Air Carrier flight crew reported ramp crew did not follow standard procedures to handle aircraft departure from gate.
Synopsis
Air Carrier flight crew reported ramp crew did not follow standard procedures to handle aircraft departure from gate.
Narrative
During the power-up operation at ZZZ; we encountered a communication issue with the ground personnel. Firstly; they didn't brief us on their actions; and there were no headsets or hand signals from the guide-man after the door closed.After finishing the pre-start checklist; I signaled to the ground personnel that we were ready to depart; indicated brakes on; and signaled readiness to start the engines. The person at the nose signaled clearance to start the engines. However; after starting two engines and completing the after-start flow; when I signaled with the taxi lights that we were ready to taxi; the guide-man's hands weren't in the X-stop position. As we started moving the plane for seconds; the ground personnel didn't follow the correct hand guidance from the FOM and tried to get our attention to stop. It was then that we realized another person was removing the nose gear chocks; while two engines were already running; the lack of communication put in an unsafe situation the operation in the ramp.Lack of ground personnel communication with the flight crew members. More training in order to improve the operation in an airport with an uncontrolled ramp; no gate. Ground personnel must brief the crew before close doors.
Second reporter narrative
As we approached the aircraft I noticed that ZZZ has no tug and the way the aircraft was positioned it looked like we would be performing a power out from the gate. In my few experiences with power out operations the station does not have an interphone to communicate with the flight crew but uses hand signals so that is what I assumed would happen in this case again. Whether ZZZ uses an interphone I am not sure; as we did not attempt to reach the ground crew via headsets. If they do not; we were not briefed as to the operations at ZZZ by the guide person. Regardless; after door closure and performing the Before Start Checklist" the Captain signaled to the guide person; requesting to start Engine 1 and was given permission. We subsequently asked and received permission to start Engine 2. After starting engine 2 we preformed the after start flow and the Captain flashed the taxi light to indicate we were ready to taxi. We then received from the guide person the "Chocks removed" signal and he was waiting for acknowledgment. We then began to roll forward and were quickly given the "stop" signal. We stopped the aircraft. The Captain said that he saw someone run out from under the nose of the aircraft. After about 5 seconds we were guided out by the guide person. We never received a salute and when we landed in ZZZ1 the Crew Chief informed me when I went down for the post flight that the GPU door was open when we parked.Regardless of whether or not ZZZ had interphones we should have discussed with the ground crew the expected procedure for the power out operation which; for us pilots; is essentially a non-normal situation.Suggestion: Review power out operations in AOM/FOM"
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.