The document provides guidance on effective remote work practices for construction office staff and field managers, emphasizing the importance of communication, organization, and employee well-being. It outlines tips for establishing a productive work-from-home culture, the necessity of appropriate tools and setups, and strategies for maintaining engagement and collaboration among teams. Legal considerations and specific frameworks like scrum for managing projects remotely are also addressed, promoting a structured approach to remote team dynamics.

1. Working Remotely
in Construction
Focus on Office Staff and Field Managers

2. Win more business by using analytics
to bid more competitively.
thunderboltpredict.ai | sean.hussey@thunderboltinnovation.com | +1-888-335-6234

3. Agenda
1. Working from Home Culture
a. 5 tips to share with your team
b. What to watch for as a management team
c. Communication is key
d. Legal considerations
2. Setup
a. Computer / Network / Employees WiFi / Security
b. Software / Tools
i. Meetings
ii. Task management
iii. Communication
c. Home Workplace
i. Ergonomics
ii. Options

4. Agenda - continued
3. Meeting Cadence
a. SCRUM / Morning Stand Up
b. Operational Meetings
c. Impromptu Communication
d. Online Meeting Etiquette
4. Construction Specific
a. Tracking / Comments / Tasks
b. True Cloud Based Applications / SaaS
c. Document Management
d. Field Communication
5. Additional Resources / Links

5. Working From Home - Culture
5 Tips to Immediately Share with your Team
Signals to Watch For as a Leadership Team
Communication is Key
Legal Considerations

6. 5 Immediate Tips to Share with Your Team
1. Dress for Work
Staying in PJs sounds tempting but you still need to get into the mindset of working. (You’ll be using
video a lot with remote work as well.)
https://www.fastcompany.com/3064295/what-happened-when-i-dressed-up-to-work-from-home-for-a-week
2. Accept that this is a transition
You and your team need to be self aware that there will be feelings of loneliness, stress, frustration
and isolation. Be understanding to this and allow for these feelings. You’ll all get into a groove.
https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/how-to-transition-to-a-remote-job-v2/
3. Take regular breaks
There are varying thoughts on how much to work and when to take a break but everybody agrees
that regular breaks are a must. Even in the office, take a 5 minute break away from a computer screen
every hour.
https://www.inc.com/amy-vetter/how-working-in-25-minute-sprints-makes-you-sharper-more-productive.html

7. 5 Immediate Tips to Share with Your Team - Cont’d
4. Over Communicate
My personal experience in office and remote work is that every problem in the world has come down
to a lack of communication and not setting the right expectations. Be clear about expectations,
communicate progress and use multiple channels to share these communications.
In this space it’s important to be aware of how different people communicate - which sometimes
requires you to change your style with them and how you listen.
https://online.alvernia.edu/articles/4-types-communication-styles/
Methods for communicating remotely in order of urgency:
Phone - Used for immediate conversations that need a decision or collaboration now.
Text - More immediate need for a response and 1 on 1 communication but not imperative.
Slack - Communication tool that can eliminate most email
Online Document - Posting updates, communications that can be read at any time.
Email - Save this for last. Useful for company wide communications and sharing daily or weekly
updates.
Respect Boundaries in Tip 5, Leaders can set great examples with this.

8. 5 Immediate Tips to Share with Your Team - Cont’d
5. Protect Your Workspace and Time
Mindset is also impacted by your environment, working on the couch with the family while easy in this
time will be distracting. Create a workspace in your home with a desk and make it your own. Only use
it when you’re working. Make sure the workspace is ergonomic - comfortable and enforces a good
posture - the couch or even a kitchen table most always are never ergonomic. This might mean
buying or borrowing a computer screen, keyboard and a mouse; maybe even some stacks of books
or paper. Use headphones to keep yourself focused.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/aug/01/how-do-i-set-up-an-ergonomic-home-office
Set boundaries with your family/roommates as well as co-workers. When you are in your work space
no interruptions unless it is an emergency. Go to work at a defined time and include a virtual
commute. This could be a walk or a cup of coffee and doing some e-learning, podcasts or what have
you. End work the same time each day like you would in the office and have a virtual commute home,
maybe your favorite word game or an episode of a tv show. These boundaries help keep the work-life
balance when they seem to be meshing more than ever.
https://www.inhersight.com/blog/how-to/4-tips-setting-work-life-boundaries-when-your-home?_n=71534356#

9. Signals to Watch For
● Isolated Employees - Non Engaged
○ Most employees won’t have an easy time transitioning to a work from home setting.
○ You’ll wonder what they are up to, you won’t see updates and they won’t be completing tasks.
○ Each case will be unique - but you’ll need to understand their roadblocks and concerns. Some
might be unsure of how to use “remote” technology, others could be situations at home or
distractions. In all situations don’t assume, talk with the employee to try to understand the
reason. Start with statements like “Hi John, I’ve noticed that you haven’t been updating your
tasks with status’. Is there something I can help with? Any roadblocks that I can help remove?” -
Don’t be satisfied with one word answers. Use video for communications. “Let’s setup a quick
15 minute video call and we can [work past issues/talk through concerns].
○ Lead by Example - You’re there to ensure your team can be their best in whatever situation.
This isn’t a time for demands, dictatorships and ultimatums.
A great read on considerations for coming up with action plans as leaders remotely:
https://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/leadership/dark-side-servant-leadership-long-distance-leaders/
○ LISTEN - Schedule weekly 15 min 1-1 with each of your direct reports. A time for them to talk.

