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?
Well, I think we have a huge advantage of being remote-first or remote only—whatever you call it, remote is natural to us. So, I’d say…
Remote work has been part of Collage.com’s company culture since starting the company in 2007 as a college hobby project with my friend and co-founder/co-CEO…
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Remote companies can absolutely have a healthy company culture. At Remote Year, we are constantly discussing what needs to be centralized and what needs to…
Yes! At Parse.ly, we believe that a distributed team is an asset, not a problem to be managed. It allows for radical transparency about how…
Absolutely. In fact, in order to have a successful remote force, it’s vital to have a healthy company culture to keep employees inspired and working…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
We have an incredible Director of Culture and Development who is focused on developing a strong culture in a remote work environment. Examples of some…
Broadly speaking, our culture is based on the Relationship Care approach to servicing, an ethos that says service is a people business driven by the…
It all starts with the hiring process – we put a lot of time and effort into hiring people who embody our values, like taking…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
You can build relationships in person and maintain them over video calls, not vice versa. “Remote” does not mean walls – in the formation phases…
Follow best practices and be disciplined. When you’re home, it’s easy to be distracted or goof off, and that’s when remote work can fail to…
Embrace it! Find others in the same industry that have remote staff and ask if they would be willing to share their experiences. If the…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
As the Melbourne office grew initially it was ensuring we had a culture that supports people working remotely. We didn’t want people to feel as…
Finding the right addition to the team. We strongly believe in hiring for values and attitude fit, and if needed, training for skills. One of…
Keeping the culture strong as we quickly grow. We are committed to our culture and make sure it is number one for everyone joining our…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
We utilize conference calls for solving immediate issues as well as for operational meetings. We hold “Cockroach Meetings” if a problem requires immediate attention from…
Remote workers are always in a chat room with coworkers and supervisors who are available for support or just general conversation. That is the most effective way…
Of course we place huge value on audio and video communication at Speak. I think that a lot of remote teams aren’t embracing this to…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
Being remote, we spent a lot of time perfecting the best way to convey information so that content remained clear and intact. Our current tools…
As software tools have evolved, we’ve reached for solutions that boost transparency and real-time collaboration.
We have implemented OKRs because at the beginning everyone just “worked hard” when we were a startup. But as we got older, people burned out,…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
Slack and JIRA—the platform we use to track development tasks—are asynchronous tools, allowing us to manage communication even with different time zones. Of course, sometimes…
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…
This is likely the largest challenge we face as a remote company. I don’t like making people stay up late or get up super early…