There’s one key question on the minds of organizations with engineering teams: how to attract and keep top remote development talent. In fact, this is a crucial question for anyone looking to create a successful remote team and enjoy the benefits of remote developers.
(If you’re not sure if a remote team is a good idea in your case, then don’t hesitate to check out our post comparing in-house and remote developers.)
The most important factor when it comes to securing and maintaining remote talent is your organization’s culture. Remote developers want to work for companies that provide a stimulating and rewarding work environment… and they avoid companies that don’t.
In this short guide, we’ll show you the practical steps you can take to create a remote-friendly culture in your company. This will allow you to attract the best remote developers and prevent them from going to your competition.
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Practical Company Policies to Adopt
First, we’ll discuss the practical company policies you should adopt. These are based upon measures taken by various business leaders who rely on remote teams.
Management Style
Remote developers value freedom and individual choice. To create a remote-friendly culture you need to promote personal responsibility and autonomy.
You do this by focusing less on supervising input (how much the developer is working), and more on actual output (the end result). Micro-managing is definitely a turn-off. Give a little trust, and reap the rewards.
According to Greg Ciotti, Content Marketing Lead at Shopify, “Fires only burn when they have room to breathe, and you’ll end up suffocating enthusiasm, motivation, and camaraderie by looming over people all day, every day.” So, make sure you adopt a management style focused on individual responsibility.
This translates into logging progress, not effort. Ask your developers to log once per day what they were working on — and the results. This should be visible to everyone on the team. It will promote great virtual collaboration and keep everyone up to speed.
At the same time, this does not mean abolishing a hierarchy of decision-making. As GitLab emphasizes, “You still have a hierarchical organization, but with a focus on output instead of input.” You should make it clear who is responsible for making specific decisions, and when it is alright for team members to act without approval from others.
For example, when bugs are discovered, it is alright for developers to log them and proceed to fix the situation immediately? The remote developers should know the answer to, and limits of, this question. This will also help prevent potential workflow blockages due to time zone differences.
Read More: Here’s How to Best Motivate and Reward Your Remote Engineering Team
Remote Management Tools & Processes
Management style is one thing, but when it comes down to managing your remote team, your job is much easier if you employ the right processes and tools. You need to take care of four different areas: project management, documentation, time tracking, and communication.
Why? To efficiently manage your remote team, you need to make sure that everyone has access to all the required information. That’s why documentation is absolutely vital. You should record all information in a suitable format, and store it in an easily-accessible place
Besides, everyone on the team needs to have access to what everyone else is doing. That’s where project management software comes in. It will help you keep track of responsibilities, establish clear communication channels and provide continuous feedback.
As a manager, you may want to know how your team’s time is spent. That’s when time tracking software comes in. However, many remote team managers choose not to track their team’s time — instead, they only track the results produced by the team, and trust that team members can manage their own schedules and productivity. A little trust goes a long way.
Top remote teams use video hang-outs, splitting developers into pairs, and Agile development practices to help streamline their processes.
1-on-1 Meeting Time
When it comes to remote team productivity, we cannot overstress the importance of 1-on-1 time with each developer. In fact, Mike Auzenne and Mark Horstman, who train managers for Fortune 1000 companies, endorse 1-on-1 time as the single most effective management tool.
We’ve seen managers in top remote teams aim to get 1-on-1 time with every developer at least once a week. It’s an excellent opportunity for managers and remote developers to get to know each other. Each will also understand the other’s communication style, and managers will be able to give feedback.
Remember that performance reviews shouldn’t be the first time that managers communicate negative feedback. This could demotivate the employee and lower productivity. 1-on-1 meetings are a valuable opportunity to work through any difficulties and make sure projects stay on track.
Read More: How to Build a Successful Remote Developer Onboarding Experience
Vacations & Time Off
Buffer’s State of Remote Work Report in 2019 reveals that by far the biggest challenge for remote workers is unplugging from work. Being unable to disconnect from work disrupts productivity.
