CEO & Cofounder, Said Differently.
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Despite existing data on how remote work increases productivity and improves employee happiness, companies keep going back to old ways of working. From Salesforce offering charitable donations in exchange for in-office appearances to Google announcing attendance will be considered in performance reviews to Disney rolling out a four-day in-office policy that prompted employee backlash, “return to the workplace” mandates are, in my view, getting out of hand. According to recent research (paywall), nearly 72% of companies have return-to-office mandates, and 42% of these companies have experienced a higher level of employee attrition than expected.
Why force people back? Because empty offices are depressing? Because leadership equates real estate footprints with business success? Because older generations of managers are used to being in-person and worry about managing remote teams? Of course, there are other reasons companies make this call. But unless you have an industry-specific need to physically be in the office, I believe creativity is maximized in a distributed environment. You will need to be intentional about relationship building and collaboration when leading remote teams, but, in my experience, it is well worth the lift.
The Economics Of Remote Work
My cofounder and I decided to launch our nontraditional agency as a remote company that relied on top-tier freelance talent in 2019. We officially opened two weeks before the pandemic in March 2020. Initially, I thought we’d spend a lot of time with clients justifying our remote approach. I had planned to tell them that while working for some of the biggest agencies and holding companies in the world, I had seen an arbitrage opportunity to build a more efficient model for clients and a better work environment for teams. But then Covid-19 hit, and I didn't have to explain any of this. Remote work became "the new normal," a term that now makes us cringe but had meaning.
What is "normal" going to be now? I thought these last few years would accelerate a looming work transformation. Yet, organizations are going backward, retreating to old ways that ignore worker preferences and economic realities: When you pay nothing for office space, you can afford to pay more to attract talent and charge clients less, whether you are working with Fortune 100 corporations or nonprofits. I've seen firsthand how this can be an incredible competitive advantage, and it's part of the reason why private equity invested in our company. By getting one of the biggest business liabilities off the books—real estate—and paying people competitive rates for measurable output as opposed to full-time salaries, we achieved a unique combination: the ability to offer clients cost savings while paying talent more money.
Solving Challenges With Intention
That is not to say running a remote company is easy or perfect. Every work environment has challenges. According to pre-pandemic research, in the office, employees were distracted by chatty co-workers and office noise. Remote workers face distractions, too, like deliveries and family members. But, frankly, if you are hiring self-motivated people and focusing on work quality, not hours spent, I find that this is not an issue.
Office advocates will point out that generating so-called watercooler moments can be challenging for remote teams. I agree, but this can be solved, too. We are experimenting with a Slack bot called RandomCoffees that pairs people for informal one-on-one chats each week. It is a little uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it.
The office isn’t the only place people interact in person, either. Even though we are distributed geographically by design, we intentionally create opportunities to get together. This summer, the team on one of our accounts is flying to Minneapolis to tour stores and meet brand reps. We are leaving room in the schedule for internal creative working sessions and organic relationship building. When people return to their respected home offices, they will build upon those interactions using remote collaboration tools such as Zoom, Miro and Slack.
I may not believe in spending significant dollars on office space and forcing employees to go there, but I do believe in the value of in-person connections. We are always willing to travel for client meetings, and because we are distributed and used to client-side travel, we are able to be in-person with our clients at their convenience.
A Missed Opportunity
While remote work is not devoid of challenges, to me, the benefits far outweigh the downside. Companies can reduce overhead costs while improving the employee experience. Research shows that distributed teams can produce work that is just as creative, if not more creative, than that of in-person workforces. You can even circumvent the quiet quitting problem if you provide work opportunities people genuinely want to be a part of and hold teams accountable to high standards so mailing it in just isn’t an option. Plus, when you use a freelance model, the talent you hire opts into each project with no commitment beyond the output they agree to provide.
Not every company can take advantage of remote work. Those with security clearance or prohibitive equipment requirements, for example, probably need a physical footprint. But businesses in industries where remote work is feasible—including technology, marketing, consulting and virtually any professional service—have a tremendous opportunity to reduce costs, create value for clients and employees and expand their talent search beyond geographic borders.
Here is another way to look at it: If any of your competitors offer remote and flexible scheduling options, you are likely going to lose talent to them. I have seen it firsthand. Candidates have proactively reached out to us because they want to work remotely. If we ever needed to deepen our talent bench, I would tell you who I would target first: employees of companies that are forcing people back to the office.
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