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 have any policies in place around communication norms for our remote team. We just ask our team to be respectful of others and…
No. We have an absence management tool so that we can manage every kind of leave request, such as vacation, parental leave, etc.
This varies depending on the team. But at minimum, all emails should be returned by the next business day, and chats replied to as soon…
Do you organize remote team retreats?
Yes we sure do! Jungle Camps twice yearly. It is a great way to meet, work, and grow together. It is also a time when…
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. This is critical for us. First of all, you need to have a clear agenda with what you want to achieve during the…
Do your remote team members meet in person?
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…
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 do not routinely meet in person. Some of our management team has met a couple times and when I am traveling, I’ve made a…
How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
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…
We’re lucky to be in the development industry where there is a plethora of tools one can use for tracking, such as project management tools…
By the quality and quantity of the work they output, period.
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Trust is a key element; you have to ensure that every member of the team trusts each other to do what they have agreed to.…
Well, we only have remote workers, including me. For a 100% distributed team, I’d point to a few key resources: A flexible, instant “virtual office…
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?
Building rapport with new coworkers can be difficult when you don’t get the casual social interactions you often get for free when everyone is in…
I’ve only ever managed a remote workforce, so I don’t know whether the challenges are specific to a remote workforce, but velocity of work, building…
You don’t develop such close relationships as you do with people whom you see every day. This can be a positive too though, as productivity…
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…
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.…
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…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
SitePen provides all necessary computing equipment and software that is requested by SitePen employees.
Everyone does BYOD, mostly because everyone has different preferences and environments that make them most effective, but we will sponsor apps at times.
They have their own devices and can also decide what they want, a pc, a mac or whatsoever. We take care of the tools or…
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
We offer time-off to our employees with 24-hour notice. We’re an incredibly collaborative and connected team, so this is important mostly to give your co-workers…
Teachers make their own schedule! They can teach one class a month or 100 if they like. It’s totally flexible and lets teachers be their own…
Work-life balance is something we take very seriously. We set the expectation from the get-go that no one should be working long hours or during…
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
I had no real fears of managing remote workers, but I always am cautious to ensure I communicate regularly and that my virtual door is…
I’m a first-time people manager and first-time CEO. My fears were (and still are) around leading a team of people. Being remote was never part…
We very naively started all being remote, so there were no fears. Here’s a challenge that surprised me: on the same day, I had a…