LEARNINGS FROM

350 MANAGERS
175 COMPANIES
 Report
Highlights
Remote is long-term.
In 2020, over 16% of companies planned to
return to the office full-time. This shrunk to
6.6% in 2022, showing a global shift towards
flexible work.
The average team size is
about 7 direct reports.
This grew from 2021 and nearly doubled
since 2020.
If you're hiring, show off
your remote flexibility and
culture above all else.
We asked leaders to rank the most important
factors when assessing a new job
opportunity. Workplace flexibility was
prioritized first and company culture came
second. These were ranked above
compensation or benefits!
Companies are growing
despite The Great Resignation.
Over 85% of the tech companies included in
this study were growing or hiring within the
last six months. This is a 13% increase from
last year.
There's less gender diversity
higher up the chain.
Women and femme-aligned people made up
the slight majority (51.6%) of Managers.
However, this changed with higher seniority.
Men and masc-aligned people made up the
majority of Directors, VPs, and CXOs.
We're burning out, faster.
Over 63% of respondents said they had
experienced burnout or mental health issues.
Burnout was highest among CXOs (78%) and
VPs (81%).
The hardest part of remote
work is soft skill-related.
Building relationships and trust was the
biggest struggle for remote managers. The
second was burnout.
There are two kinds of
managers. Their struggles
are pretty different.
Managers who led for the first time in the
pandemic have an easier time with remote-
based leadership than those who had
experience before the pandemic.
THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 1
 Table of
Contents
1 Report Highlights 20 Teambuilding with Kona

3 Introduction 21 Team Building Ideas

4 The Companies 22 Psych Safety Survey

6 The Managers
23 Hire Anywhere with Oyster

8 Diversity:
Gender & Tech
24 1:1s with Hypercontext

10 Team Structure
25 Coaching with Evolution

26 Productivity with Twist

12 The Hardest Part of
Management
27 Fight Burnout with Kona

15 Understanding
Remote Burnout 29 Async with Workplaceless

17 The Great Resignation 30 Remote Strategy with GitLab

19 Conclusion: What's Next? 31 Meet the Authors

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 2

 We're looking
to the future.
We've entered a new normal in 2022. As
vaccines became more widely spread, tech
companies reopened offices to hybrid work
and organized company retreats. Many
teams traveled hundreds of miles to meet
coworkers face-to-face. For a vast majority,
this was their first time meeting teammates
in two years!
While these milestones have given leaders
the confidence to plan beyond the pandemic,
we still had significant questions about the
Future of Work. Where are remote and hybrid
leaders struggling most? How has the Great
Resignation affected hiring and employee
priorities? How did the shift to remote two
years ago forever change how we work
today?
This report tackles these questions head on.
We included interview and survey data from
over 350 remote leaders from 175+ of the
best tech companies in the world.
Our 2022 Remote Manager Report was a
labor of love from a small but passionate
team. It represents over 250 hours of
manager interviews, research, writing, and
design. It also represents the generosity of
leaders in tech. Every interview started with
a cold LinkedIn connection request and a
question, "What's been the hardest part of
leading remote teams?"
In our 2020 Report, we observed how
empathetic leadership could bridge the gap
during a time of great change. In the 2021
Report, we saw leaders prioritize team
wellbeing and long-term remote strategy as
a form of resilience. This year, we watched
companies endure the Great Resignation and
prepare for a future beyond the pandemic.
These factors have created a Future of Work
that not only demands location flexibility, but
also a leadership philosophy that puts
people first.
This is our report on the state of remote
management for 2022.
Made with love by the team at Kona.
THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 3
GET TO KNOW
The Companies

WE INTERVIEWED
REMOTE LEADERS FROM

175 TECH
COMPANIES
These notable brands, life-changing
products, and award-winning cultures
represent some of the best of tech.
We scoured "Best Place to Work"
lists and people-first trendsetters to
understand how these incredible
leaders thought about their everyday
work and the larger trends that
define 2022.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 4

 1-10
COMPANY SIZE 1000+
11-50
2.2%
5.3%
13.7%
We focused on a variety of tech
companies and startups. Similar to our
previous reports, we contacted
managers through thousands of 51-200
LinkedIn connection requests. By 28.1%
501-1000
January 2022, most companies had
23%
been remote for at least two years. This
allowed for a larger interview pool and
even distribution in company sizes. We
see a slight skew towards 51-200
person companies because they’re
often fast-growing startups with more
201-500
managers and less red tape. 27.6%

office-first
6.6%
REMOTE WORK PLANS
POST-COVID-19

With the widespread adoption of the COVID-19

vaccine, we saw many companies return to the
office. However, very few companies made
remote-first
office-first their long-term plan. This is likely due
hybrid 51.4% to worker demands for location flexibility and
41.7%
fears of another COVID-19 variant. More than
50% of the companies continue to be remote-
first while 41.7% opted for a hybrid model. Only
6.6% of the companies are office-first,
demonstrating the success of work from home.

