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?
As with most things at Envato, what started organically has become a little more formal now that the Envato team is around 280. Formally acknowledging…
There is no ‘policy’ at ICUC, it is simply a reality for us, we have no office building. At ICUC, remote work is part of…
First of all: confidence. Relations have to be built on trust. Each team that is working for a client takes responsibility for all the issues:…
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Yes. It’s important to have someone manage the community and for those on the local team to stay aligned on how and when to communicate with…
This is a common critique I’ve heard — that a remote company can’t possibly have the same deep level of culture that a physical company…
Absolutely! The most important thing is for the leadership to actively discuss and decide what the company values are up front, and then act upon…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
(a) At the start of our weekly one-on-one calls, we take a few minutes to talk about something that we are enjoying being involved with…
We hire folks with extensive remote experience. We know they’ll thrive in our environment. We get the team together in person 2-3 times per year…
There are a number of events and all staff communications that strengthen relationships and ensure we have an engaged, high performing organisations. At any point…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Communication between remote teams can make or break them. Remote teams function very differently than teams that are entirely in house – work hard to…
There are some things that Appirio has done to maintain a sense of community within our remote workforce. Since most employees don’t go into an…
If you’re going to do it, go all in. Remote doesn’t work well as an option or as a partial solution. Working remotely is a…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Onboarding – It can be challenging to onboard new hires who have never worked remotely before. Day one looks quite different being remote vs. being…
Not being able to fully rely on people holding themselves responsible for their work goals and deadlines. Micro-management is always a pending threat with new…
This is true for any hire, but particularly true for remote hires: hiring the right person is critical to success. We have added many steps…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
We’re proud “dog-fooders” of our own products– we use Twist exclusively for all team communication, and Todoist to turn our team communication into actionable items.…
We ensure that our leadership team is visible and our Relationship Care values are reinforced in multiple channels. Every employee in our home-based service team…
We use all the normal apps like Email, Slack, Skype, Github. And the not so common P2. But at the end of the day, it’s…
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 have gotten smarter about the tools we use, better at documentation and checklists, better at reporting, and we’ve spent more time in-person periodically throughout…
We found quickly that being fully distributed wasn’t going to work well for us. We missed seeing each other in person and the rare times…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
Time zone differences can cause confusion within a remote team. Luckily, while the overall workflow has to be coordinated, the specific tasks for providing our…
We have a very social and collaborative culture, where we talk about what we’re doing and what we’re up to personally. This tends to solidify…
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…