Working Remotely
140 companies answer 6 questions
Working remotely comes with unique day-to-day challenges. From the initial step of implementing remote policy to nurturing company culture while operating remotely, we ask leading remote companies to share how they approach running their distributed teams from an operational level.
How did you implement a remote work policy?
Our policy isn’t formally written down but everyone knows that as long as they get the assigned work completed and have a degree of time…
My co-founder Kerry takes all the credit for setting up our amazing guidelines, policies, compensation packages and benefits programs. She worked closely with a Seattle…
We did not have to implement a remote work policy because it was a premise that we were founded upon.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Yes, definitely it can. A healthy company culture involves good communication and mutual respect among members. It also needs people who are happy and healthy…
Yes! It is a different kind of culture, but you can definitely have one. In a lot of ways, you eliminate some of the annoyances…
Our remote workforce is global. This means that we are able to take the best of all talent and culture and create a humanist company…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
Our creed includes the statement, “I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company.” We communicate through P2s (WordPress.com…
We hire folks with extensive remote experience. We know they’ll thrive in our environment. We get the team together in person 2-3 times per year…
The way I act impacts how people act. It is very simple.
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Communication between remote teams can make or break them. Remote teams function very differently than teams that are entirely in house – work hard to…
Working remotely can be isolating, especially for new hires that are used to traditional office settings. Companies should encourage employees to participate in local activities,…
Plan ahead. Get the right communication tools in place. Also consider that working from home might not be right for everyone. For that reason I’ve…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Hiring is hard. All the job boards from Monster to LinkedIn did not conceive of remote work, making it impossible to advertise job openings efficiently…
Empathy occurs much less naturally, even with lots of video chat and long phone conversations. This is a double edged sword; decisions are less charged…
You have to be very deliberate about how you communicate. You have to communicate more and clearer. That takes some getting used to, but in…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
These seem to come and go a little. Slack has been a game changer for us especially with the addition of video chat on demand.…
I can’t say enough good things about Slack. In the beginning, it’s a bit of a paradigm shift for everyone, but once everyone gets in…
Remote work has become much easier now that there are so many tools to help teams stay connected and collaborate. We of course do most…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
Our planning process used to be off the cuff, and mostly done in the meeting with the whole team. We’ve moved to a planning process…
We only added weekly calls after about five years. We found that hearing each other’s voices was very helpful when discussing more difficult topics, and it…
As we grow, we build out more processes and planning. Done wrong, this could equal bureaucracy. Done right, these systems help us function despite not…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
Currently, we hire only within the UTC-1 to UTC+3 time zones. Our core working time is between 10am-3pm (Berlin time) and during this time everyone…
Our entire company is online from 3pm-7pm GMT which means we have a 4-hour window for all hands meetings, daily standups, and the off-hand meeting…
Being in different time zones is an absolute advantage for MustHaveMenus. Most of our engineers are nine hours ahead of the rest of the team.…
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