Facebook’s Director Of Remote Explains Her Strategies

Facebook was one of the first of the large tech companies to commit to making the shift to long-term remote working arrangements. The social media giant pledged that employees would be able to work from home throughout summer of 2021, and that in five to 10 years, around half of its employees could work remotely.

In order to accomplish this, the company has invested into a new role that oversees this arrangement, coined the Director of Remote.

Annie Dean took the role at the end of 2020 and explained how she’s working to transform Facebook into becoming a remote-first company.

More specifically, Dean has laid out a four-tier strategy to support implementing remote work across the company: establishing common language, identifying partner teams, designing the work and communicating and learning.

Dean focuses on creating principles about how Facebook views remote work. This starts with a community-first approach that offers new and innovative ways to support people, teams and organizations.

Because Facebook is “social by design,” Dean has concentrated on every aspect of each employees’ journey at the company, starting with the onboarding process and beyond.

“We’re looking to a future with people in the office, people remote and teams distributed at any given moment,” said Dean. “We need to make sure the playing field stays level and that every person can meaningfully participate.”