Plans for the future changed drastically. In 2020, over 16%

Over the past of companies planned to return to the office full-time. This
shrunk to 6.6% in 2022, showing a global shift towards
three years... flexible work. Hybrid plans dropped 7% since 2021, which
reflects the unforeseen extensions to the pandemic.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 5

 GET TO KNOW
The Managers
Less than a year
5.5%

EXPERIENCE LEVEL 1-2 years

10+ years 14.1%
We looked to understand management 30.3%

across various experience levels. For the

most part, we found a relatively even
spread in manager tenure. The majority of
our interviewees were experienced leaders,
with over 80% of interviewees leading
teams for over 3 years. Less than 20% had
3-5 years
never led teams prior to the pandemic. 27.7%

6-10 years
22.5%

IT
business development
4.3%
1.7%
engineering ROLE FUNCTION
marketing 18.2%
6.6% In order to account for functional
differences, we reached out to leaders
across 12 departments. We defined
product
11.4%
departments by job title and recognize
that some job descriptions may
HR
intersect multiple departments. We
16.8% collected the highest response rates
from Engineering (18.2%), Human
operations
Resources (16.8%), and Sales (15.1%).
11.4%

sales
support
15.1%
12%

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 6

 MANAGERS BY REGION

The majority of our respondents came from the

United States (80.3%). This was followed by
Canada (5.7%), the UK (3.8%), France (1.9%), the
Netherlands (1.51%), India (1.13%), and Australia
(1.13%). We also had a handful of interviewees
from Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark,
Estonia, Germany, Greece, Russia, Singapore,
Sweden, and Switzerland. Given the geographic
bias of our interviews, we acknowledge that the
trends shown here will be skewed towards this
cultural bias.

Despite only interviewing managers from these countries,

Managing a their teams often spanned the entire globe. For one
manager, his team spanned 19 different timezones!
global team Extremely distributed teams often created two unique
challenges: time zones and cultural differences.

CXO
5.4%

VP
SENIORITY 13.7%

We define “Manager” as a person

managing individual contributors (ICs)
Director
and “Director” as a person managing 44.2%
both ICs and other Managers. Our
interview sample is skewed toward
Directors (44.2%) and Managers
(36.8%). CXOs made up the smallest
group interviewed.
Manager
36.8%

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 7

 DIVERSITY
Gender & Tech
PRONOUNS ON LINKEDIN they/them
2.1%
In order to normalize pronoun visibility for trans
and gender-nonconforming colleagues, LinkedIn
36%
DISPLAYED
added a feature to display your preferred PRONOUNS
pronouns in April 2021. We observed interviewee
LinkedIn profiles in early 2022 and found that only he/him
36% of our remote managers had pronouns 42.1%
she/her
displayed. Of the subset that shared their 54.8%
pronouns, 54.8% used she/her pronouns and
42.1% used he/him pronouns. 2.1% used
they/them, multiple pronouns, or neopronouns.

other
1.1% LEADERS BY GENDER

We avoided skewing our data with any

There is still work
gender-specific outreach. Out of a subset of
to be done to close
the 11% gap in 260 managers interviewed, men and
women gender inclusive masculine-aligned people held the majority
43.2% leadership. (55.7%) of leadership positions. Women and
men
femme-aligned people made up 43.2% of
55.7% leadership, while nonbinary and genderqueer
people made up 1.1%. There is still work to
be done to close the 11% gap in gender-
inclusive leadership.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 8

 GENDER BY SENIORITY
MEN WOMEN OTHER
100%

As we looked at leadership seniority in tech, the

75% gender gap became more apparent. Women and
femme-aligned people made up the slight majority
(51.6%) of Managers. However, we saw a significant
50%
switch only a level above. Men and masc-aligned
people made up the majority of Directors (59.8%) and
25% VPs (58.3%). Men and masc-aligned people took an
overwhelming majority (76.9%) at C-level positions.
We did not meet any nonbinary or genderqueer
0%
CXOs VPs Directors Managers leaders above the Director level.

