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Remote Evangelist #1: Interview with Director of Culture and Innovation at TaxJar, Darcy Boles

Remote Evangelist #1: Interview with Director of Culture and Innovation at TaxJar, Darcy Boles

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written on January 2021 by Iwo Szapar

Remote Evangelist is a semi-regular newsletter living at the intersection of HR, organizational culture, and remote work. We unpack the most essential content and resources for people operations, HR, and L&D professionals that work with a distributed workforce. 


The 3 question interview: Darcy Boles, Director of Culture and Innovation at TaxJar

  • What do remote-first companies need to think about in 2021?

Remote-first companies need to think about their culture in 2021 and beyond. I can’t take credit for this statement (I read it somewhere), but “remote doesn’t kill culture, it reveals it” Companies who are newly remote-first should solely focus on their codification of their values and explore the higher purpose of the company. Something your team aligns with and van rally behind – when you lose the office walls, what is left are your values and behavior – learning to lead and teach your values will be incredibly important as more and more companies decide that they’ll be remote forever 🙂 

  • What should HR leaders’ first priority be for 2021?

Protect your team. We’ve been through a hell of a year and 2021 poses similar challenges. HR leaders should turn their focus to the well-being of their teams – do people have the autonomy to set the schedule that works for them? Do they have the resources they need to take care of their mental and physical health? Are managers set up for success in support of their team members on a deeply human level? Those are all questions HR leaders should be asking themselves in 2021 to not only prevent burnout, but to also ensure that their teams feel supported as authentic individuals set up to do their best work. 

  • What is the project you and your team are looking most forward to in 2021? 

Our cultural blueprint, which is something we are calling, “The TaxJar Way.” Our values at TaxJar have always been incredibly strong and rooted in the three psychological needs that humans have – autonomy, mastery and belonging, but we learned through scaling our team that our values could work harder for us. We spent the better part of 2020 learning from our founders and team what working at TaxJar means to them from a values perspective, and we’ve created a cultural blueprint designed to scale our culture while honoring our core values and DNA.- it’s so exciting!


Remote Evangelist 

Here’s Why You Need a Head of Remote

If there’s only one article you read from this issue of Remote Evangelist, it has to be this one! Here’s a summary of Gallup’s top workplace insights from 2020. Lots of valuable discoveries here  that can help you better support your company in 2021! 

What Does Brexit Mean for employers? 

If you employ workers in the UK (or if your UK company employs workers outside the country), Brexit could create headaches for you and your team. This article explains what you should pay attention to in terms of visas, payments, and work permits. 

Reflecting on 10 Years of Building Buffer

Joel Gascoigne, CEO & Co-Founder of Buffer, shares the fully remote company’s 10-year journey of developing their product and scaling their team to nearly 90 people. They made a transition to fully remote in 2012 and since then have run many interesting “culture” experiments as a company!

5 Steps to Check if Your Remote Hiring System Is Ready for 2021

You probably already nailed it, but here are 5 things you have to figure out before hiring remote employees. Give yourself time to review if you’re ready to grow your teams in 2021, and if any of these points need a quick fix, make sure to plan for them!

How Help Scout Mitigates Unconscious Bias in Hiring

Practicing empathy with your virtual team

If it’s human nature to look for patterns and data to help us make decisions about other people, how can we recognize unconscious bias and mitigate it when hiring remotely? Read this article by Leah Knobler, Director of Talent Acquisition at Help Scout, another great remote-first company. 

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