There are of course benefits and drawbacks to most major paradigm changes, and the shift for a large portion of our workforce going remote is no different. Here’s what several companies that have adapted to remote plans learned about the shift both good and bad.
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
Remote working provided flexible work arrangements for our team but also presented a new set of challenges. A special thing about working from the office is the organic bonding that happens between colleagues. With new people joining and working from home, it became challenging for teams to really get to know each other and form meaningful connections. Differences in time zones with remote work led to communication and collaboration struggles across departments. On an individual level, working from home eliminated the daily commute to and fro but blurred the lines between professional and personal workspaces. When the home is your workspace, it becomes difficult to maintain a work-life balance. To address some of these challenges and help teammates make the most of remote work life, we introduced three of our employees’ favorite perks: Ocrolus Appreciation Days (The last Friday of the month is a company holiday for all, which means 12 extra days of PTO per year!) Flexible work hours, and Open paid time off. We realized that in this new way of working, work hours for every individual are bound to differ, since the lockdown disrupted schedules, households, and even people’s mental and physical stability, so we want to make it easy for our team to balance it all. We’re committed to making Ocrolus a great place to work and will continue to adapt and seek opportunities to improve our culture as we grow.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
The pandemic redefined work globally. People have reevaluated their priorities, and job seekers are now looking for not just a hybrid work culture but an option of remote work as well. Although we will always offer our employees an office space to work and connect with teammates, we are now also hiring people who are exclusively available to work remotely. For our company, remote working has become efficient, as we’ve adapted our culture, processes, communications, and even our perks to help make remote work engaging. This is a massive win for us in being able to attract the best people.
Check Out Ocrolus’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
Keeping consistent with communication was challenging and not giving up on phone tag. It is easy to walk over to a peer’s desk and discuss quick-hit topics but when remote it was difficult to reach someone so we got into the bad habit of just emails and texts. Now that we are back, that has been a tough habit to break. Things can get taken out of context quickly and relationships dwindle when working remotely.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
Our remote plan gives incentives to achieve 1-2 remote days per week. We have been able to get a solid office schedule routine so that we have a diverse group each day and still keep the energy up when key members are remote. The flexibility can help our team save money on gas, time commuting, getting ready, etc. Instilling trust also gives our team members better autonomy to work without having to be worried about the clock.
Check Out Beacon Hill Staffing’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
As a predominantly office-based organization, our IT teams faced a significant technical challenge in terms of rapidly facilitating the move to work-from-home beginning in March 2020. Ensuring that all of our team members could access the resources they needed in a convenient but secure manner required great diligence and hard work on the part of our IT personnel. Additionally, teams had to quickly adjust the way they collaborated to ensure we delivered continued excellence for our customers.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
Many team members have expressed a strong interest in continuing to work from home due to the quality-of-life benefits it offers. For parents,h in particular, working from home allows a high degree of flexibility. Additionally, remote employees who previously may have felt like they were on the outside looking in during team meetings established more equal footing with the widespread use of videoconferencing.
Check Out Newfold Digital’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
The early days of the pandemic came with an abrupt transition to working entirely remote for most companies. At Squarespace, that transition went well overall. We were able to quickly pivot most of our day to day to being virtual and we set our primary focus on the wellbeing of our employees and business continuity.
We immediately ensured the entire company was on our VPN so our virtual environment would be a secure one. At the same time, we worked to identify new collaboration tools and platforms to help compensate for our inability to be in the same room. And, when it came to onboarding new hires, the complexity of buying, configuring, and supplying laptops was a logistical challenge that our team responded to with creative procurement and shipping masterminding.
We also remained adamant about making the remote experience as positive as possible for everyone – from OGs to new hires – at Squarespace. We rolled out many new tools and programs geared towards professional development that could be either used or conducted entirely remotely. We redesigned our internal programming and communications to get as close to the level of connection we experienced before the pandemic as we could. We transitioned our All Hands meetings to a virtual format and introduced new company-wide meetings like an annual Kickoff and Year-End wrap-up. Our diverse slate of weekly virtual events – featuring incredible Squarespace customers in workshops spanning from hot sauce making to cello meditations – provided a break from day-to-day work, and connected attendees back to our mission of helping people with creative ideas stand out and succeed.
As we looked to the future of work, we aimed to increase our existing flexibility and developed a Flexible Work Philosophy. The philosophy gives way to policies that help remote employees (Homespace) set up home offices and get reimbursed for equipment, as well as policies to optimize the experience for in-person employees (Officespace).
