Software Development is increasingly becoming a distributed process: Developers are now using tools that allow for distributed style development, and organizations are evolving to allow developers to work where they feel most productive. Many organizations, however, do not have a process or plan in place to set-up Developers for success. Employees can feel isolated from their team, suffer from impostor syndrome, and quickly lose motivation when these issues compound on themselves.

GitHub is a majority remote workforce that has succeeded in helping our employees feel like a larger part of the organization, while being geo-distributed via the entire planet. In this talk, we’ll talk about how we do this internally at GitHub, and the experience of working with other distributed organizations through the use of “Social Capital” – that is, giving developers a tangible sense of belonging and ownership that helps curtail isolation and builds retention within your team.