Buffer’s research shows that setting minimum time off for employees is the best way to proceed. Just allowing remote workers to take vacations doesn’t necessarily help. They may fear that you see them as less productive if they take longer vacations. As an example, Keith Nerdin, CEO of Swivel, decided to give his four-person remote team a mandatory 3 days off after learning about the benefits.
Since remote developers value their flexibility, consider minimizing “office hours” – mandatory availability timeslots. If you do decide to have them, then there must be a good reason, and a suitable time discussed with the team.
And finally, make sure your managers check in with your remote team members to see if they’re managing their time well. This encourages camaraderie, and developers will feel listened to.
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
⚡️ Access 450,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
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Performance Review Techniques
Performance reviews remain key to the success of any team — even if recently ongoing 1-on-1 meetings and regular team reviews are becoming more common. When dealing with a remote team, there are some special considerations you need to be aware of for performance reviews.
Clear Metrics & Expectations
Rule number one: set clear metrics and expectations. It’s great to review employees on:
- Goals/project KPIs
- Team interaction
- Availability
- Communication
- Code quality
Besides, since performance reviews can be nerve-wracking, it’s good practice to make it clear when they will be scheduled, what employees can expect from them, and how they can prepare. This will reduce fears and promote openness and transparency.
Read More: Synchronous vs Asynchronous Communication for Remote Teams
Look at Remote Developers from Multiple Perspectives
Looking at employees from just the manager’s perspective may give a one-sided picture. Phil Haack, who worked as an engineering manager at GitHub, developed a method for analyzing employees from multiple angles.
He recommends looking at peer reviews, self-evaluation, and the manager’s own evaluation during the performance review. This gives three perspectives on each employee, and a much more accurate overall picture of performance.
One particularly simple style of peer review is known as the Start/Stop/Continue style. Ask each employee to name three to five coworkers they would like to receive feedback from. Then give each of those coworkers a sheet with three boxes: START, STOP, CONTINUE. They will review their coworker in each category (i.e., what should the person being reviewed start, stop, and continue doing).
You can do self-evaluations in a similar fashion. Ask employees to identify their areas of strength, and where they would like to improve. They can use the same criteria managers will use for evaluation.
Support for Remote Employees
Another element that makes your company culture great for remote work is the support available to employees. When employees are not on-site, it’s more challenging to check in with everyone and make sure everyone is happy… but it’s important that you do.
A Sense of Community
Building a sense of community can be a challenge with a remote team. It’s essential to make it clear that you’re all in the same boat and set some clear guidelines.
One guideline recommended by the remote team at Zapier is to remember Hanlon’s Razor: always assume ignorance, not malice, when something goes wrong. Mutual trust and transparency are values that should be promoted across the team. Your team needs to focus on accomplishing the project goals – not on ego and office politics.
You should also create a virtual space for recreational activities and casual banter. A #watercooler channel on Slack is a great idea! Many companies have seen increased empathy and team spirit by adopting this practice, including Revelry.
Read More: Are Personal User Manuals Useful for Managing Remote Teams?
Emotional Support
Emotional support is the other key pillar. A highly effective way to make sure remote employees have their emotional needs met is by setting time aside to connect with every remote team member through video.
As a remote team manager, ensure you encourage your remote team to get in touch when something is troubling them. This can be something personal, or something work-related. This makes employees feel part of the team, and feel welcome to ask for help.
Company Retreats
And finally, company retreats are a great way to get your employees to meet in person. Remote retreats boost productivity and help the team work better together.
Zapier, for example, organizes two annual retreats, and they even share their method. You can adopt a similar practice for your company too, within your budgetary limits — that’s if you want to have a winning culture!
Read More: Remote Work Glossary: 50+ Words and Phrases on WFH & Virtual Careers
Wrapping Up
That’s it! We’ve covered the key areas necessary to build a remote-friendly culture.
Remember: attracting and keeping the best talent will be much easier once you incorporate the three pillars discussed.
With the right company policies, performance review techniques, and support systems in place, you’ll create a nourishing culture.
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
⚡️ Access 450,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
⚡️ Freelance or full-time
