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?
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…
No, we don’t have any directives for this as we operate on a largely asynchronous basis – people are used to working with or needing…
There is no hard and fast rule, but as a general rule of thumb, the quicker the better. Because we are a startup company, things…
Do you organize remote team retreats?
Twice a year we organize a team work retreat. We just returned from a week in Lake Tahoe, CA. Our retreats aren’t really “vacations for…
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 do, and they are awesome. My tip would be to keep the work content to a minimum. A brief session on how the…
Do your remote team members meet in person?
Absolutely. We have some very structured events such as week-long annual engineering team meetups. Many of our remote team members also come by headquarters in…
Currently, we meet on an as-needed basis (e.g. once/twice per year), However, similar to Automattic (the WordPress folks), we would like to meet much more…
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’re an Agile organization, so self-examination is built into our workflow very naturally. We set goals, then examine and measure progress, output at regular, discrete…
We don’t stress individually productivity too much, but we have metrics for each functional area that we try to improve all the time. RJMetrics makes…
As a fully remote company, we’re results-oriented by necessity. We’ve identified key metrics for most of our team that allow us to see results, and…
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Trust is absolutely essential. We are a team of colleagues and hire some of the best talent in the world. If you don’t trust the…
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…
As with any successful recipe, there are a number of important ingredients to a successful remote working organisation. These include: Establishing a culture of trust…
What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?
Sensing everybody’s mood, level of motivation, identifying issues before they develop. With an on-site team, you get to take advantage of facial expressions, body language,…
Accountability tracking. Time zones.
Always the communication. This is this the hardest part for any workforce; remote just amplifies the stakes.
How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
We talk all the time. A short, daily all-hands meeting allows everyone to understand the what and the why. We make a point of being…
We have a Best Remote Office award every year, as well as many team trips and meetings that we involve our remote employees in.
We’ve evolved a lot on this one. It started as a quarterly Google Hangout where everyone got together to watch a presentation on progress made…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
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…
Computers, monitors, peripherals, desks, chairs are provided by Automattic.
All of our IT infrastructure is cloud based. At this point we are totally happy with anyone on the team accessing their work email, for…
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
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…
In short, “take some”. We used to not track days off, but it resulted in some people (mostly US employees) not taking enough time off.…
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We have a fairly standard PTO plan for full-time [A]gents.
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
That it would be harder than it actually is. In fact, the management problems are the same regardless of location.
Quality. We feared that because we couldn’t see, in person, what someone was working on, that quality would drop. We have to trust that our…
My first opportunity to manage a full-time employee came at Fire Engine RED! I had previously supervised contractors and freelancers … but now I was…
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