Remote first companies - Hiring challenges - Emptor

Remote culture was widely associated with tech companies prior to 2020 and accelerated by pandemic lockdowns, forcing us to adapt to new but already known models. Nearly two years after the pandemic and the COVID-19 lockdowns, new ways to collaborate and work have emerged in a challenging environment.

Before COVID-19, perks at the office, especially in tech startups or tech-related companies, were associated with in-office benefits. These included better office spaces, areas for meditation, wellness services, free meals, and games scattered throughout the floor. However, everything changed to redefine culture in a remote-first company policy.

Workforce and collaborators are now more prepared with a toolset that allows them to be more productive in their jobs when they have freedom and flexibility, along with clear objectives and goals. As many studies have shown — and we are going to share in this blog post — these are the new ways of collaboration in 2022.

What is a Remote-First Company?

Remote-first companies adopt a remote-first working default mode. They prioritize remote work as a key part of their culture, establishing protocols, providing guidelines, and ensuring all necessary tools are available to thrive in meeting their objectives and goals.

Organization in a Remote-First Company

Videoconferencing

High-speed connections, hardware, and software are required to maximize the effectiveness of tools, ensuring that everyone is clearly heard and seen during communication. Zoom, for instance, is a very useful tool that can increase productivity since it allows you to organize your meetings in a calendar with descriptions and links for conferences, accommodating anywhere from 2 to thousands of participants.

Meetings in Teams

Teams need proper organization and should have daily, weekly, and bi-weekly meetings to manage projects effectively.

Accessible Documentation and Collaboration

Keeping all documentation in a collaborative drive, organized properly, is the best way to manage a repository. A repository is a drive where you establish nomenclature, naming conventions, and categories for files based on creation date, ownership, and privileges.

Remote-Only Companies

While remote-first companies prioritize remote work, they still maintain some office space for flexibility. In contrast, remote-only companies eliminate office space entirely, making remote work their default and sole option. This model is particularly useful for smaller companies or those with international teams, as setting up offices in every country is unrealistic when you have fewer than 10 employees in each location.

What is the Hybrid Working Mode?

Hybrid working companies are defined as those that combine the best of both worlds, integrating remote and traditional office workers. They typically utilize all the toolsets used by remote-first companies.

Advantages and Disadvantages

There’s no particular reason to opt for one model over another; each has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the specific operations and needs of your company. Remote-first companies have the structure to support in-office hours while allowing certain departments to operate remotely. While many see this as a privilege, some departments may need to have face-to-face meetings with clients, making it more logical to work from an office in those cases.

Culture is one of the most critical subjects to keep in mind. Building a culture that transcends location is a better approach to caring for your collaborators. One of the most valuable assets in a company is its people. Ensuring their wellness by making them feel heard and taken care of, alongside having your people and culture team create secure spaces where everyone can express themselves, communicate, and contribute beyond just performance, helps build employee pride and encourages teammates to go the extra mile.

Hiring Employees for a Remote-First Company

Building an international staff requires a strong background check to perform proper due diligence before hiring. The cost of a bad hire or a later resignation can be much more than you think.

Emptor can assist you in the screening and hiring phase by conducting proper due diligence with automated background checks for your potential new collaborators.