Remote Work: Lessons from Leaders

This past week has been a challenging time for many businesses as the spread of coronavirus has reached all corners of the globe. Organizations both large and small have had to adapt and new playbooks are being written on how to keep businesses running and productive.

Companies and organizations have responded proactively to calls for social distancing, with remote work and distributed workforces becoming new normals.

For some businesses however, remote teams aren't a new concept. We spoke with three leaders that have successfully built companies through remote work and by offering technology solutions which make it possible.

In our conversation with each, we looked to learn from their experiences, what strategies they've employed and perhaps most important, how they've found success. 

1. What is it that your company does and how does your team utilize a distributed or remote workforce? 

• Andrew Wolfe, Founder and CEO, Skiplist: We are software consulting firm focused on emerging technology. Our team is 100% remote made up of freelancers (1099) and W2s from around the United States. We leverage that because we believe that talent isn’t centrally located in one location / one state; the best talent is everywhere and you have to go to where the talent is.

• Kaleb Dumot, Founder and CEO, Integrity Power Search: We are a results oriented 100% remote distributed company. Our team is completely remote across five different states and two time zones. We spend time looking for the right people to hire and once we hire them, we treat them as such. We don't micromanage or waste energy worrying about the number of hours we're working. It's about providing quality service in a timely manner. If you trust that your employees are getting things done, then you can let them be more flexible with their lives.

• Brian Glazen, President, Think Media Studios: We are a video production company with the technological ability to provide web streaming services for our customers.

2. Since Coronavirus, have you seen changes in the way businesses are operating?

• AW: Absolutely. Many of our largest companies have cancelled travel to their locations and sent their employees home to work. All of our meetings with them have been remote and we’ve been proactively avoiding in-person meetings.

• KD: We've seen a large increase in the need for remote talent and asks to help set up positive remote cultures. We've helped establish best practices in remote culture at countless startups and are more than happy to do it again. We've compiled lists of remote-enabling technologies that go well with existing stacks, like Hangouts for G Suite or Microsoft Teams for Microsoft environments.

• BG: We've had an increase for web streaming. An increasing approach especially now is increasing online communication with employees and/or clients. What we know is the show must go on and business must continue. 

3. What are some recommendations for companies and teams that are moving to remote work for the first time?

• AW: Trust is the hardest thing when going fully remote. Are people actually working? What is that person thinking? You have to trust that your team is still working and still doing their best even though they aren’t in the office.

• KD: I believe that the two main attributes of a success remote workforce are (1) over communicate - so many things can be lost in translation or misconstrued and (2) make social time - both with your coworkers and the external world. This doesn't mean face-to-face contact, but taking time to call friends, loved ones, etc. makes all the difference. In my mind, it's important that companies recognize the value of a distributed workforce outside the needs of coronavirus. Good employees can see through short term ploys to attract talent, such as temporarily going remote until COVID-19 is under control. Distributed workforces increase efficiency and save time.

• BG: With conferences and events all over the world being cancelled right now we need to lean harder on telepresence and video more than ever. 

4. How do you ensure successful communication with your team members that are distributed?

• AW: Two things: Slack and Video Conferencing. You need to make sure you have the tools available for communication.

• KD: Having good task management software in place is crucial. Communication is the area that faces the biggest risk when going remote, and management tools like Trello or Monday.com increase transparency and simplicity in employee lives. I think time is wasted most when people don't know tangibly what they should be doing. Group communication software has been really valuable to us at IPS. Doing something separate from email or iMessage gives us the feeling of our own little ecosystem - not to mention it helps for work life balance. We use G Suite for the rest of our business so Hangouts was the easy choice, only downside is that the video chats seam to glitch for a brief moment after 3 seconds into the call. Very odd but otherwise great.

• BG: Our customers have been moving to both divisional web streaming to employees throughout the country and for leadership discussions. This gives teams the ability to communicate and break the divide of leadership and staff but also to make them more up to date on strategy and take additional ownership of their roles. 

5. What's one piece of technology that you couldn't live without for successful remote work?

• AW: Slack for sure. Zoom is a close second. 

• KD: We live on Google Hangouts. We have group threads, can video chat, and check in on each other often. 

• BG: We are able to provide many more solutions than in the past. We often have speakers both on camera and off from different locations across the globe, live Q+A online and via text. We can track who is watching, how long they are watching and give immediate playback for people who didn’t make the conference.

6. Any final thoughts you'd like to share?

• AW: Remote work is hard at first. Getting the right culture in place and building trust among the team is critical but once you get in the groove of it, it will positively change the way you work forever.

• KD: Many workforce trends were already indicating a movement towards a remote workforce. Working remotely saves time, money, and increases efficiency for the vast majority of employees.

• BG: Businesses cannot afford to sit back and wait. We don't have the ability to self quarantine our businesses but we do need to protect our employees.

Connect with Andrew Wolfe at Skiplist, Kaleb Dumot at IPS or Brian Glazen at TMS.