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?
The idea of building a remote company wasn’t something we explicitly discussed at the start – it simply grew out of necessity. One of the…
Over the past 7-8 years I have been traveling more and more, and therefore I needed people to be more and more flexible. When I…
Totally organically. We did what felt right, we learned from our mistakes, and we continue to evolve by listening to what our staff needs.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
I feel like we have a very healthy company culture, and we’re constantly working to make it better. We do little things sometimes like spend…
Absolutely, one great way to have a healthy remote culture is through work retreats: We are all social people; team members who work remotely still…
Of course. There’s many examples of it. It’s not easy though. The short answer to “How?” is: a lot of thought, care, attention to detail…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
We have Slack channels dedicated to all sorts of interests, from fitness to cooking to travel. Our teams meet anywhere from daily to weekly by…
There are a number of events and all staff communications that strengthen relationships and ensure we have an engaged, high performing organisations. At any point…
Annual company retreats, weekly Google hangouts (non-work related), and gif battles on Slack.
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
We succeed at making remote work by being deliberate about our communication process. We have work-related communication tools, like Slack and Google Hangouts, as well…
The danger is that your remote staff might feel like they’re second-class employees. Focus all of your efforts on avoiding that. At Balsamiq, we say…
The remote environment is not for everyone. If a company wants to implement a 100% remote environment, I would highly recommend speaking to an operations…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Communication across time zones means things can take longer than you would like. For instance, if I send an email on Monday at 3 p.m. to…
Sometimes, it’s more challenging explaining how a remote work environment actually works than it actually is in practice! We have found a remote work environment…
It can sometimes be difficult to accommodate for varying time zones and work schedules within the company. Lots of our employees work as they travel,…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
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…
We use Slack to communicate via chat throughout the day. Each team has its own channel in addition to company-wide channels. Every day we use…
The easiest ways are through Slack, Basecamp, and email with a splash of Zapier (if you don’t know Zapier…please look it up now!). These tools…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We have gotten closer as a team as we grow. We have new technology that connects us instantly and we have grown more as a…
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…
For a long time, we operated with a very flat team structure. As you can imagine, it’s much easier to maintain that structure at 15…
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…
Everyone adds their working hours to company calendar, then each team leader knows very well when everyone is on working time. This allows us to…
We have a 24/7 support team to handle communications around the clock. We also have specialized remote workers available to answer questions in the most…
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