How do you know if a company has a good remote-work-culture?

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In 2020, a large portion of the world experienced remote work for the first time, as people began working from home during the pandemic. Some people love working from home and would prefer it over office work every day. Obviously, many people prefer working remotely, and companies were forced to catch up due to the pandemic. Not only have many companies switched to remote work temporarily, but some have even moved permanently to allow this for all of their employees. Prominent technology giants such as Twitter and Shopify have made the switch completely, and many small and medium businesses have done the same.

Companies that do not allow permanent remote work but have employees who enjoyed it will quickly find that they are at a disadvantage in the global competition for talent.

To help job seekers, here is a description of a healthy remote culture along with questions you can ask during interviews in the hope that this will help to illustrate some key features of a healthy remote culture.

What Makes a Healthy Remote Culture?

Many office-based companies were forced to pivot to remote work last year with little to no warning or preparation. Understandably, this didn't create the best experience for everyone involved. Some companies adjusted quickly while others continued to struggle months later.

the culture of remote work is fundamentally the same, except that employees interact online and communication now takes place via video calls and text messages instead of in person. With that in mind, here are some key factors for a healthy remote culture.

Intentionality

Communication requires a lot of attention, or it can be difficult to work on projects together and make progress. In a traditional office environment, it's easy to reach anyone in a department for a quick chat, but that's not the case with remote work. Meetings need to be planned in advance, even if they are relatively short.

The onboarding process for remote employees requires additional effort. You can't simply introduce a new team member in person and show them around the office. Rather, initial conversations must be coordinated. When someone joins the team, they need to know where to look, which tools and groups to join, and who to communicate with from their new team.

It is important to set clear boundaries when creating a culture of intentionality. Without careful management, work from afar can become work at any time of day. Healthy cultures set boundaries with specific times and encourage people to adhere to work hours that align with the rest of their lives.

Trust

It's important to have trust in a remote work environment. If your supervisor doesn't trust you, they might try to closely monitor how you're spending your time or send you regular messages asking what work you're doing. This degree of micromanagement would affect not only productivity and your ability to do the work, but it would probably also damage your mental health.

Communication

The importance of clear communication in remote work cannot be understated! If you cannot rely on personal communication, you must have systems in place that allow and encourage regular, clear communication between team members. In practice, this means that the team should have a shared understanding of best practices for communication.

Asynchronous communication to some degree is important for a remote culture that is healthy. If a culture is fully synchronous, then throughout the day there needs to be communication, and this requires that every team member is in the same time zone. It is not possible for teams that are in different time zones to have fully synchronous communication; thus, working asynchronously is often much more beneficial so team members can have a flexible schedule.

Questions for the remote interview

It is important to ask questions about the culture to make sure you do not end up in a bad situation. Here are some questions that can help you see what the culture is really like on the inside.

"What can you tell me about your corporate culture?"

That is a very broad question to start with, but you should have an answer ready. Companies get this question a lot, so they should be able to answer it easily.

"How do you mainly communicate? Do you communicate asynchronously?"

What tools do you need to answer this question, and why is it important to ask how each tool is used? Some teams use Slack differently than others. The asynchronous part of this question should also help determine whether the company is more session-based, meaning it expects people to regularly join synchronous Zoom calls, or if they rely on text- or video-based updates and status reports.

Every company will react differently here, but ideally there should be some asynchronous communication to allow for flexibility.

"How do people set their working hours?"

This question is a good way to determine the flexibility of the company. Some places have a nine-to-five mentality, while many distributed companies don't care about work hours as long as there are overlaps with immediate team members. This is also a good question to find out if the company actively tracks your work hours or if it works differently.

"What would the onboarding look like in this position?"

If all goes well, the hiring manager will have reasonable expectations for the remote onboarding process—a process that should include learning about the company and getting to know new colleagues slowly.

Unfortunately, not everyone has such a great experience in a remote role. The difference often comes down to culture. A good remote work culture can improve or destroy this remote experience - that's why it's important to know a company's remote work culture before you join the team.