Article
10 min read
How to Adopt a Remote-First Culture without Losing the Human Touch
Global HR
Author
Alice Burks
Last Update
July 16, 2025
About the author
Alice Burks is the Director of People Success at Deel. She has a passion for transforming the workplace, and is dedicated to creating a new world of work where individuals have access to the best global opportunities and organizations can connect with top-tier talent. Prior to Deel, Alice was Global Head of Learning at DICE and Global Leadership Development Partner at Trustpilot.
At Deel, we don't just work remotely; we are remote-first. With a team of over 5,000 individuals spread across 104 different countries, we've built a culture that is connected, productive, and people-first, regardless of location. Our commitment to remote work is deeply ingrained, reflecting our company's founding mission to break down barriers to global hiring and make it easy for businesses to find and manage talent worldwide.
And the results speak for themselves. According to Glassdoor, 92% of our employees would recommend Deel to a friend, often citing our great culture and the benefits of working in a global team.
In this article, I’ll shed some light on how we intentionally build a great remote-first experience for our employees from day one, even as we scale at hyper-speed. I’ll include lessons from the field and give you actionable takeaways to improve your own remote-first leadership style.
Debunking Remote Work Myths
There are many misconceptions about remote work. Our experience at Deel is that these are mostly unfounded and entirely debunked:
Myth 1: Remote-first is harder than alternatives
It might surprise some, but being remote-first can actually be more straightforward to design processes and people programs around than a hybrid model. When everyone is remote, all team members approach meetings, internal communications, and performance structures from the same starting point. Everyone is "not together", putting no one at a disadvantage and eliminating presenteeism. We’ve removed the complexities of juggling in-person and remote participants, which can often create more tension.
Myth 2: Remote-first is vastly different from current practices
The idea that remote-first is a "big leap" for businesses is often overblown. Most teams today aren't always physically together, and many businesses already have a remote component or global offices. Remote-first simply involves dialing up that existing remote component and making it the norm.
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Myth 3: Productivity suffers in a remote-first environment
Contrary to fears that people will "slack off" or "quietly quit" in a remote setting, our experience at Deel shows the opposite. A remote-first culture fosters an even greater focus on outcomes. Employees are measured by what they deliver, the quality of their work, and their progress against Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), rather than hours spent in a physical office. This outcome-driven approach is a healthy aspect of remote culture, promoting efficiency and effectiveness.
The art of human-centric communication in a global remote setting
Effective communication is paramount in a remote-first environment, especially when teams are globally distributed across multiple time zones. Everything we do hinges on communication: not just efficiency and speed, but also creativity and team culture. To that end, we intentionally create communications systems that prioritize employee well-being and flexibility.
Embracing asynchronous communication
A key adjustment in a remote-first culture is becoming comfortable with asynchronous communication, meaning collaborators aren't always live or in sync.
Leaning into extensive documentation is crucial. Deel has built an incredible knowledge base for internal use, containing product information, processes, and policies. This allows for self-service, providing reliable and accessible information precisely when needed, reducing reliance on DMs and inboxes for easily found answers.
Much of our conversational exchange and feedback happens directly within documents. This "keep the ball moving down the pitch" approach ensures progress even without synchronous interaction.
And finally, for us, Slack is quite literally our office – a noisy and lively one. We maximize every bit of Slack's functionality to make it as collaborative and productive as possible. It serves as our lunchroom, conference room, water cooler, and project meeting space, demonstrating that a 5,000-person company can operate effectively through this single platform.
Cultivating connection and culture from day one
Building connections in a remote-first environment requires intentionality to compensate for the absence of informal, in-person touchpoints.
We consciously recreate the good aspects of physical office interactions. For example, our new hire onboarding includes a fun e-learning module that translates typical in-office experiences into our remote context, like finding hardware support in the "ask it channel" on Slack instead of a specific floor. To combat unintentional silos and foster visibility across teams, we utilize simple, user-generated content, such as a company-wide photo competition where employees shared their remote work locations, reinforcing our "together everywhere" value.
New hires often seek visibility of leadership. We use video content featuring our executive and senior leadership teams to share success stories and cross-functional problem-solving. This video content is also integrated into the onboarding journey, helping new hires get to know our leaders at scale and across vast time zones.
Our onboarding methodology is built around the "4 C's of onboarding”:
Compliance: Adherence to local labor and contract laws
Clarity: Ease of access to information and clear communication
Connection: Help finding community and creating peer bonds
Culture: Storytelling, visible leadership, and values
While compliance (the "must-dos") and clarity (roles and instructions) are crucial, we have intentionally built in culture and connection touchpoints from pre-onboarding onwards. This includes introducing values and leadership, ensuring new hires understand "who we are, what we stand for, who runs our organization, and what they're like" even before their first day. On Day One, our live orientation calls prioritize connection, helping new hires build peer bonds and support, which is then extended through cohort-oriented communication channels.
