Documentation in a hybrid work environment

As the world becomes increasingly digital, the way we document our work has changed dramatically. Paper printouts and filing cabinets are almost non-existent, and we now live in a world where most of our records are cloud-based or accessible via the Internet. However, digitalization is not the only driving force in changing our documentation.

As more and more people spend less time in the office and work more time from home or other locations, documentation processes are also changing. Because employees are spread across different locations, not everyone has access to information at the same time or to a colleague when they are needed.

The shift to hybrid remote configurations further increases the need for digital documentation. For this reason, we need to look at the best practices and methods to ensure we can all work effectively when we are away from the office.

What are the most common documentation challenges?

If your company has been working remotely for the past year and a half due to the pandemic, you might think you're already familiar with the challenges and solutions. However, a hybrid workplace comes with its own set of issues that need to be addressed. More and more companies are returning to the office with some flexibility and now have to deal with a situation that not many have experienced before. The most common challenges include:

1. Ensure everyone has access to the same records. But not everything is done online. For example, during a brainstorming session in the office, ideas are often written down on a whiteboard. Is this information easily accessible to people who were not in the office?
2. Ensure the documentation process is consistent. There may be a difference between what happens in the office and what happens remotely. Meetings may be recorded remotely because it is easier than taking notes. But is this really the most effective method?
3. To create a documentation method that enables collaboration between remote and in-office employees. While solutions like Google Suite or Microsoft 365 are standard today, what about documenting ideation sessions, workshops and other interactive activities?
4. Documenting standard office procedures. Employees who work mostly or entirely remotely don't always know the simple procedures that are easy to learn in the office. These include, for example: B. booking time off, sick leave, local holidays, etc.
5. Combating silos and multiple sources of information. It's easy to have multiple versions of documents in different areas of your company. You might even have important information in a Slack thread that a team member in a different time zone could easily miss. Unfortunately, a lot of time is wasted checking the consistency of information. We'll discuss this point below, but it's a common problem that even multi-location businesses struggle with.

Your goals are not documented clearly enough. This leads to different expectations and results, which are often discovered late in the work process.

How do these hybrid remote work issues differ from those of a 100% remote workplace?

While many of these issues share similarities with those of a 100% remote workplace, they differ in the solutions required to resolve them. A mix of office and remote workers means you have to approach them differently. Even if all of your employees split their time between the office and remote, the way they work and collaborate will vary from situation to situation. For this reason, there is no one size fits all, as would be the case in an office-only or remote work scenario.

How important is documentation in a hybrid workplace?

When working remotely you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to working hours, time zones and collaboration. Still, at the end of the day, everyone is on the same page when it comes to expectations and results. When it comes to processes and documentation, everything is usually already clearly outlined.

However, when you bring the office into play, everything becomes a bit less flexible. It's also an incredibly new situation that many people have little experience with and are dealing with for the first time. A remote-only team may need to work with an office team. One of these groups will have to make major changes to how they work together, or they will have to meet in the middle. At this point you need to balance the two worlds with good documentation.

Good documentation ultimately improves overall communication within your company, one of the key areas for the success of a hybrid company.

Fortunately, we can use a method to combat most of the problems described above. As mentioned, your company's situation is unique. However, our next tip can help you ensure that all employees have access to the information and documents they need.

Creating a single source of truth

Fundamentally, documentation is a communication problem. And while we have a large number of tools at our disposal, they all attempt to replicate the availability we have when working in an on-site office.

A major problem with documentation and digitization is having a single source of truth (SSOT). What exactly do we mean by that? With an SSOT, all relevant information about a topic or paper is kept in a single location with careful version control. If you've ever had to email multiple versions of documents back and forth, you probably know what a mess it can be.

With an SSOT, your teams have access to reliable and accurate information that is always up to date. Google Suite or other collaboration software is by far the most popular way to achieve this. These tools also have built-in version management, allowing you to easily identify changes in previous versions without having to create clutter and confusion over multiple files.

However, an SSOT is more than just the documents you actively work on or spreadsheets you fill out. This also applies to business decisions, strategies and processes. Let's look at an example. Imagine your hybrid design team is doing work for an external client after being assigned to do it by their manager. This could involve creating a website wireframe or a new logo. Then, as usual, the design team uploads their work to your company's website as a case study.

A few days later, you receive an angry email from your client telling you that he specifically said he wasn't allowed to publish any of his work. What happened here? In this case, the manager had saved the customer's request in his CRM software and did not forward the message to the team. Without access to the CRM, design time did not know the customer's request.

