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?
Greenback has been 100% remote since the beginning. We have learned so much over the years about how to manage a remote workforce and feel…
Some of both. Many people wanted some remote work. We formalized it. A recent acquisition only worked well because the acquired colleagues all went remote.
Remote work has been in Trello’s DNA since day one- we build a tool that helps people collaborate and get projects done, so our team…
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
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! 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…
Absolutely! Treat your company culture as a product that is just as important as the product or services that you sell to your customers. Be…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
Everyone in the company is encouraged to provide ideas, suggestions and contribute to initiatives that they’re interested in and are excited about. Decisions are laid…
We encourage people to bring their whole selves to their work. We have channels in Slack for people to share their love of games, literature,…
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.
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Remote work naturally leads to results oriented working practices and management. This is good for everyone. Make sure your communications are good and improve your…
Commit to remote work, then figure out solutions to keep making it work. Avoid the knee-jerk reaction of just rolling it back. Trust your team…
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?
Ensuring everyone is receiving the same level of training and developmental programs can be a challenge.
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…
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…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
These seem to come and go a little. Slack has been a game changer for us especially with the addition of video chat on demand.…
Our internal wiki is at the top of the list. We use it as a virtual watercooler (think sports smack talk and podcast reviews) and…
We use several tools to maintain constant communication throughout the day. Sqwiggle is our on-demand video platform, Attentiv.com offers us a constant stream to communicate…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
Technology is constantly changing and improving the way we interact remotely.
We are more organized now. You have to be extremely organized if you want to go remote because it’s easy to get lost in emails,…
We have much more discipline and structure in place for managing various processes.
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
Being in different time zones is an absolute advantage for MustHaveMenus. Most of our engineers are nine hours ahead of the rest of the team.…
Currently, all of our remote employees are in the same time zone. We are a 24/7 operation so we do encounter scheduling conflicts with our…
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…