As a thriving web design business, promoting a healthy work-life balance is just as important as embracing the latest technologies. Exciting decisions here at Jigowatt have now enabled the team to tick both boxes.
With many of us juggling the needs of young families (and dogs) with work, we have set up systems which allow us to achieve a better balance. Remote working allows for a more flexible day for people like Matt, who has recently had a new baby (congratulations, by the way), and who may need a slightly later start to catch up on some disturbed nights.
After trying a few different applications to assist us, we’ve centralised our virtual office on [the uncannily named] “Slack” (Now we are officially Slackers*) – the realtime team communication system used by the likes of SoundCloud and Lonely Planet. This allows us to say our good mornings, set the day’s agenda, check on progress and swap documents – and coupled with Skype for video conferencing and Basecamp for project management we seem to have everything covered. Oddly enough, this is something we also do at the office even when we were sitting a few desks from each other!
Of course, there’s nothing to beat face-to-face contact and we still meet in our new city centre office three days a week to discuss new projects, meet new clients or train existing ones. Remote working simply gives us flexibility. As most of our work is project-based, our priorities are meeting objectives, deadlines and budgets – so we want our team to work when they are at their best and most productive. Remote working allows them to slot a little family life into their busy working day.
*” McFly. You’re a slacker” – Mr Strickland to Marty McFly in Back to the Future 1