Climbing the Career Ladder: Secrets to Scaling Up at a Remote Company

It was inevitable that an event like the COVID-19 pandemic would change how people act in their day-to-day lives. It also, however, revolutionized how companies operate – and the bottom line? Remote working is here to stay.

Remote working is the practice whereby employees do their jobs from a location other than a central office that is owned or operated by the employer. Remote working has provided enormous benefits to employees and allows for flexibility previously unseen in the workforce. 

While this hybrid model of working has a proven track record in terms of employee output, what is less discussed is the impact it can have on scaling up in two key areas: scaling up an employee to progress in their career and scaling up a company as a whole. 

Career scaling can be undertaken in many different ways. A more traditional path may have started by studying online MBA programs, nabbing an entry-level position, then progressing through to mid-level and more senior roles, however, a less linear track is also becoming more common. Nowadays, with remote working the norm the question has become; how do you scale up a career at a remote company? 

Scaling up a remote company focuses on the techniques and strategies a company can employ to build a company’s profitability, employees or customer base via a remote workforce. The workforce may be scattered far and wide across a country or even multiple countries and have a mix of full-time office workers, hybrid workers, and fully remote workers. But how do you scale a company with a remote workforce?

This article covers these two big questions.

How to Scale Your Career While Working Remotely

Remote work is an incredible perk for many people. Despite initial concerns, it gives employees autonomy, accountability, and flexibility to maintain a healthy work-life balance. According to an Owl Labs report, 62% of workers also feel more productive when working remotely.

Despite these benefits, scaling your career while working remotely can be a challenge. Less face-time with the boss, other stakeholders, and the management of your workload without as much manager intervention can impact how your work is perceived and may hinder career progression. According to a Buffer State of Remote Work report, 28% of remote workers said career growth is more difficult for them. It is therefore important to understand exactly how you can work towards scaling your career in a remote environment. 

Consistently Ask For Feedback and Listen to It

Getting feedback in a remote environment is more difficult than receiving it while dealing with stakeholders face-to-face. Making the effort to consistently ask for feedback from managers, stakeholders, and even fellow employees is a great way to learn, make adjustments where needed, and improve your output. 

Make an Effort to Attend In-Person Events

It is incredibly easy to silo yourself while working remotely. Make the effort to show up to office days, in-person events, and celebrations or even virtual happy hours to cultivate relationships with your co-workers, build your work community, and make your overall work day more enjoyable. Being part of a good work culture is also an important part of career progression, particularly if you are looking to be promoted at your current company. Be a culture add, not just a culture fit. 

Take Advantage of Professional Development Opportunities

Whether virtual or in-person, attend the training opportunities your company provides to better your knowledge and leadership skills. If you have a spare moment while at home, don’t waste time and instead consider reviewing some of the content available to you or booking in future opportunities. 

How to Scale up a Remote Company

On the other end of the scale is scaling up a business whose employees work remotely. 

According to the Buffer report, remote work continues to be perceived positively with 98% of respondents wanting to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers. Consequently, making a change to remote work offerings could have serious impact to employee retainment, meaning companies must find other alternate ways to scale up while retaining a remote workforce. 

Maintaining remote work policies must be a part of a company’s scaling plan. 

Digitalize Employee Onboarding and Training

When the majority of your workforce is remote, it can be difficult for new starters to shadow their coworkers to learn on the job.

A simple way around this is to digitalize training and create learning and development modules to demonstrate vital information, processes, and data points en masse. In doing this, training can be provided in a repeatable format, and it saves time for the trainers, other employees, and even the new starter.

Promote Flexibility to Attract Talent

A company that offers remote or hybrid work opportunities will instantly open the gates to hiring from a greater pool of candidates, even potentially from different time zones.

When a company has team members working remotely, it’s also easier to offer flexible work schedules. This can attract and retain the best people, as they know the business is measuring performance, not attendance. Feeling valued and supported has been shown to increase employee productivity and output, which is a key requirement when scaling a company. 

Build a Supportive, Virtual Team Culture

Scaling a company requires positive employee experiences to retain talent to focus on the scale. Building a team culture for virtual employees is an important part of this and can be done in several ways;

• Build a culture of recognition – whether formalized into a quarterly company-wide event or monthly team recognition meeting or in a less formal format such as a ‘Recognition’ Teams channel, recognition allows employees to show praise for one other, managers to highlight excellent work and allows for those nominated to feel appreciated. 
• Organize company-wide virtual events – hosting an event that everyone can attend will help acknowledge employees’ importance and convey important information broadly. Sending gift packs such as a snack pack to be opened during the event can even help build a sense of a  ‘shared experience’. 
• Connect with the immediate team regularly – whether it is knocking off early on Friday for a virtual drink, having a half-hour catch-up on a Monday morning, or organizing a mid-week check-in, building a cadence for team meet-ups can help foster a sense of community and enhance team comradery. 

Virtual events can help build team culture.

Whether you are attempting to scale a company or scale your career, remote work is here to stay and must be embraced. At the end of the day, it all comes down to building a culture to ensure the impact of remote work does not hinder any goals from either party, and any downsides of remote working can be negated. 

Published by: Nelly Chavez