Small Tech Company Knows How To Find Talented Remote Staff

Flow is a workplace management tool focused on tasks and getting things done. The company has just over 30 employees. Flow has been used by companies such as TED, Etsy, Burton Snowboards, The Salvation Army and Tesla Motors. Tim Wilkinson is the chief operating officer of the company and his background is very atypical for this line of work as he has no formal education relating to what he does. Wilkinson states that had he never joined this company, it's unlikely he would have ended up in such a position. He dropped out of a humanities degree at 21 to take a position moderating posts for a site called Clients From Hell. The founder, Andrew Wilkinson needed someone to do it, so Tim Wilkinson filled the role. Over time, Wilkinson took on additional responsibilities as the company grew, becoming the first office manager, first operations manager and subsequently, the first chief operating officer in the company's history.     What has been the biggest challenge you have had in your business?   Finding amazing people to join our amazing team.   What have you implemented to overcome that challenge?   Not limiting ourselves to one geographical region — for us, Victoria, BC, Canada and just west of Vancouver — when trying to bring on new team members. The local talent scene can be thin for the types of skills and experience that we look for, and relocating people is expensive and time consuming.   What are the results after you implemented your solution?   Allow remote employees. Now our talent pool isn't just the best of Victoria, it's the best of the world. It's completely opened up the doors to building an incredible and diverse team across multiple time zones. There are certainly challenges that are hard to overcome with the lack of face-to-face, but on the whole, it's been an absolute game changer and I would highly recommend it for companies with the same problem. The key traits to look for in a remote employee are self-direction, autonomy and communication. Without all three you'll start seeing cracks in the foundation.     Michelle Guilbeau is a writer, reviewer, teacher and business owner. She also has experience in school administration, literacy coaching and is proud founder of CraftKitsForKids.com and MichelleGuilbeau.com Michelle enjoys sharing her knowledge of cities, food, travel, education and parenting issues with her readers. Her work can be found on Examiner.com.   document.write('\x3Cscript type="text/javascript" src="https://smallbusinesspulse.radio.com/%27%20%2B%20%28%27https%3A%27%20%3D%3D%20document.location.protocol%20?%27https%3A%2F%2F%27_%3A_%27http%3A%2F%2F%27%29___%27feed_mikle_com%2Fjs%2Frssmikle_js">\x3C/script>');(function() {var params = {rssmikle_url: "https://cbspulse.com/feed/",rssmikle_frame_width: "625",rssmikle_frame_height: "535",frame_height_by_article: "0",rssmikle_target: "_top",rssmikle_font: "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif",rssmikle_font_size: "12",rssmikle_border: "off",responsive: "off",rssmikle_css_url: "",text_align: "left",text_align2: "left",corner: "off",scrollbar: "off",autoscroll: "on",scrolldirection: "up",scrollstep: "5",mcspeed: "20",sort: "New",rssmikle_title: "on",rssmikle_title_sentence: "More From CBS Small Business Pulse",rssmikle_title_link: "https://cbspulse.com/feed/",rssmikle_title_bgcolor: "#56A8E2",rssmikle_title_color: "#FFFFFF",rssmikle_title_bgimage: "",rssmikle_item_bgcolor: "#FFFFFF",rssmikle_item_bgimage: "",rssmikle_item_title_length: "100",rssmikle_item_title_color: "#56A8E2",rssmikle_item_border_bottom: "on",rssmikle_item_description: "on",item_link: "on",rssmikle_item_description_length: "250",rssmikle_item_description_color: "#666666",rssmikle_item_date: "gl1",rssmikle_timezone: "Etc/GMT",datetime_format: "%b %e, %Y %l:%M %p",item_description_style: "text+tn",item_thumbnail: "full",item_thumbnail_selection: "auto",article_num: "30",rssmikle_item_podcast: "off",keyword_inc: "",keyword_exc: ""};feedwind_show_widget_iframe(params);})();