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
Our remote plan has allowed Squarespace to retain employees and attract job seekers who want to work remotely. It is also a significant step toward creating more inclusive organizations when you consider the ability to hire in more places and the impact to various communities including women, POCs, people with disabilities, parents and more.
Over six million people in the US labor force have some form of disability and, for many, commuting poses a significant barrier to employment. Remote work arrangements remove the potential impediment posed by a physical office. Being able to hire people no matter where they live leads to broader talent pools and increased representation. We also know that women make up the majority of people with primary family care responsibilities. Squarespace offering the option of remote or hybrid work alleviates both commuting time and stress – easing the burden of balancing caretaking with work.
Check Out Squarespace’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
When Cambium first adopted our Remote First model, it was essential that we do so with our purpose in mind – to help our employees feel seen, valued, and supported. To accomplish this, we had to establish a new level of flexibility that was unlike anything we had ever done before. Meeting schedules, leave packages and the general well-being of employees had to be looked at through an entirely new lens and in real-time as the pandemic continuously changed how we view business. With the Remote First model, employees are not required to work in an office or resume business travel, and the added flexibility is focused on driving innovation, improving equity across the company, and putting people first. Challenges included ensuring that everyone felt supported and that they could do their best work in their new environments. To help with this, Cambium has invested in ways to increase support for employee remote home offices. This includes a Remote First Home Office support benefit for expenses incurred so far and those expected in 2022, as well as an enhanced suite of health and welfare benefits including virtual mental wellness visits, enhanced leave packages, and other remote-friendly offerings. Cambium’s commitment to a Remote First approach will focus on encouraging all employees and teams who can work remotely successfully to do so, while also providing office facilities for some in-office work and collaboration in select locations.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
Following our transition to the Remote First approach, Cambium went on to have its two most successful years to date in 2020 and 2021, not only in terms of bottom-line growth but in the significantly bigger impact we made for teachers and students. The newfound flexibility not only allows employees to decide what is best for themselves and their families, but we very quickly discovered that this flexibility allows them to also focus on their work and not the stresses that could be associated with navigating a more rigid, in-person office environment. Employees are now enjoying the aforementioned enhanced suite of health and welfare benefits including virtual mental wellness visits, enhanced leave packages and other remote-friendly offerings, and increased support for their home offices. From top to bottom, Cambium’s workforce can now focus on serving the teachers and students who continue to push us to innovate and focus on our guiding principles of simplicity, certainty, and now.
Check Out Cambium Learning Group’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
We are a collaborative, nimble organization with an Innovation Center at the core of our infrastructure. As part of our transition, we had to create a remote center that empowered experimentation and collaboration among our teams. Fortunately, our Practice Area advocates took on the challenge with support from our R&D team and created a full suite of tools for teams to continue the same type of work they performed in person. They continually adapt to ensure collaborative activities such as event storming, daily stand-ups, training workshops, and team happy hours are all occurring in a modern hybrid environment.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
Remote work has allowed our teams the opportunity to embrace more flexibility and transparency. Prior to our transition, the majority of our team members worked out of our Herndon, Virginia headquarters near Washington, D.C. Now we hire remote workers nationwide. Those still based in Virginia have the option to reserve collaborative workspaces at our Herndon office. However, with our flexible hybrid approach, anyone may also access training, submit ideas to our Innovation Center, or ask a subject matter expert for help using our Karsun Konnect app. Even our popular Coffee with Leadership program, which gives small groups the opportunity to ask our co-founders and executives questions about Karsun, is now presented in a hybrid format.
Check Out Karsun’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
It’s been really tough to create very close employee interaction when most of the company is remote. It’s difficult to build a culture that is unbreakable when team members don’t have face-to-face time. Employees only interact with their direct team members, which can make it feel very isolating. It also has an impact on effective management with direct reports – harder to get engaged on how your direct report is doing on a personal level and to be able to read between the lines. It’s created a need for more transparent and consistent communication.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
Financially, it is much cheaper to run a company without the overhead of everyone being in the office. Even though we still do have an office for local team members in LA, this is significantly less than what it would cost to have all 100 team members in-office. Most importantly though, it has given us access to a larger pool of amazing, qualified talent. We’re able to hire remote team members from any state because now they aren’t restricted to just living within driving distance of the office.
