Remote Work Interviews

Owl Labs (OL): Tell me about how you got to where you are in your career today.

Iwo Szapar (IS): Two main things brought me here. One is persistence and then persistence again. I know it might sound cheesy, but once I decide to do something that I'm extremely passionate about, everything is possible. You have this goal and you're envisioning how you can get there. 

When I was 21, I wanted to launch a startup, so I did. We got our first customers, and it was amazing. A year later, I learned of a company that was expanding internationally and said I'd like to open a branch in Poland that I can scale. They thought I was insane, but I persisted and then scaled the business to about 25 people, 400 clients, and a partnership with MasterCard and PayPal.

Then I was like, "What's next?" I was 26 and decided I'd like to live in the U.S. When I arrived, I watched the change that was happening in the labor market which brought me to where I am today, running Remote-how. Persistence has been key all along. Oftentimes, people give up too early or they don't start at all because they're afraid of change, of something new. 

Another helpful thing throughout my Remote-how career has simply been talking to people. Again, I know it's so simple, but I would take it to another level by talking to top-notch subject-matter experts and establishing relationships with them.

I enjoy being challenged because meeting new people either mutually on LinkedIn or through video calls can really help you to get another perspective -- a better perspective even. You're going out of your comfort zone and then, the worst-case scenario, you will hear "no" or there will be radio silence. Or, in the best-case scenario, you will hear feedback on whatever you want to discuss.

OL: You mentioned changing labor dynamics in the U.S in part of your decision to build Remote-How. Tell us more about how you decided to create your current company

IS: The idea came from the employee perspective and this enormous culture shift, especially among the younger generation. People today are so much more focused on experiences over possessions. For example, many millennials would prefer to go to Thailand over buying a new car. On the other hand, I was also a manager, and I noticed it was super hard to find good talent in the market. Many companies are still not open to trying new things, especially in regards to remote work, so I began thinking of ways to try and make people happier on both sides of the equation.

I thought of many things related to well-being and achieving a better work-life balance, while also thinking of ways to help businesses grow sustainably, and after a lot of conversations with HR and C-level executives, it seemed like the answer might be remote work. When we started nearly two years ago, the mindset wasn't there. That's why all of our initial activities with Remote-how were focused on educating people about the remote work market. This way of working is not actually the future but the current reality.

OL: What kind of work do you do to support both the individual remote workers and the remote-friendly companies Remote-how works with?

IS: The first pillar is to educate the market. I call it "market enlightenment," and we have two initiatives on this front. The Remote Future Summit is the largest virtual conference on remote work that's completely online. We've had over 8,000 people join virtually from 128 countries. We bring together subject matter experts from companies like Doist, Buffer, and more, and we're spreading the word on best practices to help people overcome the fear of remote work. Another initiative is called Global Work From Home Day.

The other aspect that's kind of connected to the first, is workforce education. We run the Remote-how Academy, which is for individuals, for managers, and for HR, to teach them how to make remote work, work. We have subject matter experts mainly from remote-only or remote-first companies who are delivering these best practices to the broad, international audience through an educational program. 

The third aspect is what I call "remote implementation," which is working the remote shift. It's focused around hiring protocol. We organized the first remote job fair last month that was connecting full-time remote candidates with companies hiring remotely. We'll be launching a platform for that called Remote-how Talent in September. 

There's also a need on the consulting side, so we're connecting subject matter experts with companies that have very precise challenges. There are many different needs and we're doing our best to cover all of them. 

OL: What are some of the most common roadblocks you see when primarily co-located teams start embracing remote work, and what are some of the ways they can overcome them?

IS: The biggest roadblock is the lack of preparation. Many companies assume remote work is the same work you're doing in the office, and that is a huge misconception. There are a lot of differences in how you communicate and collaborate with each other. Companies just assume that everything stays the same, and this is where you might fall into the trap and fail. 

There are significant time investments needed to prepare both leaders and management to know how to manage a distributed workforce, build teams, and make sure they are engaged. On the other side, you need to make sure individual contributors know how to work in a remote environment, even if it's just one or two days a week. Then, make sure the HR folks know how to set up the environment, the culture, and more to accommodate remote workers. You need to have all of these processes and tools and have leaders prepared for this change.

