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?

Hubstaff

We try to avoid too many emails, instead using Trello to communicate, Skype for IM, Jing for training, etc. On weekdays due to the timezones…

FMTC

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…

SimpleTexting

We expect people to be online during their scheduled workday. If they’re not going to be around or stepping out for whatever reason we ask…

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Do you organize remote team retreats?

Fog Creek Software

Yes – see my blog where I wrote the definitive guide to planning an offsite. 

LiquidSpace

We organize retreats and offsites about once per quarter. A couple tips: choose a great venue for your company retreat and, of course, use the…

VIPKID

Yes! The events count as one form, and they love to meet up for potlucks and meet and greets. We’ve also sponsored two successful trips for…

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Do your remote team members meet in person?

komoot

We organize team gatherings three times per year (when it’s safe to do so) where we all meet and work together, but also have fun…

TeamSnap

Twice a year, the entire company gathers for a week-long retreat where we laugh, learn, review and plan. Even though we haven’t seen each other…

Acceleration Partners

As a whole company we have bi-weekly video calls every other week and we get together in-person 2x a year for all company meetings.

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How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?

Tropical Travelers

I am very fortunate to have an incredible team of consultants. They are self-starters who work until the job is done. This type of work…

Toggl

At Toggl, we have a result oriented culture and everyone’s productivity is measured by their results. We have small teams working together: back end team,…

Origin Eight

Through project management and time tracking tools.

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What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?

Simple [A]

Truly, a distributed company operates with all the same leadership dynamics and laws of physics a traditional, co-located company does. Culture matters first and foremost.…

Equivity

Constant communication. This requires the use of text, email, voice, and video communication platforms and shared expectations regarding availability.

Knobs.co

Clear tasks, responsibilities, and deliverables.

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What is the hardest part about managing a remote workforce?

American Express

We’ve had the most success with employees who came into the experience with a realistic understanding of the nature of the job and what it’s…

1Password

Balancing socializing in a virtual workspace with not working in a silo. When working remotely, it’s so easy to either block out everything and become…

Modern Tribe

One of the hard parts we’re working through now is adding layers of management we didn’t have before. We’ve grown a lot over the past…

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How do you keep remote employees engaged and feeling part of the bigger picture?

GitLab

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…

Go Fish Digital

While we aren’t big on meetings, we do have a regularly scheduled Monday meeting where we go over any admin items and talk about the…

Five Q

Our leaders are continual learners in what good leadership truly is. Ultimately, we keep ourselves moored in our mission, the continual development of a warm…

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What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?

Doist

Team members can use any hardware that they please. After you’ve worked with Doist for six months, you are granted a generous hardware and software…

10up Inc.

We offer employees a notable equipment stipend to be used for purchasing company assets when they start ($2,000 for technical production like designers and engineers,…

Lullabot

We provide a monthly stipend for these sorts of things via a prepaid debit (Pex card) and we offer to front-load it on hire if…

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What is your time off policy for remote workers?

Bitovi

We offer 20-26 paid time off (PTO) days and seven paid holidays. The PTO days vary based on how long you’ve worked for the company.

Seeq

We have an open PTO policy, meaning that employees don’t accrue paid time off and we don’t track the time that they take. We measure…

Incsub

We ask that everyone let their team members know about any planned time off with as much advance notice as possible. There’s not limit, but…

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What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?

Appirio

The biggest fear is “culture cracks” as our CEO calls it. Since we do have such a significant amount of remote team members, it is…

Pagely

Not being able to meet some people in person means we have to rely more on references and our gut to gauge a potential hire.…

Eyeo GmbH

We were not afraid.

See all 24 answers