The secret to being a fully remote company in 2024
While a majority of employers have brought their employees back to the office, remote work is not dead — and for some companies, it’s here to stay.
According to tech company Owl Labs, 66% of employees work in an office full-time, 26% are hybrid and just 7% are remote. Fifty-seven percent of respondents admitted they preferred working from home full-time, while interest in being in-person dropped by 24%. Software company Nerdio is one of the few companies that has been fully remote since 2020. This has allowed the firm to hire employees from around the world, and Nerdio no longer has a physical office.
And the company has only gotten stronger because of these changes, says Andy Baker, chief people officer of Nerdio.
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“We want people to be able to live their lives, so we don’t put many restraints on our employees,” he says. “Those beliefs drive that motivation to work hard, deliver results and hit our goals.”
While Baker stands by the company’s decision to remain remote, he admits that the transition came with challenges. To ensure workers could seamlessly communicate with one another across different time zones and teams, Nerdio had to invest in the right technology. This meant finding video call, document-sharing and messaging platforms that easily integrated with one another.
However, changing how leaders manage their teams was a more complicated problem that needed to be addressed.
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“[Managers] may have been used to walking down the hall to talk to somebody,” says Baker. “Going remote puts the onus on them to build relationships differently.”
By setting clear goals and responsibilities for every employee, managers were able to make the most of virtual check-ins and assess an employee’s performance, explains Baker. He stresses that communication becomes even more vital in a virtual workplace, and good practices must be modeled from the top down. If leaders at all levels make the effort to check in with their teams through a mix of video calls and messages, then workers won’t feel so isolated.
But with the right tech and management approach in place, remote work can be incredibly rewarding, says Baker. Not only do workers have a better shot at work-life balance, they can potentially save money on gas and childcare. According to outsourcing company Airtasker, remote workers saved $4,523 a year on gas — on top of that, they saved 408 hours by no longer having a daily commute.
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But Baker emphasizes that employees are not the only ones who benefit from a remote workforce. Nerdio saves money since it no longer needs to lease office space, while being able to hire globally gives the firm a competitive advantage.
“The perspectives individuals bring from different countries are invaluable,” says Baker. “Having individuals who are citizens of the countries we are building our business in brings knowledge of how the industry and market work there.”
Baker acknowledges that remote work isn’t the best fit for every business, but many companies can give time and money back to their employees by ditching the office. Leadership has to be willing to consider whether they truly need to be in-person, or if that’s just what they’re used to.
“If you set up the right environment and you have a leadership team that supports the staff, remote work becomes a real viable option,” says Baker. “We’re creating a [culture] driven by our belief in our employees.”
