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?
Given that remote work is the fundamental underpinning of Omni Interactions, it’s at the core of every business decision and process we undertake. The beauty…
It happened organically as a reaction to the work preferences of the first two hires. From then on it just seemed like the natural way…
Remote is organic with XWP. Everyone works this way, so the culture is entirely devoted to making remote work successful for XWPeople.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Absolutely! But as with any culture, you have to put a lot of effort into building it in order to have a strong one. Since…
Definitely. FlexJobs has been a remote company for over 15 years, during which we’ve developed an award-winning culture recognized by Outside, Quartz, Entrepreneur, and many…
Absolutely. I think being remote defines our culture. It demands self-discipline of all parties, which yields top performers. In our case we leverage a management…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
We focus on the pillars of our culture: Fun, Action, Communication, Transparency, Trust (FACTT). Fun – Meetups, video chats just to make each other laugh.…
Constant communication with all team members. We also use Slack for sharing “water cooler” discussions. Another important aspect of our culture is our Corporate Social…
Tools are important… github, slack, hangouts, gdocs, trello Meet-ups are very important 15five has been a great tool for us to organize work Tinypulse has…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Go for it. It’s super unlikely you’ll be disappointed. It makes everything easier. But, be sure to get together in real space here and there…
Make sure work obligations are completely understood, that communication capabilities and a robust technology infrastructure are fully embedded in the organization, and that you have…
My advice to those companies considering the remote working path is to encourage their employees to set up a workspace in their homes, some place…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
The biggest challenge has been hiring; primarily making the false assumption at the start that any talented employee would make a great remote employee. It’s…
Identifying the right fit for the position has been the main challenge. You want someone who is passionate about customer service and is accustomed to call…
Setting up and evolving communication mechanisms that work for both remote workers and people who prefer to work in an office with their colleagues.
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
The most effective communication method we’ve used is video calls on Google Hangouts. Text-based communication channels such as email and HipChat/Slack certainly have their place…
Fleep chats, Asana tickets, group Hangouts and 1:1 calls over Speak or Skype. You should also build a Teleport Sundial group to manage the timezones…
We have: A weekly all hands call. A chat tool like Slack or Hipchat Lots of video conference calls, where we *try* to take notes…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
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…
As Trello has grown, we’ve had to implement various other communication tools. For example, we have a weekly “Company Overview” board, where we update projects…
When Automattic first started, everyone reported to Matt (Mullenweg, our founder). When we reached about 50 people, we divided into teams. The teams have evolved…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
Time zones are always a challenge to address, especially in Remote Year with our global presence. We find that making sure our staff on the…
We work in EST/CST business hours for the most part. Certain roles that are not client facing have more flexibility, but we still require at…
Most of our team members are located within a four-hour time difference, which can easily be dealt with within the teams themselves. When team members…