Remote work policy - A guide for startup founders:

An employee working remotely is bound by the remote work policy

Introduction

According to Buffer's 2023 State of Remote Work, 82% of people work remotely from home. This percentage says a lot about a preference for remote work. The current trend also shows that working remotely positively affects an employee's and the environment's health. To achieve this, an excellent remote work environment becomes essential.

Currently, most startup teams and founders within a startup ecosystem work entirely remotely. Yet, startup founders like you often find implementing remote work without rules challenging. Therefore, you need a set of protocols for remote work in a Remote Work Policy. This article outlines everything you need to know about remote work policy as a startup founder.

Statistics that show the surge in remote work culture.

What is Remote Work Culture?

A remote work culture is a work culture type where employees work from a place other than a traditional office. So their workplace could be their home, cafe, library, co-working space, or a city/country they choose to work from. The company can have a hybrid work model where everyone works from home for a few days weekly. On the other hand, companies offering remote work culture are often termed remote-first companies, prioritizing working remotely with flexible work hours.

Yet, the work timings can vary. Many remote-first companies usually offer flexible work schedules and asynchronous communication. Flexible work schedules entail a work culture where employees are not required to record their work hours. They work flexibly as per their productivity levels. They also have asynchronous communication where they are not needed to answer the work emails/texts immediately.

However, there must be specific protocols to implement a remote work culture in a company successfully. These protocols ensure that employees' work efficiency and productivity are not compromised. This set of protocols is called remote work policy. Let us see how the remote work policy provides a great remote work culture.

Hence, a fundamental difference between a remote work culture and a remote work policy is that a remote work culture is a workplace where employees don’t work from a traditional office space. However, a remote work policy is a set of rules that ensure that employees are efficient and productive even though they work remotely.

What is a remote work policy?

A remote work policy is a set of rules or protocols that enlists all the requirements that allow employees to work from home or be location-independent. This policy should explain the following things:

  • Which employees can you allow to work remotely? It could be a remote-first startup where everyone works remotely and doesn't have a physical office. Or, it could be a few employees who work remotely.
  • How will the employees work remotely? Will they be allowed flexible working hours, or must they work with a time management system?
  • How will the startup evaluate their jobs? Based on the number of hours the employees work or the results and their work efficiency?
  • What will the legal rights of the startup employees who work remotely be?

The remote work policy can be a northern star for startup founders like you. It helps keep things in place when they focus heavily on streamlining the startup.

Importance of Remote Work Policy:

A remote work policy helps a startup work seamlessly when employees work in a hybrid or a remote work environment. The protocols in the remote work policy ensure that the employees follow the same. communication methods and resources even while they don't work from a physical office.

Let us see why it is essential for a startup founder to have a remote work policy in place:

  1. Effective Remote Work Environment: A well-defined remote work policy is handy when you hire your first team and streamline the remote work environment. A clear remote work policy helps establish an excellent framework for a workplace environment. Hence, in a remote work environment, a remote work policy can benefit employees and the startup.
  2. Decreases Compliance Issues: Compliance includes payroll, changing taxation, permanent office registration, or immigration, which can pose serious issues. Without a remote work policy, these compliance risks will increase.
  3. Employee benefits : A remote work environment is a preferable choice for many people. It cuts down costs, enhances productivity, and improves benefits that employees can enjoy. You can achieve these goals with a remote work policy.
  4. Enhances employment clarity: Employees might feel excited to work remotely but may have many questions about it. A well-defined remote work policy would answer these questions with transparency. It should list the permissions they give and those they don't, including how the policy affects payments and perks.

    As a startup founder, you should ensure that every company employee, including HR, understands the policy.
  5. Increased Options for Employees: When you offer employees a remote work environment, they can choose their work style according to their productivity levels. Many work-from-home policies include pointers on how to work remotely effectively as a part of a startup.

    For instance, some companies offer hybrid work environments where employees can work from home for a few days of the week. They go to the physical office for the rest of the week.

How do you implement a remote work policy in a startup?

The image shows a Step-by-step depiction of the remote work policy.

A guidebook streamlines the chaos within a startup environment. This is vital, specifically when the startup is remote-first. As a startup founder, you cannot clear up the chaos while also dealing with the growth of the startup and hiring a team.

This is where a remote work policy steps in. In a remote work environment, such a policy enhances employee management.

As you establish your startup as a remote-first company, determine the factors to consider within the remote-work policy. Your company’s remote work policy should include things like

  1. Work hours and timekeeping process: Define how the employees will remain available for office hours. If you offer partially flexible work hours, define the set work hours. For a fully flexible work culture, ensure employee availability for meetings, discussions, etc.

    If you plan to work remotely within tight work hours, determine if you need employees to timekeep their entries and exits. When can they take their lunch break, or which time clocking software would you use?

    Here, you can also include the location details of the employee. Outline which other cities/countries have employees working remotely.
  2. Identifying the remote work tools: There are specific tools that your company should use for communication, project management, or collaboration purposes. Determine those tools and offer access to your employees. Ensure the communication tools include video/audio meeting facilities for easy remote collaboration.

