Managing Remotely
140 companies answer 6 questions
Managing a remote or distributed team successfully requires good support, planning, and communication. Whether deciding if and how to get the team to meet in person or defining the line between vacation and flexible work, the management of a remote team has differences from managing traditional on-site teams. In our Managing Remotely section we ask top remote companies how they keep their teams running smoothly from thousands of miles away.
Do you have remote communication protocols for your remote workers?
We let each other know when we are going to be hard to reach by email or phone and may pass on key responsibilities. When we…
We don’t set specific norms for the sake of creating true flexibility. Once you start putting in rules like this, or even once you start…
Slack handles a lot of this for us; we can see who’s online and who isn’t, and team members can put themselves in DND mode…
Do you organize remote team retreats?
Socializing and team building is important when we all get together. It isn’t all about productivity and getting work done (which we do throughout the…
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,…
Once a year we converge on a tropical location for our annual company retreat. (You can find a recap of our 2016 team trip here.)…
Do your remote team members meet in person?
The full team meets together at least twice a year. There are meetups by various teams based on need and geography throughout the year.
Our Remote Team members have an opportunity each year to meet physically together once a year at a Haus. Haus is a Remote Year term…
We meet some of our team members at events, but we don’t have annual meetups yet.
How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?
We give our remote workers a lot of freedom. Every order placed through Scribendi has an accompanying deadline selected by the client from the available…
Nobody works alone at Scrapinghub. Everybody reports to a manager that keeps track of their work and this feedback moves up the chain, as it…
Clear goals and targets. And a time management system.
What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?
Frequent communication, appropriate resources, a culture of support, and the use of technology.
Communication is key. We are all completely available to one another during our work hours, meaning we can connect via video conferencing or chat on…
Always assuming your coworkers have good intentions. For example, an emoji can be translated in different ways. Knowing your coworkers have good intentions, means you…
What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?
Creating a healthy balance between trusting our team members to manage their work time and monitoring their activity. We have team members use time management…
The biggest challenge is to find people who will fit into our culture and are ready to work hard for a great cause.
Always the communication. This is this the hardest part for any workforce; remote just amplifies the stakes.
How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?
We have a monthly newsletter called Yours Virtually and the team takes turns to write in it from their perspective, and to share a little…
We make our communication better by having daily calls and hangouts between team members. We get the entire team together at the GitLab summit once…
We have annual team meetings and smaller hit team meetings throughout the year. We do our weekly call, and we use video calls as default.…
What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?
All our team members are welcome to use their own laptops and phones. There are some cases where we provide additional equipment that belongs to…
Our employees get a laptop for administration work, as well as a display, keyboard, and mouse. The software developers and QA team may have different…
We provide everyone with a MacBook, a Bluetooth headset, and any necessary devices or software needed for their home office.
What is your time off policy for remote workers?
We have an open vacation policy. People typically take around 4 weeks. We don’t track it, but we do ask that employees make sure their…
Our full-time employees receive four weeks of vacation a year. One of our most prominent core values is work-life balance, so we encourage our teams…
We’re very loose with time off and people don’t take advantage. We don’t have a formal sick-days policy either—so you can call it unlimited. It’s…
What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?
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…
My biggest fears were around not being able to manage work output, and not having clarity into someone’s projects. For the first 6 months this…
The biggest fear is definitely running into a situation where you need something from someone, but that person isn’t available or is unresponsive. This obviously…
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