving us something to highlight and market in recruiting for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a remote company, tech is the air we breathe\u2014it\u2019s everything, and we all know it changes fast. So we use a variety of technology besides the systems we use to book for our customers, to name a few: AI and knowledge-based systems, collaboration tools, video and sharing screens for learning and certification\/recertification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of our staff are required to have a minimum of three monitors, provided by the company at their home office (some have up to six!), and we use software like ConnectWise to allow us to remotely \u201cjump\u201d onto a colleague\u2019s computer and observe or assist them in their work. This allows management and trainers to \u201csit shoulder-to-shoulder\u201d virtually to teach and correct in all systems at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is an area we continuously work and improve on. Many departments have half-days of working together, joining a Teams meeting with their cameras on while working on their own tasks, but replicating the office environment where they can ask each other questions and collaborate in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cross-department training is critical for us as well. Being fully remote, someone may know their role but not how it connects into the larger puzzle of the company. We have our staff and managers do weekly \u201cride-alongs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The role of a manager is completely different in a remote environment\u2014which we learned during Covid when everyone was home. The ones who are successful are what I call \u201cplannagers,\u201d or planning managers. There\u2019s no winging it or just using personality\u2014you have to be organized and willing to coach your staff to work well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is an area where our teams consistently work to get better, whether it\u2019s analysts, digital engineers or members of our process improvement staff. The work never ends. In our business, we\u2019re lucky to have limitless leads and unlimited inventory, so processes and reporting are critical to scaling quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like many organizations, Railbookers Group went remote during Covid. CEO Marini shares why it has stayed that way and how ‘it has made all the difference in our growth.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31653,"featured_media":361122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-talentmanagement"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n