10. Signals to Watch For - Continued
● Distracted Employees
○ This is expected especially in times of uncertainty
○ Be respectful and set the right expectations; doesn’t mean letting people take advantage.
○ Work Time Flexibility - Employees may be taking shifts to watch children so they may be doing
some work at night or very early in the morning.
○ Use task management - Set an appropriate expectation of work to be completed in the week
and let the employee determine when it needs to be done if possible.
○ Mandatory Meetings - Sometimes meetings are required. Allow for the occasional exception on
individual basis. Use the record meeting functionality to allow for those who must miss them to
watch after. Also have a note taker and make that person responsible to capture meeting notes
and action items.

11. Signals to Watch For - Continued
● Tasks and Work Slipping
○ Set the right expectations and monitor - On the onset of transitioning to working from home
project managers should set a lower amount of expected work to be completed in a week from
the office team. Something like 5 hours in an 8 hour period. This can be increased to a max
expectation of 6 hours, expecting more individual contributor work to be completed in this time
will over burden employees. The additional 2 hours will be spent on meetings, increased
communicating and 1-1 discussion between employees.
○ Adjust as you go - Lay the expectation that we are in uncharted territory as we continue on this
journey as a company we will adjust expectations of productivity. Employees will be verbal if
they have too much work or you will see missed tasks and disengagement. On the flip side they
may not be verbal about too little work, but keeping a daily pulse on what’s been completed will
help managers understand the “velocity”.

12. Communication is key
Slack - In my opinion is a must have, even for post working from home. It helps declutter email, separate
threads and provides a link from mobile to office workers.
Over communicate - Communicate in multiple forms. Communicate Expectations, Transparency on
Company Progress. Basically you are trying to compensate for the water cooler and lunch time discussions.
The post meeting talk that happens after in office meetings end and discussion continue.
Remote First - In traditional remote working you may have part of the team in the office and one or two
remote. Most frequently these remote workers feel isolated. Handling meetings with a remote first (or only)
mentality overcomes this. Everyone is on the level playing field, there is no post meeting discussion that
online participants miss. Any discussion that happens afterwards is usually in Slack in a channel. Urge
people to discuss items that others may want to hear in non direct message channels.

13. Legal Considerations
I am not a lawyer so I defer these discussions to articles that exist. But know that
there are legal considerations of having remote employees. Different states have
different laws. Consult with your lawyer on your states requirements.
A few topics include:
● Hourly Wages for remote workers (answering an email at 10pm)
● Liability in the Workplace (which is now their office, ergonomics as an example)
● Security of Information/Data (Are employees using personal devices, secure
VPN?)
Here are a couple articles to checkout:
https://www.flexjobs.com/employer-blog/telecommuting-legal-issues/
http://www.itmanagerdaily.com/legal-issues-when-employees-work-from-home/

14. Setup
Computer / Network / Employee Wifi / Security
Software & Tools
Home Workplace

15. Computer & Hardware
Ergonomic Workstation
Laptops are great for mobile work but after even 2 hours bad habits can form.
Supplementing with a monitor, mouse and keyboard if able to do so are a must for
sustaining a long term work from home.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/aug/01/how-do-i-set-up-an-ergonomic-home-office
This helps employees setup a dedicated workspace. If you can’t loan them out,
offer a stipend. Amazon and stores may soon be unable to stock/ship these, other
options are adapters that can connect laptops to Televisions through HDMI. At the
very least a laptop stand or makeshift stand to get the screen to eye level along
with a keyboard/mouse.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Adjustable-Eye-Level-Ergonomic-EURPMASK/dp/B07DN4S2FW

16. Network & Access
If productivity software is on premise; stored on a computer in the office, you will
need to setup a VPN ( Virtual Private Network) to get from home into the office
network. Another option depending on software is a Citrix or remote access client.
(Contact us if you have questions with this we can help you with how to do this - or
contact a local IT Company)
https://openvpn.net/ (One Example of VPN)
https://www.citrix.com/ ( One example of Remote Access)
Suggestion - Use this time to transition to 100% Cloud Solutions or Software as a
Service (SaaS). On Premise solutions are becoming expensive to maintain and
outdated.

