Managing Remotely

No.

We do have guidelines, and they apply for everyone, including leadership. For example, if something isn’t urgent, we strongly encourage emails in place of chat—especially…

We don’t set communication rules for the team, but we rely on a collaborative approach to accomplish the company’s goals. Rarely is one team member…

Yes, in-person time is important. For us, the most important part of the retreat is all of the non-work time. We plan a fun activity,…

No, we did try to do meet-and-greet lunches in various locations. There was little to no interest since those who work remote do this for a…

TIP 1: think about the most important thing you want to accomplish and let that lead your decisions about who attends, what you talk about,…

We have an annual, weeklong meeting where we all gather to work and play together. We also have occasional mini conferences, during which individual teams…

Twice a year, the entire company gathers in a destination travel location for a week. We call these “onsites.” This is our opportunity to look…

Our remote teams have many opportunities to meet in person. First and foremost, all of our new consultants in the United States visit Indianapolis within…

We’re a very results oriented company, but for client services work depending upon the contract type we do track hours and do things that are…

We’ve experimented with OKRs and Squads but they haven’t worked or us. Ultimately, we created our own hybrid of the two systems – goals and…

We also define goals for each of our employees. These goals are company goals as well as their personal goals. We review these goals on…

Weekly calls are important, as is setting and communicating realistic and exciting goals.

Well, we only have remote workers, including me. For a 100% distributed team, I’d point to a few key resources: A flexible, instant “virtual office…

Agree on communication channels and style of communication.

It’s about making sure there is enough time to actually support staff, and that there are effective processes around what we expect our managers to…

Sometimes remote workers just don’t have that much time for your company. They may have multiple clients, be traveling the world (you never know with…

Knowing what to do with all the awesome.

We have regular coworking sessions regionally, as well as an annual company summit where everyone gets together. Regional team meetings and a company call occur…

Our team is very passionate about what they do. We’re just so incredibly busy and the information security space is quite exciting so everyone is…

Each team that is working for a client takes responsibility for all the issues: financial stuff, agreements, customer relations, etc. Thanks to our policy, people…

We provide all equipment people need to do their jobs. If someone wants to use their own device, that’s fine too.

Employees of Trello are provided with what they need from a technology standpoint to get their jobs done.

All gig workers are required to supply their own equipment as a business owner.

You can take off whatever days/weeks needed and as long as you have someone covering for your clients, we are fine.  

We have an open leave policy which reinforces our hierarchy of needs. Take care of yourself/family first and your team second which will create the…

Each Fog Creek employee gets unlimited sick time and 20 vacation days per year. After being an employee for 3 years, that vacation time bumps…

I think my biggest fears are when we lose touch with someone. Every once in a while, someone will just “disappear” – they don’t answer…

I would say more fear a lack of productivity, lack of communication or engagement, even how to manage potential issues like workers comp claims.  In…

My biggest fear is that one day I’ll wake up and simply be too frustrated that I don’t get to physically hang out with other…