The office is great if you’re a certain gender, age, and orientation.
For almost everyone else, it is neutral at best.
For companies, this should be a massive concern
The reason is incredibly simple: talent, diversity, and efficiency.
Talent
Unless you are Google, Amazon, Facebook or Microsoft remote teams will be far more talented than any office-based team you can build. Talent wars will be won by companies that have great remote work capability, who will wield it to dominate the next decade:
? Fixed Location
A physical office means you can hire the best person you can afford in a 30-mile radius, disqualifying you from 99.9% of the world’s talent.
Remote teams can hire the best person they can afford on the planet.
⭐ Attract & Retain
Now companies know remote work works, most will move quickly to embrace more flexible ways of operating which allow people to work remotely more frequently.
Companies who don’t will lose their most talented people to their biggest competitors.
Companies that do will attract their fiercest competitive most talented people.
Diversity
More diverse organizations is a direct implication of remote working. The most diverse companies in history will emerge from organizations that become more remote. Those who return to the office full-time signal their refusal to evolve and will suffer the consequences.
?Accessibility
The office is great for certain people but terrible for others. The lack of flexibility and accessibility leads to a lack of diversity in organizations. Single parents, carers, those who are physically incapable of getting to or working in an office are disqualified.
Remote-first teams will be the most diverse and talented in history.
? Borderless
Visa restrictions shouldn’t impact a companies ability to access the most incredible in the world. Talent is distributed equally globally but companies typically only access talent within their borders. This limits how talented they can become.
Remote-first teams will decentralize around the globe rapidly.
Efficiency
Office-first companies won’t be able to compete with remote-first companies in terms of efficiency, both economic and operationally. Not only will remote-first companies increase their average level of talent with each hire, but they will also be far more cost-efficient. City living is subsidized by companies, leading to a lower disposable and quality of life.
?Real Estate Cost
Office-first companies spend $22,000 on average, per workplace, per person
The best remote setup on the planet costs $2,000 per year, coffee included.
Remote is $20,000 less a year, per team member, or a $20m saving per 1,000 workers.
?Asynchronous Fist
Offices are instantaneous gratification adult kids clubs where it’s impossible to focus and do deep work without distraction.
Remote gives you the optimum workspace you need to do your best work.
⌛Output over Time
The only metric bad middle managers use to measure performance is time spent in the office.
Remote work is about how much work you get done focussing on productivity.
Why Now?
Remote work is the biggest workplace revolution in history and nothing will deliver a higher quality of life increase in the next decade than this. Workers having more flexibility to decide their work schedule, able to operate when they are most productive rather than a fixed day, enables a far better future of work than the one we currently experience.
Organizing work around your life is a huge transition with major implications. Gone is the requirement to beg your bosses permission to go to an appointment, you can drop and pick your child up from work every day with time in the afternoon to go for your recharging run.
Being handcuffed to an office and expected to live in a high cost of living city with a low quality of life is a remnant of the industrial revolution. The devolution of offices into almost factory-like conditions as distraction factory adult kids clubs is complete. The office is the worst place on the planet to get the isolation and focus you need to do deep work.
How Do I Develop a Remote Strategy?
We built an all-in-one platform that lets companies supply and manage all the physical equipment remote workers need to do great work instantly.
Firstbase takes care of everything as a monthly subscription per worker, including delivery, upgrades, ongoing culture maintenance, repairs, and collections when a worker leaves.
We help you:
- Be more cost-efficient
- Comply with regulation
- Save time on onboarding
- Slash your real-estate costs