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?
We don’t place strict rules, but there’s a common understanding that everyone is usually on from the hours of 9 am to at least 6…
We don’t and leave it to the individual employees and project teams to determine if there is any specific cadence they want to build around communication.
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…
Do you organize remote team retreats?
Our best teachers are invited to an all-expenses paid trip to Shanghai every year! This is the best way to allow the teachers to experience…
Yes, we go to a company off-site twice a year. The off-site is a mixture of team sessions, presentations, working together, team activities, and hanging…
Socializing and team building is important when we all get together. It isn’t all about productivity and getting work done (which we do throughout the…
Do your remote team members meet in person?
Yes we have regular company retreats because we understand that nothing beats face-to-face contact for getting to know people and helping to build trust and…
Yes, we usually kick-off a project in house – so we’ll fly folks in for that. Also, we host an annual retreat every year for…
Yes, we aim for once a year meetings in person.
How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
We’re only five people, so we’re not yet in a position where we have to measure everyone’s productivity. We estimate how long projects take. Sometimes…
Strictly speaking, we measure it in their output. What’s most important to us is that the work needed is getting done, and that our team…
We work with project management tools and have set goals and KPIs. We rely on Asana, a project management tool, to keep track of projects…
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Trust Culture Communication Accountability Self-Motivation
Trust. Trust. Trust. It needs to be given freely and earned daily. When it works, it is a thing of beauty.
Always assuming your coworkers have good intentions. For example, an emoji can be translated in different ways. Knowing your coworkers have good intentions, means you…
What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?
Balancing socializing in a virtual workspace with not working in a silo. When working remotely, it’s so easy to either block out everything and become…
Without the luxury of seeing colleagues each day, it can, at times, take longer to identify issues. For this reason managers need to see engagement…
The hardest part is maintaining discipline for management to make sure that we are active in all the key areas of the business all the…
How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
While we aren’t big on meetings, we do have a regularly scheduled Monday meeting where we go over any admin items and talk about the…
We encourage everyone to talk about what they’re doing on Slack, and to be transparent about it. For example, a developer can stay in touch…
In addition to regular team group video conference sessions, as in our daily scrum meetings, we meet as a company once per week which we…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
We provide remote workers with a $2,000 per year technology stipend.
We only require our employees to have a modern computer with a HD webcam and high-speed Internet – we see this as being analogous to…
They can choose their own hardware from the company or can bring their own device.
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
Take whatever time you need. We’re a ROWE environment.
Our employees are all virtual and free to take time off as they want. We work with responsible team members who will be reasonable with…
Vacation, sick and personal leave are lumped together. We take time off seriously. When an employee formally requests time off for an extended period of…
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
You try to hire the best people out there but sometimes you simply can’t know if you did the right thing until they start. You…
People being dishonest about the amount of time they are spending working on your project and doing things on the side. There are big brother…
My biggest concern is worrying about the happiness of our team members. It’s easy to tell how someone is feeling in person. Fortunately, we haven’t…