Remote Working: Tips and Tricks
Let’s be honest: the landscape has changed since the pandemic boom. In Europe, fully remote positions have dropped sharply from 24% to 14% between 2022 and 2024, and the percentage of people working entirely from the workplace increased from 36% in 2023 to 41% in 2024. Big corporations are leading the push back to the office — Amazon, Disney, even Manchester United under Sir Jim Ratcliffe have mandated full-time office attendance. In the EMEA region, remote jobs now make up just 4.7% of LinkedIn job listings, down 21% from 2023.
And yet, here’s what the data also tells us: over 40% of European job seekers would reject a job outright if it lacked remote options, and hybrid work remains the preferred model for the majority of workers. Remote work hasn’t died — it has matured. At Orbitant, we remain remote-first. We have central offices in Madrid, but we continue to bet on flexibility because we believe the best talent is distributed all over the world. Or do you really think the best developers will only be based in the city where you live?
Of course, this practice has its downsides: communication needs to be promoted, fluid, improved and efficient, which is a big challenge. Also respect and trust need to be built up, which is even harder. Trust is a quality that takes a lifetime to create, and in just one second it could be gone.
Here we present 10 tips to make your life easier when implementing or maintaining a remote culture in your organisation.
Create a Remote-First Environment
The first step to succeed with remote work is creating an environment that truly embraces it. Don’t provide seats for everyone in hybrid teams: this way you will enforce the idea that your team works remotely, and people will be encouraged to do so if they don’t have the space.
Also, keep the remote culture even on-site. Of course, there will be more personal conversations, but try to work as if you were elsewhere. You could be keeping someone out of the loop. This consistency is essential for building an inclusive remote culture where no one feels like a second-class team member.
Communication: Your #1 Challenge
It’s absolutely essential to use a collaboration tool such as Slack, Microsoft Teams or similar. Remember: communication is your #1 challenge, and these tools are fantastic for this purpose. Today, platforms like Slack connect with over 2,000 third-party apps, while Microsoft Teams has reached more than 320 million monthly active users worldwide, becoming comprehensive workspaces that integrate chat, video meetings, and file sharing.
Integrate and automate your processes as much as you can: communication tools support these features. The idea is to make your team aware not only of the things that you say, but also of the things that you do, such as Pull Requests, commits, deployments, alerting, monitoring, etc.
The 3-Message Rule
If you need more than 3 conversations back and forth to explain a problem in the chat, stop right there and use a video call instead. Don’t waste your time. Written communication is great for quick updates, but complex discussions deserve face-to-face interaction, even if it’s virtual.
Rituals That Keep Teams Aligned
Standups and retrospectives are essential tools to keep communication fluid and horizontal. They allow you to avoid wasted work and keep the team focused.
These ceremonies become even more critical in remote settings:
- Daily standups: Keep them short and focused on blockers, not status reports.
- Retrospectives: Create a safe space where the team can reflect and improve.
- Weekly syncs: Ensure alignment on goals and priorities across the team.
Protect Your Focus and Wellbeing
Avoid being overconnected. Notifications, emails, video calls… they could be your allies… or your enemies. Too much distraction is a productivity killer.
Remote work blurs the lines between professional duties and personal life, making it easy to overwork. Set boundaries: define your work hours, schedule breaks, and communicate your availability clearly. Companies like Basecamp champion structured flexibility with a strict 40-hour work week, and many organisations implement “no meeting days” to protect deep work time.
Build Human Connection
Meet everyone at least once a year. We are human beings: socialise, shake hands, have a beer or a coffee together. Feel your colleagues. Despite all the technology we have, nothing replaces face-to-face interaction to build trust and strengthen relationships.
Additionally, set a common goal separated from work, achievable by remote collaboration (such as building a blog, working on a side project, managing the organisation’s social media accounts). This gives you the opportunity to interact with people outside your regular team and creates bonds beyond daily tasks.
Navigate Time Zones Wisely
There may be people working from different timezones to yours: adapt to each other and negotiate when to meet. Distribute your tasks with a strategic mind.
Here are some practical approaches:
- Define overlap hours: Establish 4-6 core hours when everyone should be available for synchronous communication.
- Embrace async communication: Document everything so team members can catch up when they log on, regardless of their timezone.
- Rotate meeting times: Share the burden of inconvenient meeting times fairly across the team.
This is especially important as remote hiring continues to grow — companies are tapping into broader talent pools beyond their geographic limits, which means more timezone diversity in your team.
Final Thoughts: Remote Work Is Here to Stay
Yes, the pendulum has swung back towards the office. Yes, big corporations are mandating full-time attendance. But here’s the thing: remote work is not just a pandemic trend; it’s a fundamental shift in how we build and run organisations.
The companies that will thrive in the coming years are those that understand flexibility is not about where you work, but about how you work. It’s about trust, communication, and results. At Orbitant, we’ve seen firsthand how a remote-first culture allows us to attract exceptional talent from across Europe and beyond: people who might never have considered relocating to Madrid but who bring incredible value to our team.
Implement these practices thoughtfully, adapt them to your team’s unique needs, and you’ll be well on your way to building a thriving remote culture. The tools are better than ever, the talent pool is global, and the teams that master asynchronous collaboration will have a serious competitive advantage.
Remote work isn’t for everyone, and it’s certainly not easy. But for those willing to put in the effort, the rewards in productivity, in talent acquisition, and in quality of life are undeniable.
