Remote/Hybrid Work — Key Considerations

COVID-19 dramatically accelerated the pre-existing trend toward distributed and hybrid workforces. While the core principles in this guide hold true in any mode of operation, the tactical execution of great org health should adjust if your team is fully or partially remote. Here are a few key things to bear in mind:

Define the rules of engagement: craft a written, “living” document and make it accessible. For example, one ground rule might be asynchronous writing as the default. A shocking portion of real-time meetings are unproductive and disruptive, especially with distributed workforces. Making written communication the default bridges schedules and time zones while removing bottlenecks. It also ensures documentation of important considerations and conclusions from which others can benefit. See Basecamp’s Guide to Internal Communication as a nice example.

Get intentional about human connection:

• Meet up in-person: whether it’s two days in the office, an annual company-wide summit or an ad hoc team offsite, face-to-face interaction is uniquely effective at building trust and rapport. Regularly build in time for fun.
• Insert a little levity: try posing a social question at the beginning of each regular team meeting (e.g. “what song do you hate right now?”).
• Systemize 1–1 check-ins: managers and their direct reports should regularly discuss individual morale, holistically. Peel back the onion and don’t accept “fine” as an answer.

Over-emphasize onboarding: find the right mix of self-training, live tutorials and a buddy system — perhaps by department or team — and hone a tight process. Effective onboarding is absolutely critical to remote and hybrid success. Set up your new hires for success in this environment!

Create a cadence of accountability and acknowledgement: implement daily or weekly pulse checks such as “what will you be working on this week?” with a focus on big picture priorities. This becomes even more important when you can’t swing by someone’s desk or chat by the watercooler. When it comes to acknowledgements, make them public and specific. You might try a “spotlight of the week” from the CEO detailing an individual’s recent contributions. Pro tip: the CEO does not need to pen the full message; this is not deceptive or hollow. In fact, the message will be more specific and meaningful with heavy input from parties closer to the story. Ad hoc acknowledgements should also flow freely within teams.

Pick your collaboration “stack”: there are many fantastic software tools out there. Pick what’s right for you. One simple example of a collaboration stack:

• Zoom for virtual meetings
• Hive Teams for project management and chat (Vocap portfolio company)
• Figma for design collaboration / prototyping
• gDocs for real-time coauthoring
• Gitlab for playbooks, manuals and knowledgebase
• Dropbox for shared storage

Alternatively, the Microsoft product suite can cover most of the above. There are pros and cons of going best of breed vs. single vendor.

Know Your Team has put together a nice starter list of tools here.

Try to avoid hub and (individual) spokes: when you have a center of gravity tied to a physical office, the minority who work remotely will feel isolated and out of the loop. There are various hacks and tactics to address this, but it is an uphill battle and often leads to suboptimal performance and turnover. If possible, we recommend avoiding this flavor of a hybrid model.

Here are some of the best resources on managing remote work (bookmark these!):

• GitLab Team Handbook: thoughtful, detailed, and comprehensive reference guide; 8,400 pages of text geared toward an all-remote company
• Guide to Managing Remote Teams by Know Your Team: easy-to-navigate and full of best practices collected from over 300 remote managers
• Basecamp’s Guide to Internal Communication: a simple set of rules for remote collaboration