Why You Need A Remote Team

Isaiah Bollinger

Isaiah Bollinger

More and more companies are leveraging remote workers because of the efficiency gained through paying for less office space and hiring in more value areas that don’t demand massive salaries like Silicon Valley. You can also tap into an endless talent pool of global talent versus just in your regional area. There are many benefits but it’s not always simple to pull it off successfully.
The first step in determining if you should build a remote team is if the benefits outweigh the cons.

Here are the key benefits I see:

Larger Talent Pool

This is what I think is the most important aspect that companies are really missing out. If you are in a small city or even a big city, talent is limited and competitive. Opening it up to the entire country or worldwide gives a massive increase in options and opportunity that can help give you a leg up on the competition.

Ability to Go for Value and Find Better Pricing

With a larger talent pool, you can find value in places you might not find otherwise. Some parts of the country are cheaper and people are willing to work less so they can save more in places they can live cheaper, but they might be twice as talented as someone equally expensive in an expensive city like New York City.

Flexibility

The flexibility of work from home is huge. Many people are able to get a lot more done because they can also tackle their personal problems and chores at home. If you need to quickly take care of a quick personal task, it’s much easier to do this at home then if you’re stuck at an office far from home. With your personal things done, you can focus on work and not be stressed. I think many companies underestimate the fact that you make people’s lives miserable because they don’t have time to take care of their personal things. As a result, they will eventually quit and you will be paying a lot in turnover costs.

Contract to Hire

Once you get used to remote workers, it’s much easier to hire someone part-time and see how they do before you hire them full-time. We have had much success with hiring because we can test remote workers before we commit to full-time. Forcing someone to go to the office will most likely result in forcing them to be a full-time hire. Most people won’t want to go in for half a day or flexible hours.

No Commute

Commuting is a huge time-suck. Employees that have long commutes often lose productivity and quit because they are losing so much of their free time. Eliminating this wasted time is a huge productivity boost.

Technology Savviness and Efficiency

To work remote requires leveraging many tools like email, Slack, screen sharing, and other technology tools. Companies that have created a successful remote workplace are often much more technically savvy, and the employees will have to adapt to this.

Better Work-Life Balance

You can find much more time to get personal things done when you don’t have to commute to an office. Many of the benefits above tie into this but I don’t think this can be overstated. Talent is hard to come by, and if they feel they have a terrible personal life, they will eventually move on.

The Problems With Working From Home

No Team Building & In Person Culture Creation

Team building and creating a high-quality culture is much harder to do in a remote setting. You can’t become in-person friends with co-workers if everyone is remote. This is a clear drawback to being fully remote, but perhaps a reason to have some physical space or ways to get together in person.

Distractions

The obvious one here is that for many people, working from home can be distracting. It’s hard to focus when you might have kids or other distractions at home, or simply the urge to watch TV or do chores. It’s definitely a possibility that some people just won’t work well from home. This is another reason why, as a company, it’s best to allow your remote employees to start part-time so you can test out and monitor their productivity.

No Separation From Home and Work

This can be a mental issue for some people. They don’t feel they can separate work from home because they are always in the same space. It can cause mental stress to always feel like you’re working because there is no off/on switch. You just have to stop working, but for some people, that’s not always so easy.

Less Visibility Into Whats Being Done

As a manager, it can be frustrating to not know what people are doing. You can check in with people but it’s certainly harder to know when everyone is working from home. Don’t be fooled that just because someone is in the office they are also being productive either, but it’s certainly a bit easier when you can walk into someone’s office and check up on them or talk something out.

Can’t Do Hands On In-Person Training and Collaboration

In many scenarios, it can be either impossible or more difficult to train someone who is remote. This can be a challenge for many types of companies and industries.
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Personally, I think companies should look into remote as an option. I am not advocating for full remote, but if you are hiring for a specific skill set that is hard to hire locally, look outside of your area. I think a hybrid remote and office scenario can work well for many companies that don’t require all skills sets in the office or facility.

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