Radically remote: uniting and motivating a team across time zones

The past two years haven’t been an easy ride, but as we emerge from the pandemic, Gideon Lask explains how a radically remote strategy is working at his organisation and while the distance between some employees exceeds 9,000 kilometres, his team is more productive than ever

Remote work was famously labelled an ‘aberration’ by Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, but for us, at Buyapowa it’s been an incredible learning curve. We’ve enjoyed plenty of highs, a few challenges and learnt great lessons along the way.

We now have 60 brilliant employees peppered across 17 countries – including Columbia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France – and we have swapped our traditional London office for a riverside hub, with breakout areas, sofas and a bar. It’s a space to socialise and brainstorm, but nobody’s obliged to use it.

Throughout our remote journey, we’ve made incredible discoveries, including how to manage and motivate teams working across multiple time zones, and how to recruit and retain the top talent. Here, I’ll share our most powerful learnings….

Collaborating across time zones

Our remote-first culture at Buyapowa has given us an influx of bright, hungry employees and benefits us commercially. I’m also a big believer that working remotely can be hugely productive – just ask researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, who showed that it isn’t where we work that matters most – it’s how we work and who is doing it.

But inevitably, running a successful global remote team has its complexities too. As Big Ben chimes 5pm near my London hub, our team in Vancouver are just settling into their working day. And by the time our Canadian co-workers are grabbing lunch, those in Madrid are ready for dinner and drinks.

Collaborating across multiple time zones is notoriously tricky, and teams can become disconnected, disenfranchised, and unproductive. But with 60 staff based from Bogota to Berlin, we’ve learnt how to navigate the pitfalls.

Communication is king

When you can’t grab a colleague for a coffee and chat, communication becomes even more critical. For us, Zoom and Slack are great stress-savers. Slack particularly helps us execute projects seamlessly across three continents, whether communication is synchronous. Our team members can custom set their status too, reminding others where they’re located around the globe.

Collaborating across time zones can get confusing, but we avoid issues by over-communicating. We clearly state deadlines in all the relevant time zones and create calendar invites for meetings too. That way we dodge any mix-ups and ensure we’re all turning up (virtually) when we should.

Sharing meeting outcomes is also vitally important. While our teams work flexibly, collaborating on early or late calls, nobody can make every catch-up. But by videoing those calls and circulating notes, we keep everyone in the loop.

Be strategic

Investing TLC into the geographical jigsaw puzzle keeps our crew connected too. For example, we’ll hire new applicants from a time zone that has good crossover with their support team, and we’ll pair employees with international clients in their own time zone too. It keeps communication channels constantly open, harnesses the value of local knowledge and ensures cultural sensitivity. With customs, public holidays and work practices varying across continents, that can hugely impact relations.

Cherry-pick your team

Remote working has big benefits, but it isn’t for everyone. And as our geographic reach has expanded, we have become religious at cherry-picking dynamic team members, who will thrive when collaborating across time zones.

This means hiring people who embrace flexibility, from rising at the crack of dawn to meet Australia, to juggling their evening with a call to Canada. For our Westerly colleagues, it also means being comfortable with drinking coffee on our Zoom catch up, while I sip a sundowner.

Fundamentally, remote working across time zones requires give and take, and a healthy respect for boundaries on both sides. Our employees might take a couple of hours off to do the school run, knowing they had an early start, or even work a split shift. Ultimately, they thrive on the flexibility that being radically remote brings.

Retain talent

With the ‘Great Resignation’ in full swing, it’s also more critical than ever that our team feels valued and motivated. Last year, voluntary resignations exceeded 47 million in the States and this March, US workers left their jobs a record 4.5million times. And for every tech candidate, there are three openings to fill.

We want to retain our talent, and that’s why we’ve made training and development a crucial part of our radically remote culture. We offer generous training budgets, to help the team upskill, and we encourage staff to identify what coaching would benefit them in regular reviews. Soon, our ethos will be formalised with the Buyapowa Academy, our immersive, online training resource. Packed with videos and inspirational content, it will give staff the tools to take on new challenges.

Of course, this is a win-win. It enables our trusted team to build on their skillset, plus it boosts performance and productivity. New learnings help each team member while benefiting Buyapowa as a business too.

Be forensic with feedback

Without sound management, a remote team can feel distanced, disenfranchised and, well… remote. And with a distance of thousands of miles between us, we’ve also learnt we need to double down on managerial input.

That means regular one-to-ones and touching base daily with every staff member. We’ve upped our reviews too, so we can constantly check we’re all on the same page with progress and performance.

Champion success

We also go the extra mile to show our remote team that their hard graft is recognised because success shouldn’t just be measured by salary. That’s why new signings, contract renewals and fresh hires are championed every Thursday at our ‘All Hands.’ It’s a buzzing company-wide get-together, which kicks off the morning for our Vancouver team, and rounds off the day in Europe.

Build a bond

Creating a virtual community amongst distant colleagues can be notoriously tricky, with loneliness, mental health worries and Zoom fatigue among the biggest concerns. But over the last two years, we’ve explored innovative ways to unite our teams.

For years, bosses considered ‘water-cooler moments’ a waste of time, before realising that those random encounters with colleagues actually spark creativity, productivity and boost energy levels. The legendary Steve Jobs even designed the offices at Apple and Pixar to promote them.

So, here at Buyapowa, we’ve built those ‘watercooler moments’ into our radically remote world. With colleagues stretched around the globe, it’s the little things that make the difference, like dedicating the first few minutes of every Zoom meeting to shooting the breeze. Chatting about the latest Netflix release or a colleague’s early morning SUP session connects people, whether they’re in Toronto or Turin.  

Keep it fun and fresh

We make our structured gatherings – like our Thursday All Hands – fun and fresh too. Instead of simply introducing a new employee, we’ll challenge them to flummox everyone with two truths and a lie. It gives us all a laugh and binds the team together.

We top off every All Hands with our hotly-contested company quiz when colleagues compete to win a £50 takeout order. Created by a different employee each week, it fosters familiarity across continents.

The brilliant virtual coffee app Donut also helps our far-flung colleagues build relationships. It pairs random team members on Slack and encourages them to arrange a virtual coffee and throws out random conversation starters too. These are great for sparking spontaneous chit-chat. What’s your favourite form of potato? Mine’s a French fry.

It pays to invest

Of course, being radically remote doesn’t mean we can’t party. Our virtual socials have involved scavenger hunts and cocktail making, and at Christmas, we join forces for festive fun. We give each employee £100 to spend on food, drinks and decorations, and then the remote revelry begins.

The only snag? Time zones mean our Canadian colleagues kick things off with breakfast cereal, while those in Europe are sipping mojitos. Nevertheless, everyone gets stuck into a game of ‘guess the Christmas movie’.

We encourage colleagues to hang out in person too. We provide budget for local teammates to share dinner, and eight of us recently shared tapas at our Madrid sales summit. The Rioja flowed but – most importantly – we shared three days of camaraderie. Boy, did it feel good.

The past two years haven’t been an easy ride, but as we emerge from the pandemic, I’m confident our radically remote strategy is working. The distance between our European and North American colleagues spans some 9,000 kilometres, yet our team are more productive than ever and firm friendships have formed. Just ask our tech team, who enjoy virtual gaming sessions, or our Italian crew, who meet up in Milan.

Being radically remote is a constant learning curve, and I’ll never pretend to have every answer. But we must be doing something right because we have lifers, who have championed us since our launch 11 years ago. Some staff have even left, then returned to the fold, and one Buyapowa legend famously marked a decade of service by tattooing our logo onto her ankle. Now that’s commitment!