GENDER BY FUNCTION MEN WOMEN OTHER

Gender disparities occupied functional 100%

roles. Men and masc-aligned people held

the majority of leadership roles in Product 75%

(78%), Engineering (68%), Marketing (66%),

business development
and Business Development (62.5%). 50%

human resources
Women held the majority of leadership
positions in Human Resources (82.9%).

marketing
engineering

operations
25%
People-facing departments like Sales (58%
product

support
sales

men), Operations (56.2% men), and Support

0%
(51.2% men) were more equal.
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MEN WOMEN OTHER

GENDER BY COMPANY SIZE
100%
Small startups had an even gender distribution in
leadership. Women, femme-aligned, and
75%
genderqueer individuals took the majority at tech
companies under 200, with 57.7% in leadership
50% roles. However, men and masc-aligned people took
the majority of leadership positions at larger
25%
companies. We can hypothesize that smaller
startups have an easier time prioritizing gender
diversity than larger, growth-stage startups.
0%
1-50 51-200 201-500 501-1000 1001+

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 9

 LOGISTICS
Team Structure
No MANAGERIAL EXPERIENCE
26.8%
As we crossed the second anniversary of the COVID-19
pandemic, tech companies continued to change and grow.
We found that just over 26% of managers have only led
teams during this unprecedented time. Visit page 14 to see
how these pandemic-built leaders compare to more
experienced managers.

Yes
73.2%
Over 26% of managers started leading teams
for the first time in the pandemic.

AVG TEAM SIZE BY SENIORITY 10

We calculated team size by asking about direct

reports, or the teammates that the leader directly 7.5

managed. Across our 350 manager interviews,

the average team size was 7.4 direct reports.
5
Average team sizes for Managers (7.21) and
Directors (6.04) were relatively comparable. AVG TEAM
However, these numbers jumped for VPs (8.5)
2.5 7.4
before stabilizing for CXOs (7.57). VPs were REPORTS
commonly put in charge of departments,
increasing their team size to accommodate. 0
Managers Directors VPs CXOs

Over the last Team sizes have nearly doubled. We witnessed an average
team size of 4.87 in 2020, 7.23 in 2021, and finally 7.4 in
three years... 2022. Team sizes were much smaller at the beginning of
the pandemic and stablized between 2021 and 2022.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 10

 AVG DIRECT REPORTS BY EXPERIENCE

10 When looking at team size by experience,

we saw three key moments of change: after
7.5
the first year, after the fifth year, and after
the 10th year. Novice managers typically
had an average of 4.78 direct reports in
5
their first year. This team size grew to an
average 6.08 reports the following year and
2.5 stabilized. After five years, and likely
promotion to more senior titles like VP, their
average team size grew to 8.21 reports.
0
Less than a year 1-2 years 3-5 years 6-10 years 10+ years After a decade, this shrank back to 6.41
direct reports.

AVG DIRECT REPORTS BY FUNCTION

10

7.5

5
ENGINEERING

OPERATIONS

MARKETING
RESEARCH
PRODUCT
SUPPORT

2.5
FINANCE

BIZ OPS

LEGAL
SALES

HR
IT

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Team sizes varied across functions with larger teams

gi

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s
es

skewing towards more technically demanding roles like SUPPORT HAS

sin
bu

IT, Engineering, and Product and more customer-facing LARGEST TEAM:

8.61
roles like Support, Sales, and Business Operations.
Meanwhile, other departments failed to follow this
logic. Operations teams were nearly double the size of
AVG REPORTS
Human Resources. Remote marketing teams were one
of the smallest departments on average.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 11

 THE HARDEST PART OF
Management
THE HARDEST PART OF MANAGING REMOTE TEAMS: TRUST

Once again, relationship building and trust was the most mentioned struggle for remote managers. The
second and third-most mentioned struggle was burnout and getting a pulse on team needs. It’s
important to note that relationship building was 14% higher last year. As more managers have begun to
figure out team building in a remote and hybrid environment, issues in morale have also shrunk.
However, wellbeing increased 7% since last year’s report. Teams appear to have gotten better at
logistical skills like communication and Zoom fatigue.

Hiring
3.2%
Building relationships
Miscommunication
21.4%
4.2%
Loss of creativity
5.2%

Time zones
5.8%

Sharing Information
Burnout 6%
16.1%

Motivation
7.1%

Getting a pulse Team alignment

8.9% Onboarding 7.3%
8.2%

The top struggle for remote leaders has consistently been

relationship building. The second-most struggle has
Over the last varied: communication in 2020, team morale in 2021, and

three years... burnout in 2022. Regardless of the stage of the pandemic

or remote-readiness, the most difficult aspect of
management has always been people-related

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 12

 THE MOST DIFFICULT SOFT SKILLS VARY BY FUNCTION

We compared the most mentioned soft skill gaps by department. Technical teams like Engineering and
Product appeared to struggle more with relationship building and trust than people-facing functions like
Human Resources, Sales, and Support. When it came to burnout, Marketing, Sales, and Engineering
struggled the most. Knowledge-sharing roles like Sales, Support, and Product struggled
disproportionately with remote and distributed onboarding. High-level strategic roles like Human
Resources, Operations, Sales, and Product struggled more with creating team alignment.

