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 operate more like a regular office, where we are all here during EST/CST business hours. We are trusting of our team where if they…
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.
We created the 10 Slack agreements of Buffer just for this.
Do you organize remote team retreats?
I’d say that it’s important to organize the retreats with time in advance to make sure the team works smartly together (discuss ideas and works…
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…
For a remote team, the main focus is actually just to spend time together face-to-face, so plan everything around that. We find a yearly all-team…
Do your remote team members meet in person?
As a whole company we have bi-weekly video calls every other week and we get together in-person 2x a year for all company meetings.
Yes, we aim for once a year meetings in person.
Yes! Every fall, we gather for our annual “All Hands” meetup with our entire team. We started doing these meetups in 2013, and they have…
How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
Weekly updates are detailed reports we receive every Friday that outline what each team member accomplished during the week and their focus for next week.…
We’ve experimented with OKRs and Squads but they haven’t worked or us. Ultimately, we created our own hybrid of the two systems – goals and…
All of us have yearly “people plans” that tie us to our goals and what’s required. Every one of us tracks all of our time…
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Clear tasks, responsibilities, and deliverables.
It is critical to have open communication and no silos. Everyone should be able to communicate with anyone and be open to reply quickly.
As Skillcrush continues to grow, we make it a priority to stay connected with each other and dedicate time to all of the team-building activities…
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,…
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…
Not seeing them in person every day. Most people think the hardest part about managing a remote workforce is about productivity. It’s not. We have…
How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
Each team that is working for a client takes responsibility for all the issues: financial stuff, agreements, customer relations, etc. Thanks to our policy, people…
We have annual team meetings and smaller hit team meetings throughout the year. We do our weekly call, and we use video calls as default.…
We make our communication better by having daily calls and hangouts between team members. We get the entire team together at the GitLab summit once…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
We currently provide company equipment to our employees.
We do not provide any computers, cell phones, etc. since keeping inventory of items like that would be extremely expensive and difficult to retrieve at…
We tend to equip people with a strong Mac so they can be effective wherever they are.
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
We ask that everyone let their team members know about any planned time off with as much advance notice as possible. There’s not limit, but…
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.…
We provide unlimited time off, and we highly encourage at least 4 weeks off out of the year. If someone hasn’t taken off in a…
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
Not many fears that I can think of. Really just accountability and showing up, but I don’t feel that’s any more of an issue than…
My biggest fear is that I do not always know what employees feel. When I make an update, what do they think? Sure, they give…
We heard some small commentary from traditionalists when we started the company as a virtual company, wondering how we could manage remote workers effectively when…