3 Ways Remote Work Has Benefitted Our Agency
by Ross Crooks, Column Five
Work has changed drastically in the decade we’ve been in business. Pre-pandemic, Silicon Valley gurus and podcast hosts urged us to work faster, smarter, and more effectively by doing everything from microdosing on LSD to choosing our own uniforms. Post-pandemic, organizations have hustled to adapt to remote work, rethink their processes, and cling to their employees in the wake of the Great Resignation.
Amid so much change, when it comes to our own workplace policies we’ve always tried to focus on simplicity: What helps us do our job happily, healthily, and—most importantly—effectively? This philosophy has served us well, and it is a big reason why we embraced remote work long before the entire world had to. And now, as the world recalibrates and many people head back to the office, we are even more committed to maintaining our remote workforce. Why? Because it has transformed the way we work for the better in significant ways.
1) It makes us more productive.
Traditionally, the biggest concern about letting people work remotely is their productivity. Will people actually work? Will they slack off? Will it affect the bottom line? We are more concerned with a different set of questions. What do people need to work comfortably? How can their environment help them? How do we prevent burnout?
Our employees are not a homogeneous group. The more we learn about how personality traits play into our workplace dynamics, the more we realize the value of letting people shape their work life around their unique needs. Pre-pandemic, that meant designing an office that included open public spaces (where our extroverts could work together), as well as private workspaces (where our introverts could retreat). Post-pandemic, that means giving people the flexibility to work remotely from wherever they are most productive—be it a home office, coffee shop, or co-working space.
Not only does this eliminate the distractions that can come from a busy office but it allows space for us to integrate healthy habits and activities that also improve productivity. If taking your dog for a walk mid-morning helps you clear your head, cool. If tuning into a meditation class every afternoon helps you stay focused, great. In this sense, if remote work makes us happier, more engaged employees, which only improves the quality of our work.
(BTW, if you want to find out how we make ourselves more productive, see our team’s tips for working remotely.)
2) It lets us live our values—not just talk about them.
There’s no doubt that remote work can affect your company culture. In the absence of in-person meetings, it can be harder to keep everyone together. But, for us, working remotely has strengthened our culture because it lets us demonstrate our company values in concrete ways.
For example, “Do Good Work” is one of our core values. Allowing people the freedom and flexibility to design their workdays lets them do good work on their own terms.
“Be Curious” is another value. With a remote team, we’ve had to rely on our curiosity and willingness to experiment to figure out new ways to work and bond together.
“Be Good to Each Other” is another value. Because no one is tied to a physical office, when our people experience life changes or want to pursue opportunities for personal growth, remote work allows us to accommodate those changes for them. Whether they want to be closer to family, buy their first home, or pursue their personal passions, we’ve had C5ers from all walks of life clock in everywhere from Boise to Bangkok, San Francisco to Sweden.
We firmly believe that all of these experiences help our people grow, learn, and become more actualized people, which only helps them be more creative.
Side note: In a pre-Pandemic world, this policy also ensured everyone was treated fairly. If our cofounders and sales teams got to travel to cool cities to meet clients and work on the road, we felt that everyone should be allowed to—whether their position required travel or not.
3) We can hire the best people.
According to Fortune, in November 2021 a record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs. Thanks to the Great Resignation, hiring is more competitive than ever and therefore companies need to make their employer brand as attractive as possible.
We haven’t been immune to turnover ourselves, but the benefit of remote work is the access it gives us to talent we may not have considered before—and who may not have considered us.
The truth is that the best people for the job aren’t always going to live in your specific county, city, or state. Allowing people to work remotely helps us broaden our hiring pool so that we can find creative minds all over the country. It also lets us keep the people we have, as a 2021 Owl Labs report found that 84% of people said working remotely post-Pandemic would make them happier (with many even willing to take a pay cut).
For Us, Remote Work Is Here to Stay
Naturally, remote work comes with its own challenges. Learning to navigate a distributed team across different time zones isn’t always easy. But for every challenge it introduces, our agency has been able to find a creative solution and benefit that outweighs the negative. In fact, although we increased our headcount in the last year, we recently made the decision to downsize our physical office space, as only a few employees were coming in regularly. In lieu of a larger place, we plan to redistribute those funds to give our nationwide team even more opportunities to support and nurture their creativity, whether that’s buying a yoga membership to de-stress after a long day or renting a desk at a local co-working space. Thanks to technology, we have more freedom than ever before. And since remote work works for us, it’ll stay a core part of our business.
Ross Crooks, Column Five