Relationships & Trust Burnout & Wellbeing Knowing Team Needs Onboarding Team Alignment
100%

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
75%
HUMAN RESOURCES

50%
ENGINEERING

OPERATIONS

MARKETING
PRODUCT
SUPPORT

25%
SALES

0%
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Relationships & Trust

Knowing Team Needs
Burnout & Wellbeing
Onboarding
SOFT SKILLS GAPS BY SENIORITY
Team Alignment
1 When looking at soft skill gaps by seniority, the
differences seemed notable but less varied.
Manager and Director struggles were
0.75
comparable with Directors struggling slightly
more in building relationships and onboarding.
0.5
VPs struggled the most with burnout, likely
correlated to the fact that VPs have the largest
team sizes by average. VPs struggled less with
0.25 team alignment and knowing team needs than
other groups. CXOs have been omitted from
this graph due to insufficient data.
0
Manager Director VP

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 13

 Hiring
Zoom fatigue
3.9%
Building trust 3.6%
22.8%
Loss of creativity
5.4%
Time zones
4.9%

Sharing Information MANAGERS WITHOUT

5.9% EXPERIENCE
Burnout
Motivation BEFORE COVID
17%
7.5%
Team alignment
Onboarding 6.7%
8.6%

Giving feedback remotely

Building trust 4.5%
17.4%
Miscommunication
5.7%
Loss of creativity
4.5%
Burnout
14% Time zones
8.3%
MANAGERS WITH
EXPERIENCE Sharing Information
6.4%
BEFORE COVID Getting a pulse
10.6% Motivation
6%
Team alignment
8.7%

There are two kinds of managers. New managers tended to

Comparing struggle more with soft skills: building relationships,
onboarding, motivation, hiring, and burnout. Experienced
Experience managers tended to struggle more with remote adjustment:
Zoom fatigue, time zones, information sharing, and team pulse.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 14

 UNDERSTANDING
Remote Burnout
EXPERIENCE WITH BURNOUT
No
36.5% 63% We asked a subset of our leaders whether they had
experienced burnout or mental health issues over
had experienced
burnout recently the past six months. Over 63% of respondents said
they had. This is 7% lower than last year’s report,
showing a positive trend as teams are allowed
Yes
parts of their routine back. However, COVID-19
63.5%
variants have delayed the return to normal and
created additional pressures.

BURNOUT BY SENIORITY 100%

We looked at role seniority and found that

75%
burnout was highest among CXOs (77.7%) and
VPs (81.25%). These roles typically have
50%
multiple teams reporting to them. As a result,
they often have to direct business strategies and
25%
juggle people’s needs. Wellbeing is universal.
It’s important to recognize the strain executives
0%
face when treating burnout. Managers Directors VPs CXOs

BURNOUT BY FUNCTION
YES NO

100%
We noticed the highest concentration of
burnout in internal roles like Operations (90%)
and Human Resources (61.5%). Highly cross-
75%
functional roles like Product (66.6%) and
Marketing (66.6%) appeared to struggle
disproportionately as well. The sample size is
HUMAN RESOURCES

50%

much smaller for Support teams.

ENGINEERING

OPERATIONS

MARKETING
PRODUCT

25%
SUPPORT

Internal and cross-functional roles

SALES

reported higher cases of burnout.

IT

0%
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THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 15

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 BURNOUT BY REMOTE STRATEGY YES NO

Across the remote work policies shared with 100%

our team, hybrid teams appeared to have

lower instances of workplace burnout at 75%

54.28%. Meanwhile, remote-first teams saw

68.4% of their teams reporting burnout or 50%

mental health issues. This may be due to

reduced work-life balance while remote or 25%

the ability to curb isolation in physical office

spaces. 0%
Remote-First Hybrid

“I HAVE ADEQUATE TIME, "I HAVE ADEQUATE TIME,

TRAINING, AND RESOURCES TO TRAINING, AND RESOURCES TO
SUPPORT MY TEAM'S MENTAL CREATE A TRUSTING
HEALTH AND BURNOUT NEEDS.” ENVIRONMENT FOR MY TEAM.”
40 60

30
40

20

20
10

0 0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

30% of leaders lack resources to Building relationships while remote is

support their team’s mental health. difficult, despite adequate resources.

