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?
Initially, we had formal guidelines and documents on the “how to’s” of working remotely. As we have adapted to this virtual/remote office model, the policies…
Organically.
We put certain formal rules in place, but the culture of our remote teams continues to organically form. We pay close attention to our remotes,…
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, any company can have a healthy culture if they nurture it well. We try to foster foster a strong performance-based culture by having a…
We have a strong company culture, and we are 100 percent remote. We do this by making sure our company core values are not aspirational, but…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
Annual company retreats, weekly Google hangouts (non-work related), and gif battles on Slack.
Our head of community in the U.S., Kevyn Klein, is critical for this process. She understands our teachers so well because she talks to them…
Broadly speaking, our culture is based on the Relationship Care approach to servicing, an ethos that says service is a people business driven by the…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
A successfully managed remote team is directly proportional to the skills of the leadership team’s ability to lead that team. As long as you lead…
If you’re considering it, just try it out! The worst that can happen is that you find out it doesn’t work for your team, in…
Try it! You’ll need to trust that employees who work remotely will be able to get their work done. But just like employees that work…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Identifying which staff are doing a great job and which are not.
We have to incorporate process and procedures much earlier based on the number of team members. With five people in an office, it’s easy to…
It’s not for everyone. We’ve had a few employees opt out because they really wanted to be in an office with their team, but this…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
Skype, Video Conference, Basecamp/Asana, and of course Email. We also use tools like Tinypulse for soliciting consistent feedback and sending “cheers” to team members.
Persistent chat in our internal company chat rooms, Google Hangouts for video calls, email, Google Docs, and Trello.
We utilize email, web-and-tele-conferencing, chat, and of course, telephones. Group chats that can be archived for future reference are very effective in many cases.
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We have only been going as a team for just over a year. Some things we did change was a move from Google Docs to…
First big thing was the introduction of monthly face to face meetings. Then we introduced open policy for everything, which resulted in opening finances and…
There have been many positive changes to how we operate by enabling our front line to work remotely. We have more flexibility in scheduling, it…
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…
Our entire company is online from 3pm-7pm GMT which means we have a 4-hour window for all hands meetings, daily standups, and the off-hand meeting…
Slack and JIRA—the platform we use to track development tasks—are asynchronous tools, allowing us to manage communication even with different time zones. Of course, sometimes…
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