Remote-work culture: how we thrive in the digital world

Remote has been a well-known reality to most of us since the pandemic (for some of us, even longer). Truth be told, as an organization, we started operating in a remote setup when the pandemic hit (before that, we practiced work from the office with occasional home office days), and right now, we can not imagine functioning differently. Since then, together with thousands of companies all over the world, we have been looking for the best ways to incorporate remoteness and reimagine our culture to make it all work in a new setup. Right now, we are a remote-first company employing people from all over the world, mostly from Poland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and the US. Having traveled through this transformation, we have some things to share on how we thrive in a digital environment after over 3 years of being remote-first and what exactly it means for us to be a remote-first company.

Since the pandemic started in 2020, a lot of companies have successfully navigated and adapted to the presented challenges. The vast majority of them have managed to use them as opportunities for resilience and growth, among which remote work sits at the top. As a company, we see that our remote-first setup is something that is never finished, and the adaptation process should and will continue. No surprise that adaptability is among the top skills that support employees well-being at work and allow lead the organization to a thriving and resilient future.

As an organization, we adapted to the new reality and rebuilt our in-office rituals and ceremonies for the remote setup on individual, team, and company levels. Recruitment interviews, onboarding, meetings, plannings, and workshops, among others - all of these processes moved to remote. To make this transition as comfortable and pleasant as possible, we have created a remote work best practices guide and released remote work regulations. We also communicate with employees on a regular basis through OfficeVibe, an anonymous employee experience tool, to gather feedback and understand their needs.

It’s no secret remote work offers the convenience of working from any location that suits our individual needs. With flexible location comes flexible hours, allowing our employees to match their work schedule to private activities. As an organization, we function in two time zones: Central European Time and Eastern Standard Time. Depending on the team, its location, and meeting rituals, we keep ourselves available in the morning (between 9 and 11 am) or afternoon hours (between 3 and 5 pm) to plan dailies, plannings, and retrospective or brainstorming sessions. Although the hours are flexible, we needed to establish core hours to ensure smooth communication and collaboration between time zones.

The urge and need for remote work required enormous progress in technology that now supports seamless collaboration through virtual meetings, shared documents, and communication tools. When transitioning to a completely remote setting, the first important step was to acknowledge that the old, office-centric ways of doing things won’t work anymore. 

To foster collaboration, clear communication, and transparency, we have set Google Workplace and Slack as our major communication tools, along with a Slack guide to keep current and future employees informed on how to navigate this space in the best possible way. Over a year ago, we implemented HiBob - a human resource management tool that streamlines our HR processes, creates a warm and streamlined experience for new employees, engages our people in various surveys, and supports our talent review process. 

To create, discuss, and build, we use Atlassian products (Jira and Confluence), Miro, Loom, and Figma, among others. Supportive technology set at work plays an essential role in our comfort and well-being; we are mindful about keeping our team tools (or technology) as simple and straightforward as possible.

Remote setup and available technology sometimes might get us into a meeting marathon. Last year we released a ‘Fewer and better meetings’ guide as part of the answer to feedback received via OfficeVibe. 

Maybe you didn’t expect this in an article about being a remote-first company, but face-to-face meetings are also an important part of our culture. We still believe in supplementing online bonding and building connections with offline interactions. 

While being remote-first, we do not forget about company-wide, team-wide, or cross-team meetings that allow us both to brainstorm ideas, eat lunch together, and, of course, find ourselves in a workation or a party setup from time to time. Depending on the occasion and the scale of the event, the company organizes parties, courses, and get togethers to foster team relationships. Each of the teams also has access to the team-buidling budget for activities outside of office hours.

Remote-first setup helped us tap into a diverse talent pool and enabled the recruitment and engagement of talents from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. We have expanded our partnerships as well - through Deel, we are able to hire international employees and offer full payroll support outside of Poland and the U.S.

Our team is located in Poland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and the US, while our clients' representation reaches a number of over 30 different countries. Organizationally we are divided into over 20 teams, and skillswise, we are even more diverse. To foster a sense of belonging among our diverse team, we have recently started hosting virtual events focused on cultural learning. While we have already begun our journey with DEI initiatives, there is still a lot of work to be done, policies to establish, and activities to organize. 

Remote work promotes autonomy and ownership, enables self-management, and empowers employees to structure their day according to their needs and preferences. On the one hand, all of that sounds wonderful, but on the other hand, it requires solid discipline and sometimes even skills that we didn’t have before getting into a fully remote work setup. 

How we feel in the workplace impacts both us and our work. Recognizing that work-life balance is an important mental health factor, we've taken steps to ensure our employees have access to resources that support their emotional and mental well-being. To keep it in line with our core values of quality and support, we co-finance psychological consultations, offer additional days off, called self-care days, from time to time, and give access to Mindgram - a platform dedicated to providing extensive opportunities for personal development as well as mental health support.

As an organization, we have a lot to learn in this area. In September, our People team representatives will participate in a Wellbeing Officer workshop to equip the team and, as a result, team leaders with expertise in promoting well-being among employees and destigmatizing mental health problems.

At Infermedica, remote stands for many things: adaptability, flexibility, collaboration, inclusivity, quality, and support. According to the Talent Trends 2023 report issued by Micheal Page Insights, only 12% of current work arrangements are fully remote. 33% are full-time offices, and 55% are hybrid setups. Being in that 12% is a privilege to represent and be an example of the remote-first workplace, but at the same time, it requires our commitment to invest more time and resources into new processes to thrive in a constantly changing era of work.

BL/EN/2023/08/08/1