Out of the 115 leaders surveyed, 46% agreed or
strongly agreed with this statement. Nearly a
third (29.5%) disagreed or strongly disagreed.
Despite the majority of leaders experiencing
burnout or mental health issues themselves, it
appeared that the majority felt well equipped to
support their teams where they needed it most.
This speaks to efforts across tech to prioritize
wellbeing and workplace mental health.
Experts say that trust is the most important
aspect of a successful and productive team. The
vast majority of respondents (67.5%) agreed or
strongly agreed that they had the ability to create
this trusting environment. Less than one fifth
disagreed (17.5%) and very few strongly
disagreed. When it came to building positive
team cultures, remote and hybrid teams had the
resources necessary to help their teams thrive.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 16

 The Great
Resignation
The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle,

As a
is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily
resigned from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, primarily in the

recap... United States. Possible causes include wage stagnation amid rising cost
of living, long-lasting job dissatisfaction, and safety concerns of the
COVID-19 pandemic.

No
GROWTH DURING THE GREAT RESIGNATION 14.4%

85%
Over 85% of the tech companies included in this study
had grown within the last six months. This is a 13%
increase from last year and shows that the tech OF COMPANIES
GREW IN 2022
industry has boomed through events like the Great
Resignation and second anniversary of the COVID-19
pandemic. Many of the companies we interviewed had
entered record periods of growth, doubling and tripling
in headcount in only a year.
Yes
85.6%

Work flexibility and company culture

are more important to job-seekers WHAT DO YOU PRIORITIZE IN
than compensation or benefits.
NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES?

Given the frequency of job changes during the

1. Remote flexibility Great Resignation, we asked our leaders to rank a
2. Culture & mission variety of factors when it came to assessing a
new or existing job opportunity. Workplace
3. Compensation flexibility was prioritized first and company
4. Career growth culture came second. These factors were so
important, they were ranked above compensation,
5. Employee benefits career growth, or employee benefits!

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 17

 "I FEEL MY COMPANY GOES OUT OF THEIR WAY TO CARE FOR ME."
40

30

20

10

0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Studies have shown time and time again that companies that care for their employees retain them. We
wanted to understand whether employees felt cared for during the Mass Resignation and polled a
subset of 115 managers. The vast majority (60.8%) agreed or strongly agreed that their company went
out of their way to care for them. Only 13.04% disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement. This
speaks to a larger trend of investing in people, and the results are being felt across leaders.

"MY COMPANY CARES" WITH REMOTE WORK POLICY

Remote-First Hybrid Office-First I'm not sure
100

75

50
Leaders felt more cared for at
remote-first companies than at
25 hybrid or office-first companies.

0
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

We wanted to see whether employees felt more or less cared for across various remote strategies. The
majority of remote-first managers (70.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that their company cared for them.
Meanwhile, 42.8% of hybrid managers agreed or strongly agreed. More hybrid leaders (37.1%) than
remote-first leaders (21.7%) felt neutral towards this statement. Additionally, hybrid employees showed
larger dissatisfaction rates with 20% disagreeing versus 6% disagreeing for remote-first employees. It
would appear that remote-first employees feel more cared for than hybrid employees. "Strongly
disagree" had only one vote and was omitted to avoid confusing the graph above.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 18

CONCLUSION
What's Next?
The Future of Work is what you make it.
What happens when you take an extremely competitive hiring market and blend it with a global
movement around remote work?

People-first teams win. In 2022, attracting and retaining talent boils down to investing in people.
That means supporting empathetic leadership, remote-friendly policies, and employee wellbeing. For
competitive companies, the days of vague remote plans and values are over.

Many companies have differentiated themselves by defining, iterating, and broadcasting their culture
strategy. We're seeing more dream companies that look nothing like the dream companies of five
years prior. Today's "Best Places to Work" aren't defined by coffee bars and pool tables. They're
defined by their leaders.
Loving this report? Tweet us at
@getkona and share it!
A souvenir! The next few pages
are packed with learnings.
We're so fortunate to know some of the brightest
minds in remote work and people-first leadership.
We've partnered with them to bring you our PEOPLE-FI
RST
favorite manager best practices. LEADERSHI
P
In the next few pages, you'll learn how to:

build and measure psych safety while remote

hire talent anywhere
run great virtual 1:1s
coach and grow your teammates
hone your focus while working from home
fight burnout and support team wellbeing
transition to async-first communication
plan your remote strategy

And more!
THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 19
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 20

Psychological Safety
TRUST & TEAMBUILDING WITH Kona
Psychological The collective belief that one will not be punished or
humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions,
Safety (n) concerns, or mistakes.

