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 was pretty organic. The first few people we hired were from our customer support forum. They were people who already used 1Password and loved…
Right from the start we allowed most people to choose. There are a group of us now that tend to work in the L.A. studio…
Formally, from the hiring process onward.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
We keep a constant communication flow in Slack, organize team meetings weekly and also throw weekly hangouts where our new employees introduce themselves or current…
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. In fact, in order to have a successful remote force, it’s vital to have a healthy company culture to keep employees inspired and working…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
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…
We are in constant communication in email and use Google Docs to share and store ideas. “Team Calls” are essential to ensure that everyone feels…
We focus on the pillars of our culture: Fun, Action, Communication, Transparency, Trust (FACTT). Fun – Meetups, video chats just to make each other laugh.…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Stop considering and take the leap! We started out as a remote team and we didn’t look back. We think the numbers speak for themselves:…
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…
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…
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…
Aha! is growing more rapidly than any other company that I have founded or worked for. Chris and I founded Aha! because we believed so…
Finding and vetting qualified editors from around the world to meet the volume demand during busy periods has been one of our main challenges. Because…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
Slack chat, for casual conversations, and Slack video calls for one-on-ones and team meetings. Chat is good for more frequent but less important discussions. Video calls…
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…
Skype – This one is awesome. Skype really helps when getting to know someone. It’s a great tool for interviewing people too. You really feel…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We have much more discipline and structure in place for managing various processes.
Our team has just gotten a lot bigger. Our head of teacher recruiting, Bel Chan, has done an amazing job with that. When she started…
Technology is constantly changing and improving the way we interact remotely.
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…
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…
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…