That’s the thinking behind a newly launched free online course from the web-based learning service Coursera titled How to Manage a Remote Computer.
That’s why the company has a “remote control boss,” Darren Murph, who spends his time thinking about how to make remote work work. Since Gitlab makes money selling software that helps programmers get their work done without a physical office, it also benefits from spreading its own WFH gospel. Now your Coursera course, which is based on this guide, will also be available for free. “This is critical to who we are,” Murph says of the manual and the new online class.
Murph says the course was created for HR directors and managers, but that anyone dealing with the transition to remote work could benefit from the curriculum. But Murph hopes that many companies will maintain some level of the WFH after the crisis. Furthermore, the fact that so many companies have been forced to telecommute does not mean that it has been conscientiously implemented. It’s one thing to buy your employees an ergonomic office chair or second monitor. It is quite another to restructure the way teams collaborate and communicate. This is the gap that GitLab and Coursera, the learning platform, hope to fill.
“What began as a short-term response to this crisis will become part of the digital transformation more broadly,” says Shravan Goli, Coursera’s chief product officer.
If you’re not sure what “hybrid” means, the new course links to a glossary of WFH terms for you to read carefully (my personal favorite: a “digital nomad” is a worker who travels constantly, sometimes without a campus ). Although there are opportunities to network and collaborate with other students through online forums. Completing the entire course takes approximately 11 hours; yes, questionnaires are included.
The series begins with some basic questions: What is telecommuting? And what are its benefits?
Culture in general plays a huge role in making the WFH work, according to GitLab’s teachings, which take the form of short articles, links, and quizzes, plus quite a few videos. “They need opportunities to see each other, to really get to know each other,” says Candace Byrdsong Williams, director of diversity, inclusion and belonging for the company, and another of the Coursera course “instructors”. “You have to analyze your communication and how you communicate around the world.” An example: GitLab runs virtual “ask me anything” conversations with underrepresented groups of employees. You also have a bot, also known as an automated program, that lives inside your Slack messaging software and suggests inclusive word choices, instead of “hey, guys,” how about “y’all”?
But the real key to making working from home work is that management must be on the move. For example, for companies that go the hybrid route, which means that some employees will be in the office and others will not, you can’t have the entire leadership team in the office, Murph says. The last thing you want is to create a two-tier system where those in the office are closer to the administration and those who work remotely don’t have as much presence time. In fact, to orchestrate such a transition, especially for larger companies with decades of established behaviors, it will likely take much more than an 11-hour course.