Google found psychological safety is the #1 driver of

team effectiveness. Teams were "less likely to leave
26%
Google, they're more likely to harness the power of but of workers felt
only psychologically safe
diverse ideas from their teammates, they bring in more during the pandemic,
revenue, and they're rated as effective twice as often..." according to
Workhuman.

How to build remote psych safety:

Create a virtual safe space. Be intentional about trust.
Agree on ground rules for meetings and tools. Trust is the foundation of psychological safety.
Create clear avenues for submitting new ideas Take time to build strong team relationships and
and avoid interrupting folks in meetings. invest in getting to know one another.

Celebrate failure. Prioritize upwards feedback.

Make time to celebrate failure and new ideas. Create opportunities for anonymous feedback in
Go over noble failures in retro meetings or Slack and during one-on-ones. Have feedback
share them in a custom Slack channel! that cares personally and challenges directly.

Kona's check-ins spark moments of vulnerability

Make trust and fun conversations so you can build trust
a daily habit. without leaving Slack. Visit heykona.com to get
started with Kona for free.
Team Building Ideas
Synchronous
events and activities
Zoom-based challenges: escape
rooms, puzzles, competitions
Invite an expert to teach a lesson
on dancing, cooking, etc.
Use PizzaTime or Grubhub for
"catered" virtual parties
Play a game like Scribbl.io
Jackbox Party Games, etc.
Dive deeper with
these exercises
Try Brené Brown's core value
activity and present them
Take a personality test as a
team to understand styles
Discuss triggers and create a
safe word for discussions
Create work-with-me guides
and review them as a team
Programs that require more planning
Plan a company retreat
for a week/weekend
Create a virtual
celebration for a
company milestone
Asynchronous
team bonding
Set fun Slack channels around
non-work subjects like #dogs
Send a daily question of the day
for debate: pizza vs. taco?
Create a non-work check-in for
teammate emotions with Kona
Express gratitude in a #kudos
channel and say thank you!
Our favorite
activities mentioned
after 900+ interviews Make meetings
to date! more engaging
Create a themed meeting for
fun backgrounds & outfits
Start every meeting with an
icebreaker or check-in
Schedule 1:1s and lunch
dates with Donut
Do a round-robin gratitude
activity at the end of meetings
Set up Employee Prioritize wellness with
Resource Groups for group therapy or yoga
minorities and interests
Create special weeks for
Invite a guest speaker to making fun projects or
do a workshop or panel recognizing diversity
THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 21
Psych Safety Survey
Measuring your team's psychological safety is as simple as asking the right questions.
Print out this survey during a team get together or gather anonymous responses
anonymously in a shared Google Drive folder. See which areas you can improve!

STRONGLY STRONGLY
DISAGREE NEUTRAL AGREE
DISAGREE AGREE

I can make mistakes without fear that

my coworkers will hold it against me

My co-workers welcome opinions

different from their own.

I feel safe to take a risk on this team.

My direct manager values my ideas.

People keep each other informed about

work-related issues within the team.

Members of this team are able to bring

up problems and tough issues.

People on this team never reject others

for being different.

It is easy to ask other members of this

team for help.

Working with members of this team, my

unique skills are valued and utilized.

No one on this team would deliberately

act in a way that undermines my efforts.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 22

 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 23

The Future, Today

HIRE REMOTE TALENT ANYWHERE WITH

67% 23% 46% 61%

People Ops executives Employees surveyed HR executives reported companies are still
saw recruiting and would prefer to work that maintaining planning or lack a formal
onboarding remotely full-time compliance was top of diversity and inclusion
as their primary role mind while hiring globally commitment program

In Oyster's 2021 report with 451 Research, 560 global workforce employees and HR
leaders talked about how the HR function is shifting to adapt to an evolving workforce.

Finding top remote talent in 2022:

1. Define your ideal candidate. 4. Evaluate their remote fit.
What traits, personality, communication, or geographic Ask the right questions to understand their remote
needs do they have? Specify this early! working style and existing skills.

2. Use the right sourcing plan. 5. Set the right expectations.

Consider what online tools and platforms your ideal Employees should have a clear understanding of what
candidate engages with. And don't forget your network! their role involves and what success looks like!

3. Set up the interview process. 6. Make your offer competitive.

Leverage sync and async at different stages. Use video Top talent will look for fair compensation and attractive
interviews to build connection in the later stages. benefits packages. Stand out by adapting to their needs.

