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 started very organically; we tried lots of different things and would discuss what we liked and disliked the most. From there, we were able…
We’ve been distributed from day one. Our only requirements are that our team be available for our morning scrum, that they track both their billable…
Our policy isn’t formally written down but everyone knows that as long as they get the assigned work completed and have a degree of time…
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Yes! At Parse.ly, we believe that a distributed team is an asset, not a problem to be managed. It allows for radical transparency about how…
Sure! Clearly defining the culture and hiring with that in mind is important. One thing we do that is through pairing sessions but also by…
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?
I continually advocate the need to communicate, with me and with each other.
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…
Tools are important… github, slack, hangouts, gdocs, trello Meet-ups are very important 15five has been a great tool for us to organize work Tinypulse has…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
Building a successful remote workforce doesn’t happen 100% naturally. It takes intentional effort.
Hire carefully! Some people may be excellent candidates for an open position, but not necessarily the best candidates for a remote work environment. Pay close…
You can build relationships in person and maintain them over video calls, not vice versa. “Remote” does not mean walls – in the formation phases…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
One can only talk so much good about remote work. There are drawbacks as well. Number one is the culture. Culture is always there, but…
In a word, “scale”. As the company grows the challenge of maintaining relationships grows as well. Since success in business is highly dependent on successful…
Getting the word out that teaching online is even a thing. We find a lot of our teachers are either confused about the whole concept…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
XWP relies heavily on Slack and an asynchronous style of communication, which allows us to communicate effectively across 17 time zones.
We primarily use Slack, Telephone Conferences and JIRA.
We love Google for Work! Google Hangouts are a great way to connect face to face with teammates on a video call or to quickly reach…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
We actually started as a fully remote team. So one change was having a “home” office and having some of the staff working together in…
With remote work, there’s a lot less verbal communication than before, and a lot more written communication. This communication happens largely in our project management…
The team is constantly growing, so communication changed. We need to make sure to stay as transparent as possible, for example by sharing meeting notes…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
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…
We are very conscious of the times that different teammates work and ask them to include it in their Slack profile so that everyone can…
Most of our team members are located within a four-hour time difference, which can easily be dealt with within the teams themselves. When team members…
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