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?
Bitovi started with remote work from the beginning and the rest is history.
We make a call about whether a position is virtual as we shape the job description. While the majority of our jobs are flexible location,…
Our culture dictates people’s remote work within the company. It’s not a formal process, but I think people catch-on pretty quickly.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Absolutely. The key is having the right communication tools and connecting regularly. We use Slack for constant text based communication throughout the day. We find…
A remote company can absolutely have a healthy company culture. It’s important to keep the conversation about culture active. We try to broach the topic…
Absolutely! We’ve been working on building Buffer’s healthy company culture from the start. The key thing for us was setting values as a team in…
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.…
We make sure to all get together as a company on a regular basis. For example, we have two team members that live out of…
We have remote social hangouts every Friday. Everyone is invited to hop onto a video call to hang out with their coworkers with a beverage…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Make sure you evaluate anyone you hire to be proven self-starters. The trick with remote work is it requires individuals with a solid concept for…
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…
Trust your recruitment process and your employees. Set goals for your employees to reach, but give them flexibility in how they reach them.
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
We have a great culture and team and have been growing very fast in the past few years. The biggest challenge is ensuring we keep…
We’re all still figuring out the best way to do this, so little has been codified on how to do it well. Every challenge is…
Finding the right people, who can manage themselves, be focused at work and able to work on their own.
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
We rely on tools such as Slack, Zoom, and Trello to communicate and plan our daily work commitments. I’m not saying we are perfect and…
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…
We add issues in GitLab for everything. Everybody comments, we work on the issues and then we link to the Merge Request where the issue…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
The communication has gotten better between the team. We are a very tight-knit “travel family” and our goal is to service our clients in the…
We introduced using a wiki to keep all internal processes and documentation organized. We used to use Google Drive and Google sites, but it was…
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…
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…
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…
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…