Your first
Oyster's global employment platform enables leaders to
hire compliantly and care for their global teams. Sign up

hire is on us. to get your first hire free (up to $8,500 value) plus 10%
off all new hires in the first 12 months!
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 24

Calendar Euphoria
REMOTE 1:1S WITH
Meetings are the greatest tool in a manager’s toolbox. They’re an essential touchpoint
to connect with team members one-on-one, as a team and cross-functionally. To be
effective, they need to be purposeful, actionable and inclusive.

Set clear expectations Share updates elsewhere

Lay out ground rules and purpose to avoid Communicate status updates asynchronously or
aimless conversation. Who leads? Do you need in your team meetings. One-on-one time is for
to prepare? your employee's benefit!

Use a meeting agenda Take notes and refer to it!

Use a shared online agenda that you can both It's crucial to have a clear record of decisions
access and add to as needed. and follow-ups. Turn agendas into your notes.

The Reliable One-on-One Agenda

How are things going?
What's something you're really jazzed about
outside of work?
What have you been working on this week?
What has been the highlight/lowlight?
Where do you need help?
Are you happy with our level of
communication? How would you change it?
What's top of mind right now that we haven't
talked about yet?

Never step into a meeting unprepared ever

Get meeting again. Hypercontext has a massive library of
epiphanies. templates. Say hello to better meetings with
more accountability. Check it out.
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 25

Depth in Leadership
COACHING WITH
Driving the way teammates show up in the world is an internal operating system (OS):
models that live inside of everyone and guide people's actions. The OS is a path to
sustainable transformation. To understand someone's OS, record the following:

It is critical to have clarity around Examples of Have include:

Have what we are trying to achieve. Be
patient though, having a perspective
Revenue
Trust
results we achieve or on the results you want can be more Growth
things that we have difficult than it seems. Feelings of peace

This level tends to get the most Examples of Do include:

Do focus and for good reason: the first
step in addressing a gap is to look at
Behaviors
Rituals
what we're doing or not what we are doing and not doing to Processes
doing to get a result
support a given result. Habits

We have world views and ways of Examples of Have include:

Be seeing things that guide our actions,
which then create a result that
Beliefs
Feelings
our internal worldview reinforces the original worldview. Narratives and stories
that guides everything
This awareness can lead to change. Mindsets

Long-lasting, Evolution is the trusted coaching firm for high-

growth startups like Slack, Notion, and Glassdoor.
sustainable Join their free monthly webinar to learn more about
results. the fundamentals of Evolution’s leadership practice.
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 26

Ending Distraction
PRODUCTIVITY WITH

Multitasking While our technology can handle context switches without

missing a beat, our human brains cannot. Each time we’re
is a big myth. interrupted mid-task, we pay a tax on our time and attention.

Use a tool to capture tasks. Fight FOMO, turn alerts off.

Worrying about another task splits our Turn off notifications for distracting apps and
attention. Capture ideas and prioritize them. reduce the number of tabs on your browser.

Time block your calendar. Resist the urge to respond.

You'll need a structure for staying focused. Work culture rewards responsiveness. Train
Batch your hours by task, theme, or pomodoro! your team to not expect immediate replies.

Replace distracting chat pings, back-to-back

Distracted by meetings, and constant interruptions with Twist,
chat pings? the first communication tool designed for async
workflows. Sign up for free at Twist.com.
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 27

Protect Your Team

REMOTE BURNOUT WITH Kona
PROFOUND Know the signs
EMOTIONAL
EXHAUSTION
Constant exhaustion
Habitual overtime
BURNOUT Sadness or irritability
Increased self-doubt
Self-isolation
FEELINGS OF INCREASED
INEFFICACY CYNICISM Escapism
Procrastination on tasks

How to support a teammate:

Normalize talks on wellbeing. Model time off.
Stigma prevents far too many individuals Unlimited PTO isn't enough. Leaders must
accessing care. Share your experiences. create a culture where breaks are celebrated.

Set clear boundaries. Show your appreciation!

Have transparent conversations about Remote work can be lonely. Go out of your
workload and responsibilities during 1:1s. way to celebrate wins and recognize effort.

Don't let teammate burnout take you by

Protect team surprise. Kona's check-ins and trends can help
wellbeing. you protect your team. Visit heykona.com to get
started with Kona for free.
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 28

Together & Apart

ASYNC-FIRST WITH
pportunities Benefits: resp
ng o ecti
di ng
l bon eve
ryo
tura ne
na '

st
Synchronous Asynchronous
re

im
mo

ea
and

nd
- Information and messages - Information and messages
me,

wor
Find the
ting, fast decision ti

k styl
are exchanged in real-time.
right balance are not exchanged in real-time.

e, collaborate r
- The sender expects an for your team - The sender expects a
immediate, fast response. to maximize delayed, thoughtful response
productivity
- Teams rely on in-person and prevent - Teams rely on documentation,
nova

e
or virtual conversations. common comments, or messages.

mo
n

tely
i

pitfalls.
me

- Ideal for co-located work - Ideal for distributed teams

at
rti

s
e

ca
i

along one timezone. across timezones.

as

le,
e

, co
rson mp
e let
to in-p e ta
sks
ilar indepe
Benefits: sim ndently

For better async communication...

