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?
We don’t have a formal remote work policy like tracking time or something like that. We mainly look at defining outcomes that we want to…
Organically. It started with just me and John for the first few years. Than as we hired people, it was natural for them to work…
It emerged organically, but my company started as a distributed company.
Can a remote-friendly company have a healthy culture?
Absolutely. The key is having the right communication tools and connecting regularly. We use Slack for constant text based communication throughout the day. We find…
Sure, if you start with it on yourself as a good example, then everyone is doing the same.
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…
How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?
We train our new employees on our company culture, which is based on Accountability, Visibility and Respect. We have weekly onboarding meetings for all new…
We have Slack channels dedicated to all sorts of interests, from fitness to cooking to travel. Our teams meet anywhere from daily to weekly by…
We have regular in-person meetups in the different areas where we operate, to give our employees the opportunity to learn and connect with each other.…
What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?
A successfully managed remote team is directly proportional to the skills of the leadership team’s ability to lead that team. As long as you lead…
Commit to remote work, then figure out solutions to keep making it work. Avoid the knee-jerk reaction of just rolling it back. Trust your team…
Keep a keen eye out for certain WFM (Works for Me) traits that give a professional a leg up if they chose to select a…
What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?
One thing we’ve seen is that you have to invest a lot of time and energy into hiring well. Growth is hard, but it’s much…
Communication can be tricky when having overseas talks. Technologies can sometimes be difficult too.
Building the sense of trust and maintaining the sense of urgency. So many topics are easier to be whiteboarded out in the same room, but…
What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?
We use several tools to maintain constant communication throughout the day. Sqwiggle is our on-demand video platform, Attentiv.com offers us a constant stream to communicate…
We have a back-end portal, run by our head of teacher management, Daniel Charvat, specifically for communicating with our online teachers. Every time they log…
We rely on tools such as Slack, Zoom, and Trello to communicate and plan our daily work commitments. I’m not saying we are perfect and…
What has changed about how your remote team operates?
The biggest things that have changed are directly related to scalability – the routines and policies we maintained as a team of six people just…
Advances in technology have made communication between team members – and with our clients – faster, easier, and more reliable.
There have been many positive changes to how we operate by enabling our front line to work remotely. We have more flexibility in scheduling, it…
How does your team address different time zone challenges?
We offer some flexibility in work schedules so that team members can have somewhat of a normal schedule, but we also require work hours to…
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,…
We make sure everyone coming on board understands the different time zones. We work together to identify when the majority of workers are available and…
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