17. Software & Tools
Slack* (Eliminate Email Clutter / Remote Communication) - https://slack.com/r/0zjypn9l-010er2ru9m (get $100 credit
using this link - and you help us get $100 credit on our account too)
Zoom* & Google Hangouts [or Microsoft Teams] ( Remote Video Conferencing)
http://bit.ly/3dg0UU3 (Zoom Referral Link)
https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/
https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
Trello or Monday ( Online Task Tracking) - Trello is basic and offers a limited free version, Monday is a bit
more complex and versatile.
https://trello.com/seanhussey2/recommend
https://monday.com/
* Recommended - Trello, Zoom and Slack links are Affiliate links and will give Thunderbolt Innovation free months / credits to the
service if you sign up using them. They by no means influenced our recommendations - it is what we use.

18. Meeting Cadence
1-1 Checking Meetings
Online Meeting Etiquette
SCRUM / Morning Stand Up
Operational Meetings
Impromptu Communication
Social Gatherings

19. 1-1 Check In Meetings
● Managers should have weekly 1-1 video check ins with each direct report.
● Let the employee do most of the talking.
● Have an Agenda for each meeting and encourage the employee to fill it in
ahead of time. Use this as a talking points/template:
○ How are you doing? How did the past week/month go?
○ What would you like to talk about today?
○ What are you proud of? Anything blocking you?
○ Do you need any support? How can I help you?
○ Anything else you’d like to talk about today?
● Stick to 15 minutes - schedule additional time if needed to work through
specific issues.

20. Online Meeting Etiquette
Pay Attention - Multitasking should not be done while on a meeting. If you aren’t needed don’t attend.
https://slackhq.com/ultimate-guide-remote-meetings
Cameras on as much as possible
At least for Daily Meetings / 1-1s / Weekly Communications, and Social Gatherings - every opportunity.
● It will be awkward but body language is a large part of communicating.
● Using a Camera helps with the isolation and feelings of disconnect.
https://spin.atomicobject.com/2017/03/23/remote-team-meeting/
Set an Agenda and Purpose for Every meeting along with a time limit and stick to it.
Respect people's opinions, no backchannel chat, keep the discussion in open channels.
There is a bigger opportunity to talk behind someones back, to bring discussion into a secluded channel
where others miss the extra conversation.

21. SCRUM / Morning Meetings
A component of Lean Construction ( used widely in Software Development)
https://leanconstructionblog.com/11-Scrum-Steps-to-Get-Twice-the-Work-Done-in-Half-the-Time.html
https://medium.com/the-spark/agile-construction-in-a-challenging-environment-48cfeae1603e
Scrum is a workflow to complete a project.
Sprints - a Unit of Time that is used to complete work. Usually 1-2 Weeks.
Scrum Team - A logical team usually 5-7 people that complete the work in a Sprint. Can be multi-functional
and usually are.
Points - Used to Estimate the size of a task that is assigned to a sprint.
Velocity - How fast the team is completing work. Usually in terms of Points/Sprint

22. SCRUM for Construction
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/agile-software-applied-to-construction-9931 (In Depth Article)
https://resources.collab.net/blogs/agile-construction-management

23. Simple Scrum Workflow
1. Pick a Duration of the “Sprint” 1 Week or 2 Weeks
2. Break all work that needs to be done down into 2-4 hr tasks and keep them on
an online board into a Backlog ( Trello/Monday).
3. As the tasks get close the Project Manager adds more detail or asks team to
add more detail ( could be a Grooming Meeting).
4. PM moves work that needs to be done this week into the TODO column and
can assign to employees.
5. Let employees take a task off the TODO column and move to the DOING
column with their name.
6. Employees move finished tasks to DONE and then pick another in the todo
column.

24. Simple Scrum Workflow
7. Meetings
a. Start of Sprint to go over work to be done ( 1hr)
b. Daily Checkpoints (15 min total - 1 min / person - What did i finish yesterday, What am I doing
today, Any blockers?)
c. End of Sprint Review - team goes of what was completed, what wasn’t and why and moves
uncompleted work to the next weeks todos.
d. (Optional) Sprint Retrospective - Talk about how the process is going, improvements and
opportunities and things to not do.

25. Warnings for SCRUM
Managers will be overwhelmed if they manage too large a
team - you can pick Scrum Masters which can be a senior
person on the team to do the work of monitoring and
ushering the process.
Trying to do this at the 1-1 level will also be overwhelming and
can lead to unproductive micro-managing.
Be open that this is a living process, not every structure will
work for every team. Be willing to adapt and try new things;
but be weary of switching process to often and making
sweeping changes. Let the workflow adjust organically and
over time. There will be a productivity decrease initially but it
should return and could even increase. This process can be
brought back into the office setting as well.
Analogous Article on Software-
http://blog.jerryorr.com/2014/09/new-prog
ramming-techniques-and.html

26. Operational Meetings
Camera - Agenda - Don’t Overwhelm the schedule with meetings.
Are they completely necessary, do all attendees need to be here.
Consider a Focus Day with no meetings. Focus Fridays Thoughtful Thursdays..

