I am the author of the book, “Making Remote Work, Work For You“, available in the Kindle store.  

I am also the creator of the “Remote Work Master Class” video series and Remote Scorecard.

Remote work is no longer the future.  It is the present and workers are demanding more from their jobs.  

The COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 has forced us to re-think previously accepted norms about what it means to “go to work”.   

According to a study released by IWG in May 2018, 70% of employees globally work remotely at least once a week, 50% of employees work remotely half the week and 10% of employees work remotely five days a week.

A recent Gallup poll suggests that 1/3 of workers would change jobs for a more flexible, remote schedule. This suggests that workers, especially younger ones, are seeing remote work as an extra benefit. To recruit and retain talent, remote work is becoming a must-have.   

Remote working has been found to reduce soul crushing commutes, improve job satisfaction, enhance productivity and creativity, increase retention and reduce distractions.  In addition, allowing for flexible work locations gives the business financial and strategic advantages.  Check out this recent WSJ article for more information on people moving to smaller cities and taking their jobs with them.    

There is great talent all around the world.  Why limit yourself to only hiring from one area?  Hiring from the global talent pool can help companies increase their global presence while decreasing their diversity deficiency.  Where you are born, or where you live shouldn’t limit your employment opportunities.  And where your company is located shouldn’t limit who you can hire.  Human potential has no boundaries and technological advancements have helped minimize the negative impact of geographic distance.  

Companies that successfully embrace a Remote First model are able to take advantage of a 24 hour work day where teams pass work across “shifts”.  

Obviously, remote work is not an option for everyone.  There will always be those industries that require team members to be on location.   For the rest of us, we should take advantage of working during a time in history where our location just does not matter much.  Many workers can thrive remotely as long as they have a modern device, reliable Wi-Fi… and the support of their company.  Culture means everything to the success of remote work.  

Remote work is a spectrum.  Some companies use “work from home” as a perk while other companies practice “asynchronous communication first”.  Such companies have processes in place that allow their employees to work “wherever, whenever”.   Read more about asynchronous work at my LinkedIn article.  

I admire the culture of companies who have successfully embraced the remote first model such as Basecamp, Automattic, Buffer, Gitlab, Zapier, Doist, Taxjar and Help Scout.  These companies write about their culture in blogs and books.  This helps increase the positive exposure of these companies since many others have an interest in building a successful remote culture. Successful “remote first culture” can be viewed as a product and these pioneering companies are considered the subject matter experts.

Some suggested reading:

• Making Remote Work, Work For You
• The Year Without Pants
• Remote
• Zapier’s Ultimate Guide to Remote Work