I've spoken to 1,500+ companies about their plans for remote work Post-Covid

Here are the things I heard will happen in 2021

[ a thread ]

HQ's are finished: companies of all sizes will cut their commercial office space by at least 40-60%

The will give their team the choice to work from home 2-4 days a week, and come into the office 1-2 days a week

Fully distributed: ~30% of the companies we talk to are getting rid of the office entirely and going remote-first

Companies doing this have seen their workers decentralize rapidly, leaving expensive cities to be closer to family

Access talent: The first reason they are going remote-first is simple – it lets them hire more talented people

Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office, they can hire the best person in the world for every role

Cut costs: The second reason they are going remote-first is because it lets them be far more cost-efficient

Spend $15,000 / worker / year on office space or provide the best remote setup on the planet for $1,050 / worker / year

Remote burnout: The productivity inside the companies we've spoken to has gone through the roof

Their biggest concern is that workers burnout because they are working too hard

They are actively exploring ways to combat this

Remote onsites: 60%+ of companies we talk to are thinking about ways to use time together physically to improve culture, communication and cohesion

The most popular we hear is flying the teams into remote locations for ~week. Portugal & Puerto Rico seem to be the most popular

Personal choice: The smartest people I know personally are all planning to work remotely this decade

90% never wants to be in an office again full-time
50% never wants to be in an office again full-stop

Companies have to be remote because of this

Async by default: This is the thing organizations are struggling with most

The majority of companies have replicated the office remotely and it is causing strains that are beginning to show. Most want to be more remote but don't know where to start

Personal injury: Reports as high as 60% of people report back, neck and repeitive strain pain. Companies haven't moved quickly or done enough to prevent them

Most will remedy this by providing better, ergonomic equipment to workers going forward

Universal problems: Doesn't matter the size of the organization, every company is dealing with the same thing

We spoke to early-stage companies, publicly listed tech companies, to legacy incumbents with hundreds of thousands of employees

All will be more remote-friendly

Pollution reduction: Many companies we've spoken to care massively about the environmental impact that eradicating the office – and the commute – will have

108 million tons of Co2 less every year

Quality of life: Even more importantly, companies are realizing that they don't need to expect workers to waste 2 hours a day commuting to sit in an office chair for 8 hours

Almost every company we talk to believes that their workers will be happier as a result of remote work

Remote pressure: A few companies we've spoken to have decided to be more remote than they initially intended because their competitors already did it

There is a fear inside companies that if they don't go remote they will lose their best people to their competitors

Remote fear: Most companies aren't scared about the quality of work that will be produced

They are scared about intangible things they can't measure
'quality of communication' && 'collaboration in person' && 'water cooler chat'

Many have realized these were excuses

Culture concerns: Almost every company we spoke to was concerned about the erosion of their 'culture'

They've realized they need to be more purposeful than in an office. There's about an even split of companies who think culture has improved, stayed the same, or gotten worse

Diversity & inclusiveness: 80%+ of companies we speak to see remote as something which will let them improve diversity and inclusiveness.

- single parents
- carers for family
- people with health conditions/impairments

Companies have to do a far better job in this area

Outcome over time: The measure of performance in the office is how much time you spend sat in your seat

The measure of performance while working remotely has to become outcome. Tools that enable this to be tracked more accurately are something we are asked for a lot

Surveillance Destruction: Some companies are moving to surveil workers by recording screens & expecting them to be active during set hours

Companies doing this are struggling far more with remote than those who are not

The lack of trust doesn't let people do their best work

Timezone Issues: Most of the companies we talk to are happy to hire workers across different time zones to work remotely. They are comfortable with a time difference of anything between 1-5 hours

Anything more than that they view as problematic

Written over spoken: Documentation is the unspoken superpower of remote teams. The most successful team members remotely will be great writers

Companies are searching for ways to do this more effectively. Tools that enable others to write better will explode

Interested in why these companies are talking to us? http://FirstbaseHQ.com