Communication and collaboration best practices for hybrid or "remote-ish" teams
Illustration by Margarida Mouta
Most companies are not fully remote and have no intention to be. In reality, most companies embracing remote work through work-from-home policies have dedicated headquarters in cities like San Francisco and people working from home across multiple cities, countries, and continents.
Most remote teams have both headquarters and home offices
They’re not remote, they’re remote-ish.
Unfortunately, remote-ish teams confront even more communication and collaboration challenges than fully remote ones. In these hybrid teams, information gets siloed in offices while remote employees are left in the dark. The result is an unintended hierarchy where office workers are naturally heard, recognized, and promoted –– while remote workers are left out.
Unintended hierarchies form when remote work is not intentional
The solution? Remote-ish teams need to adopt remote-first policies that put everyone on equal footing.
An even playing field is established when remote work is intentional
This article will provide guidance for adopting remote-first principles and policies that put everyone on the same playing field.
This is an excerpt from our Twist Remote Work Guide Remote-ish: The Remote-First Solution for Hybrid Companies. Read the full-guide to learn optimal ways for remote-ish teams to communicate and operate as a team, so everyone does their best work. You’ll walk away with advice for structuring a distributed team, implementing remote-first policies, communicating across country lines, and working together regardless of location.
As companies recognize the benefits of being a remote-ish team and begin introducing remote hiring and remote work policies, the single biggest mistake they can make is opting to be remote-friendly instead of remote-first.
In this section, we outline the difference between the two modes of operating.
Remote-friendly vs remote-first companies