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?

Buffer

We created the 10 Slack agreements of Buffer just for this.

VIPKID

There are very tight guidelines for communication around classes, and we expect immediate communication if there’s any reason a teacher needs to cancel a class—we…

Teleport

The only hard routine is our Monday review call where everyone gets together for 90 minutes. As CEO I have scheduled 30 minutes of 1:1…

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Do you organize remote team retreats?

Time Doctor

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…

Bitovi

Yes! We organize three all-company events per year. One focused on working together on specific company projects, one focused on training, and another focused on…

TaxJar

We meetup as an entire team at least twice per year. We call them JarFests. We work hard to plan them in a fun city…

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Do your remote team members meet in person?

Jackson River

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.…

DevriX

We meet some of our team members at events, but we don’t have annual meetups yet.

Edgar

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…

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How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?

Origin Eight

Through project management and time tracking tools.

Scribendi

We give our remote workers a lot of freedom. Every order placed through Scribendi has an accompanying deadline selected by the client from the available…

ICUC Social

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…

See all 98 answers

What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?

CloudPeeps

We place a strong emphasis on transparency, authenticity and being direct. We do monthly one-on-one feedback sessions, which we call “pair calls” where we run…

Mavens

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.…

Help Scout

An empathetic understanding of one another’s roles, expertise, and workflow. Over-communication in Slack or on video chat. Honesty, vulnerability, coaching, and feedback.

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What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?

Stack Overflow

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…

Working Solutions

Learning how to effectively communicate remotely takes practice.  How much to share, how often, who to include, and how to ensure the intended message is…

Answer Connect

When you cease seeing a person all day, every day, you have to develop new ways to determine if they are present and working hard.…

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How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?

Packlane

We have weekly all-hands meetings that we conduct via video chat. This gives everyone a chance to hear what’s going on in the company and…

Appen

Clear and precise communication, including town hall meetings, fireside chats, e-learning training sessions, and reward programs reinforcing performance.

Must Have Menus

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…

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What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?

Taksa Technology Solutions

As a company we have internal policies that helps us to have key security measures that protects us from any liability concerns that possibly could…

Fire Engine RED

Our company provides computer hardware and software to all our team members.

iDoneThis

Everyone is free to get their devices from the company, but as far as I know everyone’s just using their own machine.

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What is your time off policy for remote workers?

RunRepeat

You can take off whenever you like, but we pay you by the hour. You get one to five weeks of vacation depending on how…

Toggl

First of all, we have a flexible schedule and the only condition for the remote team members is to have at least some overlapping time…

Ciao Bambino! Inc.

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…

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What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?

Jungle Scout

My biggest fear was probably that everyone was just going to goof off and not get any work done with little oversight. This has been…

LoveToKnow

I think my biggest fears are when we lose touch with someone. Every once in a while, someone will just “disappear” – they don’t answer…

DataStax

That it would be harder than it actually is. In fact, the management problems are the same regardless of location.

See all 34 answers