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 completely organic; our very first employees were remote.
Formally, from the hiring process onward.
We did not implement a remote work policy. Building a distributed company was our intention from the start. Dr. Chris Waters (my co-founder) and I…
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Yes. Our company culture is based on shared values. We have a company full of independent people who love making the web a better place.…
Absolutely. Culture is something that we are constantly working on. For us, it started with a globally connected workstyle, an independent lifestyle, and pride in…
Yes, absolutely! We put the team at the very center of the business, and by making an every day conscious effort to ensure everyone believes…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
It all starts with the hiring process – we put a lot of time and effort into hiring people who embody our values, like taking…
Goodway tries to have our own level of perks and rewards that are equally as desirable and beneficial to remote employees. We use a program…
No gossip policy Empower employees who know they are trusted Servant leadership—invest in our people (holistically, not just professionally) Live out our core values and…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Believe that remote work can be more effective than in the office. On the other hand…sometimes people who start to work remotely expect to be…
You can build relationships in person and maintain them over video calls, not vice versa. “Remote” does not mean walls – in the formation phases…
Keep the company culture top of mind when recruiting your team. Communication and accountability are key. For teams to work efficiently without face-to-face time, you…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
The main challenges are time zones and cultures. You need to make sure projects run smoothly and that nobody is stuck waiting for someone’s reply…
Certainly, communication is vital. When you’re in the same office together, you have more natural, unplanned meetings and from those come some of the best…
Probably the biggest challenge is having to deal with multiple time zones. In our case this is as worse as it gets because we have…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
This depends on the team, since each team within GitHub decides how they want to organise and coordinate their communication. Most of our communication is…
Our communications stack is pretty typical for a remote company: chat, phone, email, video conferencing, regular meetings. Each of those channels can be extremely effective…
We have different levels of communication. For anything that needs to be written at length, we use standard email or we ping each other on…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We only added weekly calls after about five years. We found that hearing each other’s voices was very helpful when discussing more difficult topics, and it…
One of the biggest achievements for Skillcrush is that we have adopted transparent salary tiers where every team member has insight into what their colleagues…
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…
Time zone differences can cause confusion within a remote team. Luckily, while the overall workflow has to be coordinated, the specific tasks for providing our…
Time zones are always a challenge to address, especially in Remote Year with our global presence. We find that making sure our staff on the…
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