27. Social Gatherings
● Schedule Friday afternoon drinks online
○ Everyone gets on the video conferences as a team and
just shoots the breeze
● Wacky Wednesday
○ Where a different hat all day or a costume or a fun shirt.
● Keep your culture even while remote
○ Make these required to start - you’ll get into the groove, some people may join for 5 minutes.
○ You do have to somewhat force the online culture and it feels awkward.
● Have other channels in slack for non-work talk
○ #watercooler, #coffee, #3dprinting, #tools, #letpeoplecreatechannels to socialize in
● Make it your own remote culture - take suggestions from your team

28. Impromptu Communications
Respect Boundaries
Even slack at 11pm - especially from a manager might elicit a response off hours.
Can it wait until the work day - be a role model
Is it the right method of communication? Go back to the urgency scale, when is a
response needed?

29. Construction Specific
Tracking / Commenting / Tasks
True Cloud Based Systems (SaaS)
Document Management
Field Communication

30. Tracking / Commenting / Tasks
● Be sure to over comment and update tasks or tracking documents / software.
● Use CRMs or Collaboration tools like Thunderbolt Pipeline
(https://www.thunderboltinnovation.com/product/construction-bid-management/) to ensure anyone can see
the current status without the need for a phone call or a message.
● Keep Channels for Projects in tools like Slack - keep internal communications
out of email as much as possible - or at least save these emails in tools.
● Keep Tasks Updated at least daily with the latest status or blocker. (Set 30 min
time blocks in your calendar to do this update every day)
https://doist.com/blog/time-blocking/ (Time blocking can be used for email checking too)

31. True Cloud Based or SaaS Applications
As part of a flexible workforce On Premise Solutions are becoming outdated. Hard
to maintain, expensive and overly burdensome on the Construction Company.
● Use the “slower” times of year to research. Focus on Bid Tracking, Estimating,
Project Management, Field Tools, Accounting / ERP, Time Management.
● Look for applications that allow customizations even for a cost - these may be
expensive to begin but matching your workflow will make it quicker and easier
for your team to adapt.
● Integrations - Applications that have open or closed integrations ( api or will
customize/integrate to match your workflow)
https://constructionblog.autodesk.com/cloud-based-construction-management/

32. Document Management
If you are still using paper you are behind. Move to Online Documents, first and
easiest step to becoming remote.
● Online Spreadsheets, Google Drive, One, Drop Box
● Store PDF/Scans - Get Forms into online form applications like Google Forms
at the very lease.
● Use a Bid Management tool with File Attachments, Plangrid or an ERP system.
● Best to keep documents in a contextual manor - with project and allow for
notes.
● Keeping documents stored on a server in your office is a disaster waiting to
happen. If that drive fails you could lose everything. Cloud Storage is safe.

33. Field Communication
● Phone calls and voice messages can slow production down.
● Use Mobile Versions of applications like Slack
● Goal here is to decrease WAIT waste, both on ? side and Answer side.
● Can more than one person answer the question? Ask question to all people at
once in a tool that can do this
● Does the answer need to be shared with others? If in phone or email this
answer can be lost - ask the question in the right forum
● Mobile Version of existing applications

34. Questions that have been asked
● How were we supposed to plan for something like this? (Specifically around IT
things)
○ Business Continuity Planning - Bi Annual Meetings to think about scenarios
○ Construction companies already thinking about if equipment goes down or materials are
delayed, think like this but at a higher level.
○ IT companies have planning in place for disasters like Amazon computing centers being
destroyed.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-continuity-planning.asp
● Other Questions?

35. Additional Resources / Websites

36. Working From Home
● https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-proven-tips-setup-temporary-work-from-home-office-henry-kayser/
● https://www.ergonomics.com.au/how-to-sit-at-a-computer/
● https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/09/working-from-home-tips-to-meet-like-a-pro/
● https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/management-tips/6-keys-of-a-strong-telecommuting-program?utm_campaign=LinkedIn&utm_m
edium=social&utm_source=voicestorm&hootPostID=51a539b7-c9a0-4590-b993-dd84f712e777
● https://www.inc.com/lindsey-pollak-eileen-coombes/remote-work-home-productivity-communication-self-care-morale-team.html
● https://remote.co/boundaries-at-work-remote-workers-should-set/
● https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-continuity-planning.asp

37. Questions?
Thunderbolt Innovation LLC
https://www.thunderboltinnovation.com
Sean Hussey
sean.hussey@thunderboltinnovation.com
1 (888) 335-6234
53 Washington St Suite 300 Dover, NH 03820