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?

Universal Mind, Inc.

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.

Articulate, Inc.

Founded it from the beginning.

VIPKID

It was planned with the release of the VIPKID app. Our founders realized that recruiting teachers to come to China was a challenge. Setting up…

See all 133 answers

Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?

Automattic

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.…

Melewi

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…

Working Solutions

Absolutely!  Our teams tend to focus on communication because we do have so many remote members. We hold Town Halls quarterly so everyone hears the…

See all 67 answers

How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?

American Express

Broadly speaking, our culture is based on the Relationship Care approach to servicing, an ethos that says service is a people business driven by the…

BELAY

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…

Scribendi

Our online forum is an important part of our company, a place where everyone can share ideas and chat—a virtual water cooler, if you will.

See all 39 answers

What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?

Ultimate Software

Trust your people, and it will work!

Tortuga

If you’re going to do it, go all in. Remote doesn’t work well as an option or as a partial solution. Working remotely is a…

Pagely

Trust is key. Employers must trust the employee to execute, and employees must trust the employer to give them the space to work. Employers need…

See all 134 answers

What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?

Time Doctor

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…

Bitovi

Onboarding – It can be challenging to onboard new hires who have never worked remotely before. Day one looks quite different being remote vs. being…

Vork Inc

One of the biggest problems is finding a team to build the application with the right skills at the right cost who are available when we…

See all 88 answers

What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?

Packlane

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…

Mokriya

Most communication at Mokriya happens on Slack. This is supplemented though with one-on-ones, team huddles and all-hands meetings on Zoom.

The Cheat Sheet

A combination of online tools such as email, video conferencing, and real-time messaging apps such as Slack brings everyone together at The Cheat Sheet.

See all 91 answers

What has changed about how your remote team operates?

SoftwareMill

First big thing was the introduction of monthly face to face meetings. Then we introduced open policy for everything, which resulted in opening finances and…

Workfrom

We’ve only been around for about one year now. Our culture and operations are evolving.

Appen

We’ve grown at such a rapid pace that adapting and scaling has become second nature. Because we are now spread so widely across the globe,…

See all 47 answers

How does your team address different time zone challenges?

Buffer

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…

FMTC

We generally work on East Coast time (8am to 5pm) but have early birds on the East Coast and night owls on the West Coast,…

ezhome

Our entire company is online from 3pm-7pm GMT which means we have a 4-hour window for all hands meetings, daily standups, and the off-hand meeting…

See all 18 answers