OL: What are some of the ways that managers and leaders can make remote workers feel included and connected with their teams outside of day-to-day work?

IS: There are a couple of "tricks" that should be implemented in day-to-day operations. In an office, you have watercooler chats where you talk about what happened last night, what happened yesterday, have you seen the latest game, etc. You can replicate these conversations in an online environment as well. You can have Slack chats and weekly calls where you're not talking about work. Another important thing to remember is it's not an all or nothing game.

When you're remote, you should remember to meet with your colleagues in real life. Many companies that operate in a remote-only format or remote-first are organizing annual/quarterly team retreats or company-wide retreats. They're not focused on working together; they're focused on bonding with each other. Make sure you have these touchpoints that aren't work-related, either through written or video communication. It's super important, even in the early days of a company, to have an HR person to make sure that the culture is there and that there is an engagement.

OL: Why are communities like Remote-how so valuable for remote workers? 

IS: There are a couple of reasons why. First of all, people are learning from each other. Learning how to achieve what they are looking for, depending on if it's to go remote or to become a better remote worker – there are different motivations. But these communities give people access to other folks with different experiences and the lessons they've learned and the best practices they have. 

Community is about sharing knowledge and combating the loneliness that can come with working remotely full-time. Then, of course, networking and staying in touch with others is so important. There are so many cool apps and tools popping up every week that can make your remote life easier. 

OL: What's a myth you hear about remote work a lot that you want to dispel?

IS: People who aren't so deep in the topic of remote work, and who aren't aware of companies like ours or the Doists and Buffers might think this way of working doesn't work. Perhaps they've heard that ages ago, Yahoo changed their remote work policy and made employees come back to the office, and that this is what the majority of the market looks like. Now, there are growing remote work trends coming from market leaders, like LinkedIn naming remote work and flexible work as a trend for this year, and the market needs more examples and recommendations like these.

That helps change the mindset, but a majority of people still think it doesn't work, or that you need to start from scratch. There are examples and case studies all over the place, but they're still not mainstream. It's definitely changing, and there are many more articles about remote work now compared to just a few years ago. Amazing things have happened and the mindset is definitely changing.

OL: We're getting to a point now where employers are starting to understand that flexible work and remote work are starting to be demanded by this next generation of workers. What do you think is the next big challenge that remote workers and the companies they work for will face?

IS: The next big challenge will be the scale. Companies that are successful when it comes to remote work are typically 800 employees or fewer. Crossing the magical 1,000-employee mark and then still scaling and keeping everything in the same order would be interesting to see. I believe this is completely doable, because especially as a co-located company that's implementing remote work, you need to make sure you're standardizing a lot of things. Many things need to be written down, and you have processes for almost everything, so if you become remote-friendly, it's very easy to scale. 

There are a lot of challenges in the beginning because it's about change management. There are also still some challenges around legal aspects of remote work, as governments aren't moving as fast as the market. Many countries still aren't ready to fully embrace full-time remote work, so companies are looking for other ways to have top talents work with them.

OL: Education is a big part of what you do. What do you think is the missing link that will make remote work more ubiquitous in the workplace? Do you think it's better education, more time, or more workers demanding it?

IS: It's a process, and it's a process that's happening as we speak. Companies are more willing to compromise about remote work nowadays, but that won't change overnight. All of the conferences, articles, and thought leaders who are promoting this change are doing an amazing job. We should help the market understand that remote work is the way to go and it's a win/win, not only for employees, not only for employers, but also for the planet.

There are so many positive aspects of remote work, especially when you are commuting less and doing good for the planet. I would say education and showing the real-world case studies is the way to go to convince the rest of the market. Employees are already demanding remote work flexibility, but companies need to feel comfortable with that and they need to understand what the benefits are for them before rolling it out.

OL: What do you love most about working remotely?

IS: The freedom of choice, which is also in our mission of Remote-how. I love being able to decide where and how I work best, because I'm making a choice. For the last five months, we were working from Southeast Asia and traveling through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Why? Because we wanted to and we had the freedom to do so. That's the biggest advantage of remote work for me.

Keep Reading: Read our interview featuring Leslie Neitzel, VP of People at Pendo, next.