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?
No, yuck. Responsible people do what they know needs to be done.
It depends on the team. I don’t know of any teams in our company that mandate response times for internal communication, but plenty of teams…
We let each other know when we are going to be hard to reach by email or phone and may pass on key responsibilities. When we…
Do you organize remote team retreats?
We do organize a company-wide trip twice a year. This gives everyone a chance to mingle and meet face to face. It also encourages the…
We organize retreats and offsites about once per quarter. A couple tips: choose a great venue for your company retreat and, of course, use 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?
Yes, we do, and the frequency varies between teams. Some meet quarterly, others annually. We try to bring the whole company together annually for a…
We are proponents of team projects so no one person is out there working on their own. With onsite Customer engagements, we’re afforded great opportunities…
We do! Twice a year, we gather the team for weeklong retreats, so we can both work together and get to spend quality time getting…
How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
We monitor both hours worked and hours billed to clients. Virtual assistants describe the work they do each day, which allows us to assess productivity.
1Password was founded by software developers, so we use a variety of tools to track objectives, milestones, and the resolution of technical issues. Our support…
Everyone is responsible for punching above their weight. While the expected is 40 hours a week, everyone is well aware of the work and projects…
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Andrew Montalenti, Parse.ly co-founder and CTO, has said: “The biggest thing missing from fully distributed teams is true face-to-face communication. There are a lot of…
There’s the obvious ones like trust, transparency and regular communication. One of the things I’d also add is structure. This doesn’t get talked about much…
Clearly defined feedback mechanisms, high levels of daily contact, use of communication tools such as Skype, Fuze, or GotoMeeting to create face to face exchanges.…
What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?
Working with the changing priorities of remote workers as the economy changes. As the economy evolves, workers prioritize new and different demands on their attention.…
Sometimes remote workers just don’t have that much time for your company. They may have multiple clients, be traveling the world (you never know with…
Finding the balance between asynchronous and synchronous communication. It is tempting to try to do everything possible with asynchronous communication (e.g. email, etc.) but there…
How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
Our leaders are continual learners in what good leadership truly is. Ultimately, we keep ourselves moored in our mission, the continual development of a warm…
Most managers have a mix of head office and remote workers in their teams, and work hard to ensure people feel included and communicated with.…
One of our company core values is to make meaningful relationships, and another is to own your own experience. This means everyone in the company…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
Everyone does BYOD, mostly because everyone has different preferences and environments that make them most effective, but we will sponsor apps at times.
Every person in the company is responsible for their own laptop and phone. This hasn’t been a hinderance on hiring at all.
Given the nature of our business, we require all of our remote workers to have their own secure PC in order to avoid compatibility issues…
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
Everyone gets unlimited time off. If goals are clearly communicated and employees are responsible, we don’t need to babysit with restrictive PTO policies.
We do not have a time off limit. However, for it to be worth my while to manage our resources, they have to contribute a minimum…
20+ vacation days, with unlimited sick days. We also have generous parental leave and benefits.
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
The biggest fear is “culture cracks” as our CEO calls it. Since we do have such a significant amount of remote team members, it is…
Not being able to meet some people in person means we have to rely more on references and our gut to gauge a potential hire.…
We were not afraid.