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?
Our remote work policy was a formal part of our business plan from the beginning. The company is now 3 years old (formed, 2013).
Organically
Formally. All hires are brought into the company under the premise that they work remotely.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Absolutely. The keys for us have been maintaining ongoing, open communication as a group, whether by Whatsapp, instant chat, email, Skype and phone, and ensuring…
This is our #1 priority. As a bootstrapped company we’ve always had a conservative approach to scaling the team– we don’t hire faster than the…
Absolutely, any company can have a healthy culture if they nurture it well. We try to foster foster a strong performance-based culture by having a…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
We do very regular team calls, and we have a “virtual water cooler” room in Slack where we talk about anything not related to work;…
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…
Everyone in the company is encouraged to provide ideas, suggestions and contribute to initiatives that they’re interested in and are excited about. Decisions are laid…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
You must excel at “human” connection. Dispersed workers still need nurturing. Find ways to reach through the technology and make people feel like people. You…
Remote work naturally leads to results oriented working practices and management. This is good for everyone. Make sure your communications are good and improve your…
Establish and encourage trust. As a pioneer in the remote business world, there’s one element that Dave Rosen felt would set XWP apart: “From day…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Managing without micromanaging. It’s important for our team to be able to allocate their time in a way that works for them, but it’s also…
Personality conflicts are particularly difficult to resolve remotely. We’ve found that when a team is having a hard time seeing eye to eye, the only…
Getting everyone on the same page! Since we don’t “see” each other on a consistent basis every day, we have to constantly be thinking about…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
Communication is key on our teams. We use Slack as a central hub for daily communication, with clear channels to help team members know what…
We use video conferencing—Zoom—to be able to engage with each other, build relationships, read body language, etc. Chat/IM/Slack—for those quick chats that you don’t want…
We use a number of great commercial productivity tools such as Slack for real-time communication, Github for code management, Hangouts and Zoom for video conferencing…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We are constantly looking for new and better tools for sharing and communicating information, which is great because the technology supporting virtual work is only…
We’ve grown at such a rapid pace that adapting and scaling has become second nature. Because we are now spread so widely across the globe,…
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?
We offer some flexibility in work schedules so that team members can have somewhat of a normal schedule, but we also require work hours to…
We are very conscious of the times that different teammates work and ask them to include it in their Slack profile so that everyone can…
Thankfully this isn’t a big issue, but as our team grows, it will become a challenge. More clearly communicating goals and aligning team members will…