Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash
Before I dive into this post, I wanted to share a quick personal update with you!
I previously mentioned that I was pregnant, shared how I was planning for parental leave along with some of the challenges I went through over the past couple years trying to get and stay pregnant. So now I’m happy to announce that I had my little boy earlier this month. His name is Nayakan Silas Wilson.
I love having him around, and have found it extremely difficult to tear myself away!
One thing I realized this month was how much support I’ve received from friends, family, and my remote team. Without them, it would be hard to have the freedom and flexibility I now enjoy on parental leave.
All this month on Build, I’ve been exploring the themes of hiring, onboarding, and managing remote teams with the Founder of Pixc, Holly Cardew.
We started out by talking about how to recruit remote workers across job functions, gauging if they are a culture fit, and how to test for their capabilities, all the while recruiting site unseen!
Then we moved on to talking about how to onboard and train them, and finally dove into discussing how they can manage a critical project.
Still feels like we’ve scratched the surface! Having run a remote team for almost a decade now, I thought I’d share a list of resources that have worked for us, and could help you out depending on where you are in your lifecycle of remote work and remote team building.
My hope is that it will provide you with some inspiration, plus tools to help you achieve the freedom and flexibility you need to enjoy special moments in your life!
Looking for your first remote job, and wondering what you need to do differently?
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
If you’re transitioning you might be on the fence about taking a new remote job. Here are a couple examples of people who have transitioned from being onsite to remote:
- Meghan Burgain, a mother of twins, living in Bordeaux, and Femgineer’s community manager does a great job of explaining how she got over the hurdle in this Build episode.
- Sarah Doody, a UX Designer and digital nomad, shares how remote working as a freelance ux designer differences from being onsite in this brief video.
And if you’re wondering where to go about finding these sorts of jobs, consider the following sites:
- Flexjobs: hand-screened remote, part-time, freelance, and flexible jobs
- PowerToFly: site for employers and employees dedicated to jobs in tech
- Upwork: site for employers and employee dedicated to contract and freelance work
Remote jobs benefit a number of workers from digital nomads to those with accessibility concerns and the aging workforce
Photo by Startaê Team on Unsplash
Job sites like Indeed.com are also including filters to help people who have accessibility concerns. And the more remote jobs there are present in our market, the more likely elderly folks are to continue working!
Learn about how remote work benefits a number of different demographics in this post.
Looking for a place to live to cut down on costs? Some towns and states in the US will give you a break, like Vermont.
Transitioning your team to remote? Learn how to manage the transition, evaluate performance, and more!
If you’re a leader, manager, or founder, building a self-sufficient team is an important skill to help you scale yourself and your company’s efforts. Read about how I made the transition with my team at my previous startup BizeeBee, and how my former co-founder/CTO transitioned our engineering team.
Two books that helped us through the transition were Rework and Remote by the team at Basecamp (formerly 37 signals).
Zapier also has a great post on how to evaluate remote employees performance here. They also have a full guide, I highly recommend you check out here.
Are there other companies out there that have fully embraced remote?
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
We’ve talked about the difference between remote-friendly (just a few folks working remote) versus remote-first (everyone on the team working remote). If you’re curious about which companies are fully remote and how they operate, here are 25 of them that Zapier shares in their blog post.
Curious about their processes? Check out the pilot episode of Build with Ben Congleton CEO and Co-Founder of Olark, as he discusses how Olark has built a Happy and Productive Remote Team over the years by thinking through values, communication methods, and so on.
They even have a full section of their blog devoted to employees sharing stories of how remote working has benefited them and busting a number of myths such as “If I am working from home, I am slacking”. Plus ways to help you decide if remote working is right for you, and if you love watercooler conversations, how you can still make those happen on a remote team.
Are you on a remote team?
If so, what are some other resources you’d recommend to those who are currently considering becoming a remote worker or leading a remote team? Let us know in the comments below!
And please share what has worked for you so others can learn from your experience!
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