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?
Our remote work policy was a formal part of our business plan from the beginning. The company is now 3 years old (formed, 2013).
Organically. We implemented policies where we felt we could do better and from lessons learned over time. Team understanding (why we need it) and buy-in…
The remote workforce grew organically based on our hiring philosophy, which remains to hire the best people in the world, no matter where they live.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Absolutely – if anything, it’s especially important for a remote company! It takes extra effort to prevent the remote work experience from feeling isolating, so…
Absolutely, although it takes a lot of hard work and conscious effort. You simply have to be honest about the challenges of working remotely, actively…
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…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
Constant communication with all team members. We also use Slack for sharing “water cooler” discussions. Another important aspect of our culture is our Corporate Social…
Retreats are a huge thing. We have an annual all company retreat, but we also have more focused retreats pretty regularly for smaller teams within…
I’ve found that the little things really make a difference. Acknowledging birthdays and work anniversaries on Yammer. Giving a variety of opportunities to get to…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Communication between remote teams can make or break them. Remote teams function very differently than teams that are entirely in house – work hard to…
It’s a lot easier if at least ⅔ of the team is remote. When only a few people are remote, it is easy to make…
You can do your job whenever and wherever you want .. as long as you get your desired results. Working remotely surely brings a lot…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Remote workforces are amazing, but they have their own unique challenges, just as a local workforce does. While in-person, one-off conversations may work great for…
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…
We focus very hard on hiring the right individuals and then training them to a high standard. This leads to a large investment of time…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
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 have: A weekly all hands call. A chat tool like Slack or Hipchat Lots of video conference calls, where we *try* to take notes…
We’re proud “dog-fooders” of our own products– we use Twist exclusively for all team communication, and Todoist to turn our team communication into actionable items.…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We used to have employees who worked in different states, but over time we have found it valuable to live close enough to each other…
As the number of employees has increased, we have increasingly standardized procedures. With a smaller team, communication often occurs organically, but as the size of…
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…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
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…
Currently, we hire only within the UTC-1 to UTC+3 time zones. Our core working time is between 10am-3pm (Berlin time) and during this time everyone…
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…
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