Check out GR0’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
a. Fragmented Communication: Teams that had in-office huddles and/or in-office traffic missed impromptu brainstorming sessions.
b. Technological Support: Challenges with internet connections and speed, as well as access to IT impacted the efficiency of remote workers in the beginning.
c. Personal Interruptions: Working from home increases interruptions and distractions from delivery services and/or having kids and pets at home.
d. Feeling Lonely/Isolated: Many team members missed the social interaction and spontaneous office communication, such as going to lunch or grabbing a cup of coffee.
e. New Demands on Leadership: Managers struggled to build check-ins with their team members on an individual basis into their schedule.
f. Virtual Onboarding: New hires lacked visibility and connection to co-workers outside of their team, which led to feeling disconnected from the overall company.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
a. Reduced operation costs: Reduced needs for office supplies and utilities provided cost savings to the business.
b. Employee financial savings: Removing office commutes, eating out for lunch, and/or buying work clothes allowed employees to save costs.
c. Broader talent pool: Hiring remotely expands the eligible talent pool in an already tight labor market.
d. Work-life balance: Without commuting, employees had more time with family and leisure activities, which helped minimize employee burnout.
e. Morale booster: Increased comfort and flexibility with working from home brought a more positive vibe to the company.
f. Reduction of employee relations/office politics: With employees not gathering as frequently they were less concerned about their colleagues’ daily activities, which led to a reduction in gossip and office politics.
Check out United Language Group’s Careers Page Here!
What are some of the more foundational challenges your team had to face while adapting to remote?
At the onset of COVID-19, Act! responded quickly, closing our offices and moving to a remote working environment within a matter of days. One of our initial challenges while moving to a remote work approach was ensuring employees had access to all necessary technologies. In response, we provided employees with all the essentials they would need while being remote (e.g. laptops, monitors, docking stations, etc.). We then offered employees a one-time $500 office stipend to enhance their home offices in any way they saw fit. Even before the pandemic, Act! offered a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) stipend to employees who regularly used their mobile devices for work purposes. In addition, we provide employees working from home with a monthly Internet reimbursement. Our goal is to give employees the tools they need to succeed, whether virtual or in-office.Another challenge was figuring out how to keep our employees engaged and feeling like part of a team while working fully remote. To start, we increased the frequency of our company-wide all-hands meetings from monthly to weekly virtual meetings. This helped keep our employees abreast of the latest happenings and changes. We then made a concerted effort to support and engage our new hires to provide seamless onboarding while they learn to navigate their new roles. We also worked to combat the potential of feeling isolated for all our employees by sending appreciation and holiday gifts directly to their homes and conducting regular virtual events and pulse surveys to capture insights into their needs. We continue to do our best to stay connected through technology while showing employees we care by fostering virtual social interaction. As offices begin to reopen, we face new challenges and questions on how to operate moving forward. The decision was made to continue offering a more flexible hybrid work environment, only requiring local employees to come into the office once a week. Now that mask mandates have been lifted, and vaccinations are available, employees come in on the same day in order to collaborate and socialize with one another. To further encourage employee engagement, we provide lunch and a happy hour each week on that day. A remaining challenge is to optimize the use of office space as we look to the future. We plan to continue offering our hybrid approach moving forward and are evaluating our needs as we consider new office space for 2023. We will likely downsize our offices and move to a desk hoteling concept.
What are some of the advantages of a remote plan that you’ve discovered since switching over?
We have discovered quite a few advantages of providing a hybrid working environment to our employees. One of these advantages is record-high morale stemming from schedule flexibility, work/life balance, and financial savings that a hybrid approach affords our associates. Employees appreciate the ability to spend more time with their families while benefiting from not having to pay for full-time care, fuel to commute to work, new work attire, or office lunches. In addition, most employees feel like they are more productive working remotely as they have the ability to be connected and work during off-hours if they prefer. Employee retention has also improved. Associates appreciate our continued remote plan while other companies require their employees to return to the office full-time. And, our remote approach has been a tremendous help in recruiting efforts for the organization. We include our “hybrid” philosophy on every job posting and provide a detailed explanation to each prospective talent during the hiring process. Candidates typically inquire about it and want confirmation that we will honor our remote plan for the future before accepting an offer. Finally, we have seen a positive increase in attendance since moving to a remote workforce. When someone is not feeling well, they are more inclined to continue working if they can do so from the comfort of their home, without the fear of infecting others.