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What do you think about hiring remote employees?
Remote work has become increasingly popular over the past year and a half, and many startups are considering hiring remote employees to expand their team. However, there are challenges such as communication and team culture. What are your thoughts and experiences on hiring remote employees, and how do you manage those challenges?
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Mary Kathryn Johnson
Timely topic, and great question, Sebastian! I have had remote team members for 4 years all across the U.S. and in Europe, and we communicate several times per week to keep the culture strong, and the work productive. Short strategy and tactical meetings are held every other day (and sometimes daily during launches and project deadlines).
We use tools like Trello and Slack to keep our conversations timely and relevant, and I send little gifts in the mail, or schedule an in person visit or retreat to show appreciation for all the hard work.
The biggest advantage I see is the flexibility afforded to remote workers. We no longer have a 9-5 society, because, well, whose 9-5 are we talking about? That means that pay is independent of hours worked, and totally dependent on work done, projects completed, and the productivity of the worker. While this may not apply to all positions, it certainly opens up opportunities where there were only obstacles before.
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I think remote work has much more advantages than disadvantages. The main disadvantage in my opinion is the challenge of team culture you already mentioned but with good team events you can easily overcome this. One other disadvantage is the problem of longer ways of communication. In an office you can simply walk over to someone and talk to him/her. In remote working you always have to set up a meeting or schedule a call.
However this does not closely outweigh the advantages like: having the opportunity to hire from all over the world, having a very diverse team, having most productive employees as they can choose their working environment etc.
@hannes_ri Yeah having team events is something what really helps to overcome the challenge of not knowing each other that well in person. I try to organize at least one team event every two month and its always fun and we get to know each other very well which helps in the everyday working-life