Convert meetings Identify your info Establish a
to async work bottlenecks placeless mindset
Meetings have become the default What decisions or behaviors Your team shouldn't have to prove
for remote communication. require an immediate response to that they're working. Embrace
Replace them with documentation move forward? Can you proactively your team's flexibility,
or collaboration tooling! share documents or summaries? transparency, and trust.

Remote work requires all sorts of skills, and

Learn to Workplaceless is the perfect partner. Use the
work async. code "KONA2022" for 20% off their Async at
Work eCourse.
 THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 29

Head of Remote
REMOTE STRATEGY WITH
GitLab is the leader in remote work. With over a thousand fully distributed employees,
they've helped educate the world on remote strategy. If you're looking to work remotely
far beyond the pandemic, here are our favorite tips from The Remote Playbook:

Documentation is king. Embrace transparency.

A handbook-first approach is key to any well-run business Transparency is vital for all-remote environments. Default
at scale. Document processes, culture, and goals. public and let it guide every decision. Discomfort is normal!

Build culture intentionally. Remote isn't one-size-fits-all.

1 in 3 workers say they feel disconnected from their peers. Trust that employees know what's best for their working
Lean into team building and be intentional with meet-ups. style. Provide budgets for equipment, coworking, etc.

All-remote Hybrid-remote
TYPES OF REMOTE STRATEGIES

No office Strong office culture

Remote, no set timezone Some remote, centralized timezone
Async communication Sync communication

Remote-only Remote exceptions

No office Prioritizes office culture
Remote, centralized timezone 97% in office, centralized timezone
Sync communication Sync communication

Remote-first No remote
Coworking offices Prioritizes office culture
Remote, no set timezones In person, centralized timezone
Sync and async communication Sync and async communication

Every remote strategist should review GitLab's

The Remote Remote Playbook and public Handbook. These
Playbook learnings are first in their class and reflect the
best in remote thought leadership.
 Meet the Authors
KONA: OUR STORY SO FAR
Our founding team came together because
we’d all been burned by remote work before.
One fear-based culture. One failed startup
from low team morale. One isolating
position. The three of us agreed that remote
work could be better.
Without much experience ourselves, we
looked to experts. We interviewed a hundred
remote managers before writing a single
line of code. We found that the human side–
relationship building and team emotions–
were the biggest asset and hurdle for
remote work success.
Our Philosophy
Remote teams work best when leaders and
company cultures put their people first. If
you've led a remote team before, with all the
flying deadlines and blockers, you know this
is a lot easier said than done.
Kona's check-ins and reporting helps the
best leaders create people-first cultures. You
know, the ones that prioritizes wellness,
empathy, psychological safety––all the
human and squishy things that help people
be their best and do their best work.

Of course, we wouldn’t have gotten far

without our customers. Many of the remote
managers we interviewed became our
testers and first customers as we
engineered a solution to these “squishier”
problems. We tried a few solutions before
Make team building
landing on Kona. Kona is our culture & wellbeing a habit.
platform for remote teams, a Slack app that
helps teammates emotionally check in and
address burnout before it’s a problem.

In 2020 we graduated from Techstars and

raised $1.1M to build the culture platform
for remote teams. Our team is growing fast,
but we’re still sticking to our roots and Visit heykona.com.
staying close to customers. This report
compiles all the manager research we did
this year.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 31

Acknowledgements
Our 2022 Remote Managers Report
wouldn't be possible without a village of
Our Partners:
managers, partners, and supporters.

We'd like to thank our manager

interviewees and survey participants for
their time and generosity. Over 350+
individuals took time out of their busy
schedules to help us (complete strangers!)
answer many, many questions. We're
always blown away by their patience and
passion for this topic.

We'd like to thank our report partners for

helping us gather survey data, sharing their
expertise with our audience, and spreading
the word to the tight-knit remote work
community.

We'd also like to thank our customers,

investors, mentors, and supporters. You
inspire us to make remote work a happier
THANK YOU!
and safer place for everyone.

Graphs by Angela Li.

Written by Corine Tan.

Designed by Corine Tan.

THE REMOTE MANAGER REPORT - 32