Managing Remotely
140 companies answer 6 questions
Managing a remote or distributed team successfully requires good support, planning, and communication. Whether deciding if and how to get the team to meet in person or defining the line between vacation and flexible work, the management of a remote team has differences from managing traditional on-site teams. In our Managing Remotely section we ask top remote companies how they keep their teams running smoothly from thousands of miles away.
Do you have remote communication protocols for your remote workers?
Yes. Here’s a direct quote from the handout we use: “Sometimes a quick response is needed to a question. When this is required, please either…
Everyone needs to attend the daily and weekly meetings related to their work. They should be reachable on Mattermost during working hours—these are set on…
Yes, but they are different. We have regular meetings where we expect people to do their synchronous work. We also promote “core hours” 7-10 a.m.…
Do you organize remote team retreats?
We will be arranging at least one team retreat this year and will be meeting at several industry events.
Yes, we do. This is critical for us. First of all, you need to have a clear agenda with what you want to achieve during the…
Yes. We find one place that can host us all. Make sure it’s not in a city, you want everyone to be huddled up together…
Do your remote team members meet in person?
We only do one formal meeting each year, a 4-day annual retreat that tackles some operations-level work, but is mostly for play and social time.…
We were meeting together about once or twice a month in person. Now we will probably shoot for about twice a year to get everyone…
The full team meets together at least twice a year. There are meetups by various teams based on need and geography throughout the year.
How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
Weekly updates are detailed reports we receive every Friday that outline what each team member accomplished during the week and their focus for next week.…
It’s not a perfect science; we have had situations where employees were “skating” for a month or so and we did not notice. But, eventually…
The Hubstaff software has useful features like activity levels and randomized screenshots, so we can see how productive our team members are being while tracking…
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Trust, trust, trust and communication, communication, communication.
Face-to-face as much as possible. Our default for meetings is Zoom with video. Recurring public Slack “check-in/standup” updates. Depending on the team, these are daily…
Feedback, coaching and one-on-ones are absolutely critical to a good relationship with employees. Whenever I see something good or bad, I call that team member…
What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?
Scheduling meetings can be tricky because we cover a lot of timezones and some people may choose to work very early or very late, depending…
Managing outgoing sales efforts.
The biggest challenge is to find people who will fit into our culture and are ready to work hard for a great cause.
How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
Every week I put out in our General (all company) Slack channel the “NodeSource Executive Brief To Everyone at The Company™”. The title is a…
We invite them on a trip and do fun things together! We also have online events such as “best teaching moments,” contests, etc. to keep…
First of all, we invite new colleagues to our headquarters in Cologne for the onboarding process. Then we have weekly team meetings which the colleagues…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
We provide equipment to our remote employees.
SitePen provides all necessary computing equipment and software that is requested by SitePen employees.
Team members can use any hardware that they please. After you’ve worked with Doist for six months, you are granted a generous hardware and software…
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
We have an open time off policy, which translates to take the time off that you need. We ask each person to discuss time off…
Take whatever time you need. We’re a ROWE environment.
We have “unlimited time off” for our salary workers. Our rule of thumb is if you’re wondering if you’re taking too much time off, then…
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
Not many fears that I can think of. Really just accountability and showing up, but I don’t feel that’s any more of an issue than…
My biggest fear is that I do not always know what employees feel. When I make an update, what do they think? Sure, they give…
Trust is a big fear and challenge. At the end of the day, as a business owner of a remote team, you aren’t there to…