    Additionally, if you plan to offer work devices to your employees, what will you provide? Will you give them a laptop or reimburse them for a remote work setup? If your employees must work on the company equipment, what standards will you follow for device maintenance?
  3. Determining the applicable company policies: TWhile creating a remote work policy, ensure that you also consider company policies. For instance, the code of conduct, attendance rules, sick leave, non-disclosure agreements, etc, will remain important even while working remotely.
  4. Performance measurement: Determine the factors to consider while measuring the performance of your employees. This is important since measuring employee performance in a remote work culture can become pretty difficult. Do you need productivity apps for your employees? Which goals will help you understand their performance? A clear distinction for metrics will be essential as each role will vary.
  5. Communication practices: Specify your expectations regarding communication within work hours. How many times a day should an employee check-in? Emphasize the channels through which they can communicate with their colleagues. Also, determine the software applications employees need for the project management and presentations.
  6. Security measures:The most crucial element while crafting a remote work policy is determining the security measures. Defining all the security best practices to ensure all the sensitive data remains safe is vital. This includes client information, employee data, etc. Also, outline the policy around the employee’s use of personal devices to access the company’s data. Would you allow them to do that?

You can create a basic remote work policy out of the above-given points, and you can add to it as your startup evolves further. As we navigate the implementation process for a remote work policy, it is essential to understand certain things you should or should not do. Below are some points to consider:

Two employees standing with the list of do’s and dont of a remote work policy implementation.

Do: Ask employees to inform their managers about their work location

In a remote-first startup, the employees could be allowed to work from their chosen location. In such a situation, they must inform their managers about where and in what time zone they plan to operate. Additionally, the remote work policy should also mention the communication type: is it an asynchronous communication policy?

Additionally, a remote work policy helps cover the employees for legal issues when they don't work from their home country. Therefore, they have to abide by the laws of the country they are working from.

Do: Have a written work agreement for each employee.

While working from another country, a startup founder must ensure the employee has all the work agreement papers. Hence, you should include a clause regarding the work agreement rules in a remote work policy.

It should also contain the hours of availability and the clause about the right to disconnect from work. List out the office and home office allowances and reimbursements. Additionally, the performance metrics for every role will change. Hence, guidelines should include the role and its performance measurement metrics in the remote work policy.

Don't: Micromanage

You need help trusting your employees when they work remotely. With proper management, you could avoid micromanaging your employees. Additionally, this could lead to an employee looking for a new job where they feel more trusted.

Hence, consider introducing an asynchronous work model where the employees don't always have to be available. Yet, also ensure that they are available when they have agreed to. Allow them increased autonomy of their schedules and their time to work. This can make them more productive and efficient. Moreover, such a work model lets them have deep work sessions that could lead to tremendous long-term results.

Remote Work Policy Creation

We have understood many things about remote work policy. But how to create one? There could be many starting points for it. For instance, which roles are eligible for remote work? Which roles require physical presence in the office?

Hence, we have compiled a list of questions that you can take up to create your first-ever remote-work policy:

  1. How will you manage employee work hours in a remote work environment? If you have employed contractors, how do you ensure they don’t work extra hours?
  2. Will there be any fixed hours or formal dressing even while working remotely?
  3. As far as devices are concerned, can you provide workstations? Will you reimburse their internet usage?
  4. What will be the mode of communication? Which software applications will you use to ensure seamless communication and collaboration?
  5. What metrics will you measure employee performance and goal achievement?

We have created a sample remote work policy for beginners who are struggling to form the basic structure of a remote work policy. You can download the sample policy here.

A guide that helps you implement a remote work policy for your organisation. It includes policy compliance, compensation and equipment provisioning.

Remote Work Policy - Best Practices

Zapier is one of the best remote-first companies of the world. They have built a culture around the way they work. But, what makes their communication so successful even though their team members are from different corners of the world? Communication. They stress on having communication in the following ways:

1. Zapier:

Zapier is one of the best remote-first companies of the world. They have built a culture around the way they work. But, what makes their communication so successful even though their team members are from different corners of the world? Communication. They stress on having communication in the following ways:

  • Having it to the point.
  • Include a hashtag to the communication thread to make it more understandable.
  • Remove complex language and jargons
  • Keep the communication searchable by adding search tags to the communication.

2. Awesome Motive:

Another amazing company is Awesome Motive. They are also a remote-first workplace where they encourage employees to work from the location of their choice. This company also prioritizes open and transparent communication along with various other employee benefits. Awesome Motive achieved all of this with over 330 employees working from 50 locations around the world.

3. Buffer:

Another remote-first company that we can talk about is, Buffer. Apart from communication, they heavily rely on being transparent with everything they do. They have maintained a chart of open salaries of their employees, company finances, and consider transparency as their guiding light.

4. Chili Piper:

Chili Piper caught a lot of attention on social media channels with the kind of posts they put. The way they work has made this company a favorite among people who want to work with them. They have adopted values like compassion, innovation, and ownership. Every employee is given autonomy at the core of the work they do. They believe that great employees do amazing works when trusted. Hence, they don’t believe in micromanagement.

Conclusion

In summary, implementing a remote work policy can be a game-changer for startup founders. The discussed benefits highlight its potential impact on growth. Founders should strategically approach remote work, investing in technology and a supportive culture. By doing so, startups unlock operational efficiency and cultivate a motivated, engaged team. But, a remote work policy holds its significance when you adopt a remote work culture.