Ricardo Nunes is Head of Solutions & Nearshore Delivery at PrimeIT and, in an interview, he is an advocate of remote work. He now shares his opinion about the added value and challenges of this way of working.

1. Ricardo, one of PrimeIT’s contingency measures in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, was to quarantine the teams last week. What is your assessment of the first week of telework?

In short: VERY positive.

At Solutions, the impact has been highly reduced and we are already used to working with geographically distributed teams. In this sense, it was just a matter of ALL the team being distributed.

Regarding Nearshore, something similar happened. The teams have continued to produce with the expected proficiency, where apart from small access issues or logistics, everything has followed its normal flow.

In addition to the particular points, something that was evident in the last week was the level of productivity, which was higher than expected and, in some cases, was even higher than what we have seen in the office.

2. Based on your experience in Nearshore, what are the great challenges of this method of working at a distance?

Nearshore by nature is already a work at a distance where the teams are far away from the customer, so with this new panorama, it is just about solving a dimension that is the proximity of the team, something that fortunately can be supplied with the panoply of existing tools at our disposal.

Another issue, which also takes on extreme importance in this situation, is communication, which is not as fluid and is more limited, since we cannot, for example, interrupt a call for 5 minutes.

Finally, something that can be lost at home (not necessarily at work at a distance), are the barriers between professional and personal life. It is therefore the responsibility of management teams to ensure that their teams do not wear out too much, while ensuring that it is clear to each one what is expected of them, leaving no gaps in “what to do next?

3. What are the routines and good practices that you, and your team, have adopted and that you advise?

Communication, communication, communication.

Some practices include, for example, working with an open videocall with all team members, or having reliable elements within the teams that take on intermediate management functions. Each team has its own dynamics, so there is no perfect solution that fits everyone, but as long as there is communication, the results will appear at a speed even greater than that observed in the office.

The most important thing is to ensure, on a recurring basis, that the objectives are clear to everyone and that everyone feels responsible for their part.

Something I’m a fan of, for example, is a general situation with each team at the end of the day (between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.), allowing everyone to share how the day went and giving rise to a moment of relaxation, which also serves to close the working day.

4.Are there even more specific measures to maintain the security and privacy of projects that have a higher degree of confidentiality?

In addition to the care we already have in the office and which we must maintain, the first step is undoubtedly not to use the personal computer, but the computer that is prepared (in all respects) for the functions to be performed. This is perhaps the easiest safety point to ignore (since the personal computer has everything we like), but it is a vital measure to maintain a safe working environment, thus using the professional computer.

Another point that may be different from the office environment is access to Wi-Fi. Often our passwords are unsafe and make our network accessible to someone malicious. Protecting our Wi-Fi network with a strong password and/or limiting access by mac address (a more drastic, but more secure measure), are actions that we should take into account.

5. In your opinion, will betting on teleworking now bring added value to the future?

The geographically distributed work (I don’t like the term teleworking), is a reality and is the present. In direct answer to the question: yes, the bet now will bring many more added value in the future.

Among them are the most obvious, such as the satisfaction of employees and the flexibility that this model brings them, and there are also the others that are more hidden, such as the economy of office space, amenities and time that is saved when travelling to the office.

Besides all the known advantages, I am a believer that the best teams are responsible on an individual and collective level, and I therefore see in geographically distributed work not only an excellent opportunity to give a good quality of life to those who work with us, but also an opportunity to hire the best possible professionals, regardless of where they are physically.