How a Remote Working Team of Females is Branding and Marketing
Lakshmi Thampi the lady leading the marketing team at Teknospire remember her days of struggle, post maternity when she had an urge to resume her career, but her motherly instincts insisted her to stay at home. She was keen to ‘work’ day n night to meet the deadlines, but the idea of leaving her baby with daycare or maid was horrifying. She would browse numerous jobs sites to get “one” opportunity that allows her to work remotely or provides an in-house creche but all in vain… She waited patiently, reskilling herself and when she resumed her career as Digital Strategist at Teknospire, she didn’t want young mothers to face the problems she did. She decided to open up doors to young mothers in her team who can work remotely balancing career and home. Meet our Sheroes Lakshmi Thampi and her team working from all parts of India, with the belief that if the work is defined, it can execute from anywhere. Adopting The Practical Approach In most of the discussion or meetups, Lakshmi receives a frown on knowing that the whole of her team is working remotely. But she explains it to them this way – it’s not the facility that ever could go wrong if someone is misusing work from home option that means you have hired a wrong person. For her work execution is what matters and in this age of technology, it sounds bit “orthodox” that you cannot work from home. Swati shared an unconventional perspective, Web Developer from Mumbai, says it’s an irony that while I tried umpteenth times during face to face discussion to get a job, but I could sail smoothly towards a common goal with my team since last one and half years whom I haven’t met even once The Team Lakshmi says – I have professionals working from Bhubaneshwar, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and even Zimbabwe. Mostly when there are open positions, I float vacancies on social media and specific women job portals like Sheroes. I have never been disheartened every time I get a pool of resumes and to pick just one is a tough choice. Smitha another team member who is a UI Designer working from Bangalore says – I was looking out for a job that would give me a work-life balance as I had to take care of my child and work at the same. Since I had taken a career break of nearly three years, which is considered a vast gap in the technical race; I found myself gaining minimal pace in adapting the current trends. I started job hunting with very less hope as most of the places do not have a flexible schedule, and then I met Lakshmi Thampi, who was managing a team of people remotely. Without any second thoughts, I joined her side and hadn’t looked back ever since How Do You Stay Connected? Thampi states – We have a Whatsapp group where all team member interact with each other. Also, we schedule calls to stay connected. People in Bangalore whenever the need arises also visit the office, all the sessions presented in office involve remote working team as well. So they know what’s going on in the office concerning technology and solutions and even office people know we have our an extended team working remotely. Also, Tools like Task schedulers, Messenger and Video call tools help in communication with the team. On asking Divya social media manager of Teknospire based out of Bangalore who often visits the office, is it tedious to go to the office when you have the comfort of working from home? She says – Not really. Going to office opens new ideas, meeting, interacting with the team is an experience in itself. You sync up with the energy in the office and are more focused and confident to deliver the best in you. On Teknospire and its Policies? Teknospire is a two-year-old fintech startup aiming to enable financial inclusion. Build and deliver the right technology, and keep it rolling with partner banks for the masses is the mission and purpose. Our offerings vary from the FinX-Payment and Agency Banking Suite, FinX- Mobile Money Suite, Data Analytics, FinX-Payment SwitchOut flagship product FINX Reg Policies and work ethics, Lakshmi says – we believe in gender diversity and equal opportunity to all our employees. Our team in Bangalore do have an option to work from home, but they can avail it whenever the need arises. Is Remote Working Offered only By Startups? Lakshmi says – Many MNC’s also offer work from home, and the decision maker in big firms are the “Managers,” and at the end of the day it all depends upon the rapport you have with your immediate manager. In start-ups it differs, many times due to long working hours or limitation of office supplies people do allow work from home option as it is budget friendly and offers work-life balance to the employee. Compensation? On asking Lakshmi about the compensation for a remote employee, she says – In Teknospire Wages/Salary is not decided whether the person is working from home or in office, it is determined based on the number of hours and the value the person could bring in to take firm more closer to its goal. For example, a person who is putting 2 hours a day would be paid less when compared to another person with the same experience that devotes 8 hours [also comparing the value derived in these hours]. So the salary for our remote employees is also with identical logic. Divya, however, has an impressive view she says – like for a fresher out of college, gaining work experience is a must and once you have achieved, you can negotiate the price for the hours you put in and the value you derive. Hence compensation is directly proportional to the value a professional could get from the number of hours. On the other hand, Pallavi a Social Media Marketer from Bhubaneshwar says
