Remote work has experienced quite the pendulum swing in the last few years. Today, about 16% of global workplaces are fully remote, with the rest either moving full steam ahead with a return to office (RTO) plan or meeting in the middle with hybrid work.
But for some teams, remote work was never a temporary solution—it was, and still is, the best way to run their company. In our survey of nearly 1,000 small and mid-sized businesses, fully remote companies reported being better at finding talent, building culture, and retaining employees than in-person or hybrid ones.
Hiring and managing a distributed team does have its quirks, and managers need to be ready to face them in order to build the workflows, company culture, and collective effort across time zones that really make remote work sing.
In this article, we’ll share our tips for how to hire and manage a fully-remote team—and use that setup to let your business thrive.
The challenges of hiring and managing a remote team
Employing a fully remote team has its perks, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. If you’re aware of the obstacles you could face, you’ll be better equipped to deal with them when they do pop up. Some of the challenges of hiring and managing a remote team can include:
It’s harder to find the right people. Remote job postings tend to attract a ton of applicants, meaning more screening—and a greater chance of missing the perfect fit. Plus, the recent rise in fake candidates makes it harder to know if you’re hiring a person at all.
Communication and collaboration are more difficult. Colleagues who want to grab a quick chat need to do so over Zoom or Slack. This makes spontaneous conversations more difficult, especially when time zone differences are at play.
Your team is at greater risk for loneliness and burnout. Working exclusively from home can lead to loneliness and weaker social bonds with colleagues. Plus, blurred boundaries between work and home can lead to burnout and pressure to always be available.
Culture is harder to build—but not impossible. 40% of fully remote SMBs say they're far above average at building personal connections, but those results take hard work. Leadership has to purposefully build trust, belonging, and a positive workplace culture, especially for new hires. This means onboarding, mentoring, and professional development have to be dialed in as much as possible from day one.
Trust and accountability don’t always come as easily. Managers can find it difficult to trust that their direct reports are working hard, which can lead to micromanaging—the ultimate trust and morale killer.
Compensation and benefits are trickier to navigate. Parsing through the nuances of pay strategy and benefits (which vary by worker location) can be a headache.
But for every drawback, there’s an upside that potentially outweighs the negatives: having access to a global talent pool means companies can truly hire the best of the best; similarly, one person’s burnout is another’s “I can work when and how I need to be my most productive.”
Whether your workforce sinks or swims in the world of remote work depends on how effectively you can hire and manage a team. So let’s get into it.
How to recruit a remote team
Hiring for a remote team starts well before the first interview. Use these tips to find the right people for any remote role:
Over-communicate what you’re looking for. When hiring a distributed workforce, make sure your roles and expectations are well-defined from the moment a candidate reads your job description. Be explicit about working hours, tools used, outcomes expected, and skills needed. Then be relentless about hiring to meet those requirements.
Use your lack of physical boundaries to your advantage. Being remote can be a huge advantage if you build the culture to match. Your employer brand should show how you work remotely. This can show up in your handbook, culture posts, company website, and job postings. Posting on remote-focused job boards and communities can also help you access the talent pool you want.
Screen for success. Try to get as clear a picture as you can of candidates’ work ethic during the interview process. Ask for evidence of past remote or self-directed work, and spend extra time on how candidates manage their time, communicate blockers, and stay connected remotely. Even better, run a paid work-sample or trial project that resembles real asynchronous work.
Turn your hiring process into a preview. Your hiring process is the first sign of how you work, which makes it a great opportunity to introduce communication expectations. Respond to candidate emails quickly and communicate clearly. Equally important: Be transparent about potential downsides, like isolation and time zone overlap.
Get compliance right early. Confirm the legal, tax, and payroll implications of each hiring location before making offers, and decide your pay philosophy (location-based or location-agnostic) early.
Protect against fraud. Verify identity with ID checks and camera-on interviews. Be alert to inconsistencies between resume, voice, and live performance. Once a candidate is hired, ship equipment to verified addresses and set up secure access during onboarding, not before.
Set them up to succeed. Prepare a structured onboarding plan for new hires: Make sure equipment is ready before day one, set them up with a buddy or mentor, and have a clear 30-60-90 day plan in place with scheduled check-ins. Document processes and norms so new hires don't depend on picking things up informally.
Managing a remote team: how to make it work
Managing a remote team well comes down to three habits: setting clear expectations, giving people the right tools, and staying connected.
Stick to expectations and measure outcomes
Your team does its best work when everyone knows what success looks like, and when you trust them to get there.
Define goals and priorities in terms of results, not hours online. Shared goals, whether objectives and key results (OKRs) or simple weekly priorities, give everyone a clear target and make progress visible without anyone watching a screen.
