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?
My co-founder Kerry takes all the credit for setting up our amazing guidelines, policies, compensation packages and benefits programs. She worked closely with a Seattle…
From its inception, Appirio has had one headquarters with the rest of our United States employees working remotely. Globally, we have six offices: Indianapolis, San…
As is typical with many startups, it evolved organically. Given that facilitation of remote work is at the very core of our existence, it was…
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
This is our #1 priority. As a bootstrapped company we’ve always had a conservative approach to scaling the team– we don’t hire faster than the…
The company culture is something that exceeds the office boundaries, it should drive what you do and how you do it, at all time. So figure…
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…
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.
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…
We focus on the pillars of our culture: Fun, Action, Communication, Transparency, Trust (FACTT). Fun – Meetups, video chats just to make each other laugh.…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
If you are thinking of adopting a remote workforce I would advise you to first do your research – see if a remote work environment…
Don’t hesitate to hire and fire someone who’s not working out. It’s more difficult to hire remote employees but when you get the right ones…
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When introducing any change as significant as distributing operations, we recommend defining discrete steps and rolling out any change in iterative phases that adapt based…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
Sometimes I take things for granted, that everyone is working happily along. That’s why weekly check-ins are useful so that things are NOT taken for…
As the Melbourne office grew initially it was ensuring we had a culture that supports people working remotely. We didn’t want people to feel as…
Planning around time zones may be our biggest challenge. For example, when two people are working on the same project, one in Australia and the…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
Everyone’s on Slack, and we have a lot of channels set up, both work-related and just for fun. There’s a channel for just about everything,…
In Slack, in our video meetings, and in the notes/comments in Trello. We rarely email each other unless it’s a memo for the entire team…
We use video for daily and weekly team meetings, 1-to-1 meetings, interviews, and more. We also use Trello to manage to-do lists for all departments…
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…
We introduced using a wiki to keep all internal processes and documentation organized. We used to use Google Drive and Google sites, but it was…
Since we’ve scaled to double our size in a year, some of our processes have needed adjustment. Because there are more people in the team…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
Currently, all of our remote employees are in the same time zone. We are a 24/7 operation so we do encounter scheduling conflicts with our…
We have a very social and collaborative culture, where we talk about what we’re doing and what we’re up to personally. This tends to solidify…
Everyone is respectful of everyone else’s time and situation. However, if there is an important meeting scheduled at a normal time in EST, but very…
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