Chapter 12 of “The Adventures of an IT Leader,” details the importance of communication not only in the workplace but its necessity within information technology. In the chapter, Barton early on learns that in IT, the managers at the top may not be the most skilled in their department due to ever changing IT trends.
I have been interning as a Human Resources Specialist remotely for a few months for Turf Envy and Super Purposes. A little background on the relationship between Super Purposes and Turf Envy is important to understand the communication issues I have faced as a Human Resources Specialist.
Super Purposes is a career guidance company that offers courses in how to get a job. It also provides internships in many areas so that people who need experience in their field can get it. Turf Envy is a start-up artificial turf company in Las Vegas. They started in April 2021 and have rapidly grown since then. The company grew so fast that the owners realized if they did not get more help they would probably fail under the pressure. The Turf Envy owners are friends with the Super Purposes owner. Turf Envy reached out to Super Purposes and asked if they could get interns from Super Purposes to intern for them to help them stay afloat. Super Purposes agreed and started having their HR team recruit an HR team for Turf Envy. I had originally applied to Super Purposes before the Super Purposes and Turf Envy marriage. I could not start immediately and by the time I could start the Super Purposes-Turf Envy agreement was in full effect. I was the first Human Resources Specialist brough on specifically for Turf Envy. I was quickly introduced to all the ways the Super Purposes communicate.
Communication in a remote work environment is essential. How do we communicate in a remote environment? Technology. Namely we use Skype for our direct messaging and video conferences/meetings. Both Turf Envy and Super Purposes use Skype. Additionally, Skype is how the human resources team for both Turf Envy and Super Purposes conduct interviews with strong candidates.
Another platform that Super Purposes uses is Basecamp. On Basecamp, we post a candidate bios, which are essentially our interview notes we take during candidate interviews. Bios also include an ideal timeline for the candidate to get onboarded and when we can expect them to be a teammate. As things happen that are relevant towards the candidate, they are added as comments under the person’s bio. In Basecamp you can create project spaces. These project spaces are specific areas for specific teams. For instance, there is a “Graphic Design Team” project space and a “Human Resources and Human Services Team” project space. These project spaces have relevant documents that teammates need to successfully perform their job functions. These project spaces are also where a teammate tracks their time, checks in and out, and where they can find other teammate contact information. For Super Purpose teammates, the project spaces are very logical. A graphic designer has access to the Graphic Design Team and no other teams and so forth. HR and HSS are exceptions, we have access to all project spaces, but that is the only exception.
The issue in communication comes Basecamp not allowing an infinite amount of project spaces. Turf Envy has a single project space under Super Purpose’s Basecamp profile, but each individual team for Turf Envy (like the Turf Envy Graphic Designers) do not have their own project space. Instead, they must utilize both the Super Purposes Graphic Designer Team project space and the Turf Envy project space for different things. A Turf Envy graphic designer would log their time, check in and out, and create a To-Do list under the Turf Envy project space, however they would use the operation manuals (writeboards) and files under the Graphic Design Team project space. This can create confusion. If a teammate logs their time under the wrong project space, it is nearly impossible to track their time accurately because each project space only accounts for time logged in that project space. The internships for Turf Envy and Super Purposes are 200-hour positions, so tracking time is essential. So, whenever I onboarded a new teammate to the Turf Envy team, I clearly communicated the separation of the project spaces and why their separation is important to know. I was able to help new teammates avoid any confusion by clearly explaining and walking them through Basecamp. However, there are other communication issues between Super Purposes and Turf Envy.
All the Super Purposes teammate bios are under a “Teammate Database” project space in Basecamp. The problem that arises is that there is no real way to differentiate Turf Envy teammate bios from Super Purposes teammate bios in this way. So, Turf Envy created a Google drive for us to use, but no direction on how to use the drive. During a team meeting I mentioned that our drive was not being utilized effectively and that I had some ideas to make it work better. At this time, we were recruiting more teams for Turf Envy and each would need their own drive to be able to work effectively and get their projects completed. I created a format of how to organize the Google drive that made it user friendly and extremely organized. However, one thing I noticed is that the system of record tracking within Turf Envy and Super Purposes is only usefully if people use it. During team Skype meetings I did trainings on how to use the Drive to ensure the team remained on the same page and that our recruiting efforts and candidates can be differentiated from Super Purposes. Thankfully by the time I finished with Turf Envy the HR team was fully trained on how to use the Turf Envy Drive to store important documents. My format for the Drive was used as the template to format other Turf Envy team drives as well. This has helped team communication and coordination drastically.