We're an Indian startup that went remote on May 6. Here's what we've done since
We've given up our office space and we're now helping the team optimize for this new setup.
#1: We recognized some colleagues have power/internet issues. We're doing one-time INR 10,000 per person WFH setup reimbursement - for router, UPS, work table etc.
#2: We're shipping monitors/keyboards/accessories and office chairs to folks within Bengaluru.
#3: To tackle loneliness/inability to mingle with colleagues in-person, we started ChaiTime calls every day @ 530 PM. Some days, we play Pictionary using Zoom's whiteboard. Other days someone creates a quiz and the participants vie for the title of Quizzard The quizzes we did on Zoom were fun, so we went ahead and created our own app that virtually allows you to play 100s of quizzes right inside Slack! springworks.in/trivia
#4: We realized with no in-person discussions it was much more important to celebrate team spirit. In fact, we went ahead and built a Slack app that gamifies this whole experience now!
Our random channel is full of celebrations of 'wins' - both BIG and small
#5: Internet reimbursements for all folks. This includes interns as well.
#6: If someone needs extra leaves due to kids/parents at home or just due to increased housework, they can dip into the common pool of leaves (created by relatively free-r colleagues who donated leaves)
#7: We added another INR 3000 one-time reimbursement for headphones for all employees.
#8: Apart from this, we do virtual mindfulness sessions every day, celebrate birthdays over Slack and Zoom, do lots of fun team/individual challenges (fun video challenge, walking challenge etc.)
Sharing this here so other startups/organisations who are on the fence can use our example to replicate whatever part(s) of this makes sense.