I thought remote work would rise when the most talented people demanded it as a condition of employment.

I was wrong.

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Company Driven

Before the current situation remote was being driven by people demanding it.

Companies weren’t comfortable making the transition. It was too much of a risk to do something they didn’t know.

Having experiencing it, they know it works and won’t go back.

Why?

Access to talent

Hiring the best person you can afford in a 30-mile radius of your physical office will disqualify companies from 99.9% of the talent globally.

Office-first companies will lose their best people to their remote-first competitors.

Cut Real-estate Footprint

Office-first companies won’t be economically viable.

Remote-first companies will save ~$16.4m a year per 1,000 workers.

50% of real estate will be cut, letting people work from home 2-3 days a week, and the office the same.

It’s not a Zero-sum Game

I thought that it was.

I believed that of the 255m desk jobs globally, it would be split between either remote or the office.

I was wrong: almost every company will operate between both.

This means remote will be far bigger.

Every Company is Remote

Every single worker will have a remote working setup at home.

Every company that makes it through the 2020s will develop the capacity for remote work.

Remote work’s accelerated 10 years in 10 days

You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Companies know it works. They know productivity has been fine.

Companies are continuing, while their offices sit empty and they continue to pay for them.

Real-estate will Evolve

The office will become a destination, a modern showroom. A physical manifestation of company culture.

Some companies won’t have one.

The office used to be a status symbol. Having one a sign that you’d made it.

Not having one is that now.

There are two half’s of remote work:

1. Virtual tools
2. Physical setup

Virtual tools

Communication, collaboration, documentation and a fast internet connection.

The things necessary to make remote work possible.

This has largely been solved.

Physical setup

The tools and equipment remote workers need to do great work, feel connected and part of something.

Experience matters. It shows your companies cares about you. It will become a key point of differentiation between companies.

This hasn’t been solved.

Remote worker set up is hard

It’s expensive, time consuming and things don’t turn up. The right setup is crucial to doing great work.

Tools that make this easy will be a superpower for companies to develop a remote working startegy instantly. https://www.firstbasehq.com/book-demo