In this case, the problem is not the lack of available tools. The problem is that no SSOT was made available to everyone involved and working in a hybrid remote setup made communication difficult. When you consider the six challenges described above, a thorough method of creating an SSOT for all involved parties will go a long way in combating documentation issues.

Is print redundant or still needed in a hybrid remote business?

One thing is certain: printed materials have become a rarity even without the introduction of remote work and hybrid remote work. When you look at the tools recommended above, you may also doubt that print products are even needed anymore. But does that mean you can switch completely and do without printed matter? Probably not. Although the vast majority of work, even in collaborative offices, is done using software, some tasks cannot always be completed digitally.

The key is to make it easier to digitize printed materials when necessary. To do this, you need a strict process that allows your employees to access the latest information even outside of the office.

Some human resources and business processes also rely on printed materials. In these cases you may have to deal with the local government, the health insurance company, the tax office, etc. While not everyone needs to work with these documents, keeping digital copies is necessary if your HR and operations teams sometimes work outside the office.

Documentation and hybrid onboarding

One final challenge to think about is your onboarding process. It's easy to worry about documentation for your current employees, but what about your future employees?

Depending on your remote system, you may be hiring now or in the future who will never set foot in your office. How does your onboarding work in this case? While it's easy to provide them with forms to fill out, there are still some things missing. There is no tour of the office, no shaking of hands with other employees and no spontaneous getting to know each other. The experience is much less fluid. This is why thorough documentation is incredibly important for your new employee to better understand the company and fill in the gaps.

A new hybrid remote employee needs to quickly become familiar with your culture. If you haven't already done so, you should document your induction in the office. This also includes where all work equipment is located, communication guidelines and even little things like the way you celebrate successes. What is most obvious in the office is least obvious to a hybrid employee. Don't forget that your onboarding experience shapes your new employees' first impression of your company. You only have one chance to get it right. Hiring hybrid employees gives you access to a variety of talent not available in an office, so make sure the onboarding process is as smooth as possible.

What tools can help with documentation in a company with hybrid telecommuting?

Hybrid remote work relies on the right tools to help your office and field teams work together. Documentation is no different, and there are many tools that can help your company document efficiently.

Confluence

Confluence from Atlassian is perhaps one of the best-known documentation tools. It's a hybrid, remote-friendly workspace where your teams can document their processes and knowledge. It's an incredibly powerful tool with a huge number of templates that make documenting easy. All teams in your company benefit from using it. A popular feature is the decision logs, which allow you to record all decisions about projects, products and other tasks on paper. You can use Confluence for free with up to 10 users.

ClickUp

A key to documentation is a single source of truth: a place where you can find everything you need, from chats to tasks to documents. ClickUp specializes in replacing all the different apps a business typically uses with its own offerings. It's too easy to miss work that's spread across different platforms, so for documentation purposes, ClickUp makes it difficult for anything to get lost. ClickUp offers both a free subscription and premium options, so check it out if you want to create your own single source of truth.

Trainual

As we mentioned earlier, the onboarding process is a special area where documentation can save your HR team and employees a lot of time in the long run. Trainual is a great way to implement our advice and collect all the documents your hybrid employees need during onboarding. You can even test your new employees' knowledge and make sure they have internalized the documents.

Front

Another area where documentation is important is customer relationships. Everyone knows the pain of dealing with a company where problems and communication have not been properly documented. Front addresses this problem in several ways suitable for remote hybrid teams. One method is to have the team inbox for all communications, another is to create automated processes and rules that are visible to all members of your CS team. The best part is that you can integrate your current applications like Salesforce and Confluence and create a single source of truth in front.

Conclusion

If you've taken the time to read this article, you're probably already operating in a hybrid remote environment or thinking about moving to one soon. The most important takeaway for anyone looking to improve their documentation process is to create a playbook that everyone can access and that serves as a single source of truth. Not everyone will be in the office all the time. Some people may not even be there at all.

Documenting everything methodically and in the same way allows everyone to be most productive, but it also creates a level playing field. All too often, employees working remotely feel like they are missing out on opportunities. Maybe they miss an important, impromptu office meeting where they could showcase their skills. Or they don't have access to all the information they need to do their job as well as possible.

By establishing a thorough documentation process and holding everyone accountable, you can help everyone do their best and enjoy their work.