How We Hold Meetings in a Remote Team

This is the beginning of a blog about how to make remote companies run smoothly. There is a ton of information out there about succeeding as a remote employee. However, I have been thirsty for practical tips for employers when managing the people and company culture at Toggl’s distributed team. It has often felt like inventing the wheel, but I feel the engineering had paid off. In the spirit of the principal each one teach one, I will share some of my lessons learned.

Over the past four years, Toggl has grown from a co-located team of 20 people in Tallinn, Estonia to a fully remote business with close to 90 team members across 25+ countries and 6 continents. Boy, have we learned our lessons through these years! The first very practical thing we needed to figure out was how to hold meetings when people are not in the same room or even in the same country. Here is the advice I can give you:

One Computer Per Person

When Toggl hired its first remote employee in 2014, we quickly realized our weekly all-hands meetings needed to move online. These meetings used to take place on Friday afternoons and would often turn into going out for drinks after work. The meetings were all about sharing work plans and knowledge in an informal atmosphere, so people were happy to be in the office on those days.

To include the remote team member from Spain, we set up an elaborate system with a TV screen, fancy microphone, several cameras, lightning (it’s really dark in Estonia during the winter) and Google Hangouts on multiple computers. We basically built a small studio and the meetings were so difficult to set up that only one person knew how to do it properly. Even then we often had problems with echo, screen sharing and overall video quality.

After hiring several more remote team members and after the old-timers also started to enjoy working from home more, it hit us — we don’t need any of it. If we want to be a fully remote company, all any of us needs is their personal laptop with headphones. This way everyone has an equal standing in the meeting and there are much less technical obstacles. Also, we don’t need big meeting rooms anymore. It seems so logical now, but we had to learn the hard way. By the way, we also moved the meetings to Thursdays, but still kept Fridays for going out. Win-win.

No Internet, No Meeting

Internet connection speed will make or break your remote meeting experience. Seriously. Make sure your employees have a connection that can support both audio and video. Coming from Estonia, where internet is generally fast, cheap and easily accessible across the country, I never realized how big of a challenge this can be. The reality check has been all the meetings delayed or cut short because of power cuts or unbearably slow connections so common in many countries. A decent connection can be expensive in some corners of the world, so you may consider compensating this cost for your employees as part of the home office setup perk.

Video Beats Audio Any Day

In a remote environment, you don’t get to see your co-workers often and it is easy to lose the human touch. Team members can easily become avatars on Slack chat and next thing you know, you talk to them like they were emotionless robots. OK, that hasn’t really happened at Toggl, but the risk is real.

We all need the non-verbal communication and the warmth of a human face that videos offer. Especially when we spend most days working alone from home. While audio-only can seem like the easier option, it will deprive participants of seeing the facial expressions and gestures that tell so much about other people’s mood and feelings. Just imagine how different it feels to hear someone give you positive feedback about a successful project over the phone versus seeing them say it with a smile on their face.

Mind the Time Zones

If your remote company hires peoples from around the world like Toggl does, then you will have to deal with the time zone puzzle. It is nearly impossible to find a mutually suitable meeting time for people in Tallinn, Sydney and San Diego. You should think of this already during the hiring process — will team members have enough time overlap to have meetings and collaborate on projects?

We expect everyone to have a couple of hours overlap per day with the rest of their team. It is up to each team to agree on those hours. One of our teams has actually decided to have two time slots for weekly meetings, so people can choose which one is closer to their working hours. The team lead participates in both and makes sure that no important information falls between the cracks.

Another option is to record some of the meetings, so that people who can’t participate because of time zone differences or traveling can catch up later. YouTube Live Events (Google Hangouts) and Zoom are good tools for this.

Set Time Limits

Time is a valuable resource and meetings should have a fixed duration. We have established a one hour time limit for the Thursday all-hands meetings and do our best to stick to it. The remote team of Hundred5 uses a count-down timer to make sure their meetings are focused and on point. If the meetings stay within agreed limits, people can confidently plan the rest of their days, pick their kids up from daycare before closing time and have the assurance that their time is respected.

What is your experience with remote meetings like? I would love to hear your tips, comments and questions.