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?
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…
We knew that in order for it to work, everybody in the team had to become “remote” workers and adopt the new mindset. So the…
It emerged organically, but my company started as a distributed company.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Sure, by following a similar transparent process and a welcoming environment nurturing remote teams and rewarding proactiveness, feedback, and criticism. Our CEO and our top…
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…
We LOVE our culture! We work very hard to promote open communication through a company-wide platform. We also have daily and weekly meetings to further…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
Our online forum is an important part of our company, a place where everyone can share ideas and chat—a virtual water cooler, if you will.
We schedule engagement activities each quarter that all can participate in. We make sure there are activities that resonate with the types of gig workers…
(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…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
It’s not as hard as it sounds. There are definitely obstacles but if you have great, highly accountable and responsible people working for you, where…
Try it, it’s not as scary as it seems! If your company is focussed on outputs and not inputs, then it shouldn’t matter whether your…
Every company has different needs, so it’s not one size fits all. If you are thinking that remote work could be good for your company,…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Communication can be tricky when having overseas talks. Technologies can sometimes be difficult too.
Finding people who are the best in the world at what they do can be challenging. So far we’ve managed to assemble an amazing team…
The main challenge is finding the right fit, since as I mentioned before, it is not for everyone. Remote working can be very isolating, so…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
Skype chats – we have tons of chat groups. We have project-based ones for each project, location-based ones for each region (wherever there is a…
Remote work has become much easier now that there are so many tools to help teams stay connected and collaborate. We of course do most…
Everything is communicated over Slack & Trello.
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
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,…
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…
It’s interesting to look back on this, because everything we stood for and the values that drove how we operate still haven’t changed. The main…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
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…
Our team works asynchronously and communicates largely via Slack, which keeps us organized across 17 time zones. Keeping an up-to-date shared calendar is also very…
Mostly that’s a challenge for our teachers. Class schedules have to revolve around Chinese kids’ lives. In New York time, class slots are open starting…