Empowering leaders for remote success
The blurring of lines between work and personal life in remote settings isn't always negative; it often brings significant benefits through flexibility. Leaders play a vital role in enabling this flexibility by setting clear expectations around asynchronous communication practices.
Remote work offers the flexibility to tailor the workday to individual needs, whether it's for parenting, care responsibilities, or personal pursuits. At Deel, we prioritize delivery and the quality of output over strict hours, allowing employees to focus on when and how they do their best work. This is "old school" thinking that work can only be done at a laptop in an office between standard hours, and it fails to accommodate diverse life circumstances. This autonomy, like taking a mid-day break for a Pilates class, can actually boost productivity and performance.
When people understand when they need to be online and available for certain meetings, it opens up greater flexibility for work-life integration. This clarity allows individuals to structure their day effectively, knowing when they need to be fully dialed in versus when they can manage work from different locations.
Practical takeaways for strengthening remote culture
For any leader looking to enhance their remote culture today, consider these actionable takeaways:
Build Rituals for Connection: Even in a fully remote setting, people crave connection to their community, culture, and team. Look for opportunities to embed human-centric rituals into your workflow.
"Manual of Me": This independent user guide allows team leaders and members to share personal stories, journeys, and preferred ways of working. It acts as an accelerator for deeper connection and more productive working relationships, creating a shared blueprint for collaboration.
Personal Sharing in Team Meetings: Simple activities, like asking team members to share holiday traditions, can foster better understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures within a global team. These moments, though seemingly small, require planning to ensure they happen amidst project discussions.
Prioritize Asynchronous Communication Standards: Clearly defining how and when communication should occur sets a foundation for success and greater flexibility. When everyone understands the best ways to communicate asynchronously, it builds connection and trust rather than undermining it.
The future of remote work
The demand for autonomy and flexibility in work is growing for many reasons. Whether it's the desire to travel, spend more time with family, manage care responsibilities, or live in more affordable locations away from expensive metropolitan centers, remote work offers profound benefits.
While fully remote isn't suitable for every business model (e.g., blue-collar industries), embracing more autonomy and hybrid working models, alongside fully remote practices where possible, will be a significant differentiator for businesses. Those who effectively leverage these approaches will be the ones who truly reap the rewards of accessing global talent (and keeping them engaged) in the long term.
Deel uses Deel, and all of our key strategies can be replicated through our products and services. From giving your employees a great onboarding experience with Deel HRIS, to keeping them connected and safe online with Deel IT.
Book a 30-minute demo to see how to give your employees a 360 remote-first experience while keeping them connected, engaged, and set up for success.
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FAQs
Do you need to recruit only senior, autonomous people for a remote-first company?
While seniority isn't a strict requirement, a degree of autonomy and self-drive is helpful for employees to thrive in a remote environment, as you need to trust them to pursue and deliver their goals independently.
What tools can be used to generate connection between employees?
Slack's built-in huddle feature can be used for quick, informal chats. Tools such as Donut for Slack match team members for roulette-style introductions.
How can managers set expectations for remote teams that aren't tied to hours worked?
Managers can set expectations around results (impact and outcomes, potentially tied to OKRs or specific KPIs), skills (what an individual should be learning or developing), and behavior (how they are expected to show up, including asynchronous communication practices).
Beyond technology, what are some simple practices to build connection and potentially boost productivity in a remote culture?
Consider implementing "Manual of Me" sessions, where team members create and share personal user guides about themselves and their working preferences. Also, incorporate intentional moments for personal sharing, such as discussing holiday traditions, to foster deeper human connection.
What if leaders within an organization have very different views on remote work (e.g., one strongly favors the office, another fully remote)?
It can be beneficial to conduct a pulse check with the entire organization to understand employee appetite for different work models. This data can inform a strategy, potentially a hybrid model that allows for choice. Crucially, whatever policy is decided, all leaders must commit to and embody it to avoid dissatisfaction from perceived "two-tier expectations"
About the author
Alice Burks is the Director of People Success at Deel. She has a passion for transforming the workplace, and is dedicated to creating a new world of work where individuals have access to the best global opportunities and organizations can connect with top-tier talent. Prior to Deel, Alice was Global Head of Learning at DICE and Global Leadership Development Partner at Trustpilot.
