Articles and tips on the topic of working remotely are growing at a rapid rate, but there are few posts from companies like Splice Machine who moved to a 100% remote work environment before the pandemic. In this post, we discuss how Splice Machine’s managers have adapted their management style to manage distributed teams.
Managing Distributed Teams
Managing people is challenging. Managing a partial or whole team of people working remotely requires a manager to rethink how they lead, communicate, set goals, coach, teach, and measure performance. The people we hire at Splice Machine, especially managers, have either successfully worked on distributed teams in the past or have demonstrated during the interview process to have the aptitude to be successful in a remote-first distributed work environment.
Accommodating Time Zone Differences
Before opening up a new job requisition, Splice Machine’s People Ops team has an in-depth conversation with the hiring manager to discuss among other things time zones to focus on or avoid. At Splice Machine, some teams and specifically some jobs need to be strategically located to support customers or meet service level agreements. Other roles rely so heavily on their team members that too much of a time difference can hinder productivity. Managers at Splice Machine who have people in enough time zones that meeting at one hour in a day isn’t feasible, must rethink meeting schedules. They will often rotate meeting days and times so everyone on the team gets to participate in at least a few live meetings a month. Meetings scheduled outside a teammate’s core hours may skip the live meeting and view the recorded discussions posted by the manager.
Virtual Meetings
At Splice Machine, most of our managers host standup meetings a few times a week on Zoom. Standups serve two purposes; to give progress updates and to give the team time to connect socially. At standups, everyone is encouraged to use their cameras and everyone is expected to give a brief summary of what they accomplished since the last standup. The manager begins meetings with a little chit-chat to gauge the temperature of the team, watching body language, eye contact, and energy levels for signs of frustration, loneliness, or other problems.
Recent Graduates
Managers of recent graduates have created tools and spend extra time to help junior talent learn, adjust to full-time working life, and become productive in our asynchronous work environment. In some cases, our recent graduates have opted to work at a shared workspace which gives them a place to work outside their home and offers an office-like social experience.
Remote-First Results
Although distributed teams have not significantly lowered salary costs, our managers report a notable difference in talent and performance. Many of our managers believe that since we broadened our recruiting scope, they have interviewed and hired more qualified professionals who demonstrate greater attitudes of loyalty and higher performance than teams they have managed at previous companies.
Outside data that further supports our experience
Flexible work arrangements can actually improve the effectiveness of both individuals and teams—with 91% of HR professionals reporting that employees were more engaged and satisfied. Source LinkedIn
Millennials are much more likely to stay in a role for more than five years if their company is flexible about where and when they work. Source Deloitte
76% of millennials would take a pay cut of at least 3% to work for a company that offers flexible office hours. Source Maggie Overfelt, special to CNBC.com.
The top reasons people are interested in flexible work are; work-life balance (69%), money/cost savings (51%), time savings (50%), and stress (40%). Source FlexJob’s Work-Life Relationship Survey
Watch for our next post which will describe communication outlets for remote-first workplaces that work better than any watercooler. You may also view all of our posts on Splice Machine’s career page or download the Splice Machine Journey From Office to 100% Remote ebook that our posts are based on.