Document your working norms, including availability, response times, and which channel to use for what (quick question in Slack, project update in Asana, sensitive topic on a call). When expectations are written down, your team spends less time guessing and more time doing.
Give regular, specific feedback and recognition. In an office, praise happens in passing. Remotely, you have to make it happen on purpose, so call out wins publicly and often.
Equip your remote team with the tools they need
To work well remotely, your team needs the right set of tools—and clear expectations for how to use them.
Choose a reliable video conferencing software, like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, and make sure people are only scheduling video calls when it’s appropriate. The more meetings your employees have to attend, the greater the risk of video call fatigue.
Invest in a project management tool like Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, or Trello. The right project management software helps projects run smoothly, even asynchronously. With the right setup and workflows in place, your team can always be looped in on project status, next steps, and who’s accountable for completing certain tasks.
Enable communication with Slack (or a similar instant messaging tool). You may never be able to re-create the dynamic of stopping for a hallway chat between meetings, but Slack makes communication much easier by enabling quick check-ins, asynchronous communication, and team huddles.
Stay connected through regular check-ins and team culture
Creating team cohesion is possible from afar. But it’s up to you to create the moments that bring your team together.
Hold consistent one-on-ones and protect that time. Go beyond status updates to talk about wellbeing, blockers, and career growth. Open questions like "What's getting in your way?" help you hear what you'd otherwise pick up from body language.
Make space for connection that isn't about work. Virtual coffee chats, virtual happy hours, a team channel for pets and weekend plans, or an optional game hour can help people feel like teammates, not just names on a screen. Keep it low-pressure so it feels like an invitation, not another obligation.
Watch for signs of isolation or burnout, like a quieter-than-usual teammate, slipping quality, or teammates sending late-night messages. Model healthy boundaries yourself by logging off on time and taking real time off. If your team sees you do it, they'll feel free to do the same.
How do payroll and HR work for remote teams?
If you want to start a remote workforce, it isn’t as simple as just obeying the tax, payroll, and HR laws for your own state. You need to obey them for every state your employees are in.
If you use remote workers, you’ll need to:
Register as an entity in each state
Obtain a tax number for those states
Obey payroll tax laws for every state
Administer possible tax returns for those states
Create employee contracts for each state
A remote company has to make sure it follows all the rules for each state its employees live in—not just the state where its HQ is based.
So that means your employees in California will get mandatory sick time, but employees in Alabama may not. It also means that the vacation time you pay in Indiana is considered “deferred compensation,” but it counts as “wages” in Massachusetts.
If you’re starting a remote workforce as a small business, this shouldn’t discourage you. But you should definitely speak to the right people first.
Here’s your remote workforce HR and payroll checklist:
Speak with a lawyer about your employment obligations.
Get familiar with the HR laws in each state where you’ll have employees.
Talk to a payroll provider (like Gusto!) about making sure your contracts reflect the payroll laws in each state.
Is it time for your business to hire a remote workforce?
Running a fully remote team takes intention, from hiring people who thrive on their own to setting clear expectations, choosing the right tools, and making time for real connection. But when you get it right, you get access to talent anywhere and a team that does its best work its own way.
FAQs
Should you pay remote employees based on where they live?
It depends on your pay philosophy. Some companies use location-based pay, while others pay the same regardless of location. Decide which approach you'll take before making offers, and apply it consistently. Benefits can also vary by worker location, so confirm the legal, tax, and payroll implications of each hiring location first.
Do you have to follow payroll and tax laws in every state where your remote employees live?
Yes. A remote company must follow the tax, payroll, and HR rules of each state where its employees live, not just the state where its headquarters is. That can include registering with state tax agencies and following state laws like paid sick leave. Consult a lawyer or payroll provider for your situation.
How do you keep a remote team connected?
Hold consistent one-on-ones that go beyond status updates, and create low-pressure chances to connect, like virtual coffee chats or a non-work Slack channel. Watch for signs of isolation or burnout, and model healthy boundaries by logging off on time. Small, regular moments help people feel like teammates, not just names on a screen.
How do you onboard a remote employee?
Send equipment and account access before day one, share a clear first-30-days plan, and pair the new hire with a buddy. Schedule frequent early check-ins so they don't have to ask for context. Finish payroll, tax, and I-9 paperwork up front.
How do you measure performance for remote employees?
Focus on outcomes rather than hours online. Set clear goals and deadlines, review progress in regular one-on-ones, and give feedback on results and communication.
What tools does a remote team need to work well together?
At minimum: a way to chat in real time, video meetings, a shared place for documents, and a project tracker so everyone sees priorities. Fewer, well-adopted tools beat many overlapping ones.
Quick note: This is not to be taken as tax, legal, benefits, financial, or HR advice. Since rules and regulations change over time and can vary by location, consult a lawyer or HR expert for specific guidance.
