When you first onboard your team to your virtual office, it can be a little overwhelming. And even once everyone gets settled in, it can take a little effort to keep the initial momentum going.
This guide includes videos and tips to help you have a great first day and beyond in Gather.
Agenda for Day 1
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Invite everyone at the same time.
- Pro-tip: Do this during a regularly scheduled meeting like all hands or your weekly department sync. Then it's already blocked off on the calendar and everyone can experience Gather together.
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Greet your teammates in the lobby.
- Be available to answer questions like how to move around, turn mics and cameras on or off, and how to talk to people.
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If joining during a meeting, hold that meeting.
- This is a great first activity in Gather because it will feel familiar.
- Point out all the important meeting features like chat, reactions, screen sharing, and recording.
- Encourage people to connect their Google or Outlook Calendar and download the Google Chrome extension to easily schedule meetings.
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Take everyone on an office tour.
- Explain where things are and how to use the space. For example, point out who sits at each desk pod, show off the variety of private areas for meetings, and explain where co-working happens.
- Use Request to Lead to have people automatically follow you, so they don't get lost on the tour
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Have everyone walk to their desk or claim a desk, and then decorate it.
- This gives everyone ownership of their personal workspace in the office and can act as a mini team social event.
- While everyone is getting settled, walk around and talk to people to demonstrate how easy spontaneous conversations are.
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For the rest of the day: Be an excellent teammate!
- Find excuses to go talk to people.
- Wave people over for casual coworking.
- Leave a nice note on everyone's desk to return to the next day.
The more you and your champions lean in on day one, the faster the rest of your team will too. Make it a great work day, and your team will consider it a great first day in Gather!
Tips for Adoption
Once your team is settled in, it's important to keep the momentum going. These tips will help your team become pros at working in a virtual office together.
1. Keep Gather open while you work
When people keep Gather open throughout the day, it's incredibly easy to walk over to someone to ask questions, make quick decisions, or just to chat.
Take the lead to demonstrate this.
Be present at your own desk and find excuses to strike up conversations. Ask follow-up questions to a meeting, congratulate someone on work well done, or just walk over and ask a teammate how their day is going.
By showing how easy quick conversations are, you'll help break the ice so that your teammates feel comfortable walking over to people also.
Reassure everyone that this does not mean they have to sit with their mic and camera on all day. Gather gives your team a better way to visualize when people are truly available for a quick five minute chat versus heads down working on something or already talking to someone else.
2. Hold all your meetings in Gather
If your team is struggling to keep the app open throughout the day, holding meetings in Gather is critical because it encourages people to come back into the office.
To make meetings in Gather as seamless as possible, encourage your teammates to connect their Google or Outlook calendar and to use the Gather Meetings Chrome Extension if they're a Chrome user.
If you go into your settings, you can also let us add Gather meeting links to existing recurring meetings. That way, you don't need to go through all those calendar events yourself.
The faster you start regularly holding scheduled meetings in Gather, the faster you'll start to unlock unscheduled conversations also.
3. Designate coworking zones
Make it really clear when and where people are free for come and go conversations.
Whether it's the lunch room or some comfortable team couches, pick a spot in the office that's meant for casual chats.
Don't see it getting used? Take charge. Go sit there and wave people over who are sitting available at their desks.
The goal is to make casual conversation feel like an established norm in your office.
4. Establish guidelines and clearly communicate them back to your team
For example, should people default to walking around with their camera on? Should they co work at the couches in the afternoon? And should they use Do Not Disturb when stepping away for a break?
These guidelines are personal to your team and tend to evolve over time.
The important thing is that you document and communicate them to your team, that way everyone has a shared understanding of how to use Gather.
For inspiration, check out this list of guidelines inspired by other teams on Gather.
5. Tell internal success stories.
Take screenshots of the early adopters in the office and share them in your company Slack, email, or all hands.
Tell stories about how quickly decisions were made, problems were solved, or ideas that were sparked thanks to informal conversations. And share the fun stuff too, like who's the best go kart racer in the office.
If your team is in the middle of adopting gather, these stories can help prove the value of this new way of working, and show how much closer your team is becoming thanks to the proximity of working in a virtual office.
6. Be the example.
If you're asking people to sit at their desk in Gather but always close it after meetings yourself, it's not gonna catch on.
Go talk to people. Leave notes on their desks. Wave good morning.
By showing up and being present in the office, you'll show everyone how to get the most out of collaborating in a virtual office and help it feel natural.
Good luck. And if you need any more assistance driving adoption within your team, reach out to us.
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