Is remote working really here to stay?

Lockdown restrictions have proved to multiple industries that workers don’t have to be confined within the walls of their organisation to produce their best work. They can be trusted to deliver from afar.

Some universities, for instance, have found sharing resources through online platforms has encouraged engagement, while students unable to attend lectures have been able to catch up on demand.

I expect remote working and learning like this will continue to be a norm for many of us, even when the world begins to recover from the pandemic, mainly due to the benefits it has introduced. Many organisations have gained additional flexibility from introducing more tech-enabled processes. In turn, a better work-life balance and improved efficiency has been achieved.

However, that said, this won’t be the final nail in the coffin of the traditional office and classroom environment. It will never fully disappear because impromptu conversations and face-to-face interactions are still invaluable in sparking creativity, problem-solving at pace, and networking properly.

This is not something anyone wants to lose 

This is not something anyone wants to lose. Running through feedback on a complex piece of work, for example, or offering pastoral support can feel easier and more sincere in-person. But equally, losing the newly founded agility from remote working is not a route most organisations will want to take.

The most important change is to ensure that whilst retaining some office space can be useful, the decision making and communication of an organisation shouldn’t be tied to that location. This is something that is known as ‘remote-by-default’. This essentially means employees are able to work wherever and whenever is best for them interchangeably, and that meetings, decisions, projects and delivery should be designed around remote access as the default, not an office space. Some days people may work in the classroom or office, other days it could be from home, but the decision is driven by preference, not mandate.

How remote-by-default could help

We’ve been working remotely as a standard practice at Tyk since 2014. We’ve found it’s ushered in new ways of working, and a whole range of new benefits have emerged on top of what the traditional workplace provides. I suspect an approach like this could similarly hold benefits for other organisations.

One of the most obvious advantages is it enables employees to personalise their workplace to their individual lives. It’s a lot easier for people to work around important life commitments and caring responsibilities, without having to make sacrifices.

We believe that anyone can live the way they want to live at Tyk. We promote a culture of ‘radical responsibility’, where our colleagues are empowered to choose where and when they work, the only constraint being that they need to coordinate that with clients and colleagues. We allow employees to make time for whatever they like in their personal lives, as long as they do great work when they’re working for us. We believe this means employees are more likely to feel happy – and this happiness, I believe, harbours a healthier and more productive culture.

Another major benefit from working remote-by-default is a widened talent pool. Not being precious about where employees work has enabled us to hire the best people, even if they’re further afield from the traditional talent hotspots of Seattle, London, and Silicon Valley. Not only does this mean we’re able to hire the right people, but it means we’re able to extend services across time zones. This offers the potential for many organisations to find new pipelines of opportunity.

Perhaps the most impactful benefit is cultural. When everyone in an organisation is empowered to contribute ideas, critique, effort and results, the organisation becomes more inclusive. Decision making is not confined to a small number of people with access to a meeting in a specific location, the opinions of the team are not limited to the number who can get to “meeting room 3 on thursday at 8am”. And those who shout loudest or most forcefully no longer carry the momentum of the meeting; contributions can be considered, asynchronous and come from anyone in the business. This is truly a superpower.

It’s not either/or

Understandably, there’s been a lot of talk about what the future of the workplace will look like now remote working and learning has been “forced” on organisations who previously rejected it. In most of the articles I’ve read, the traditional in-person workplace is pitted against remote working, or a “hybrid” approach is suggested.

I believe that the biggest benefits of remote working require a commitment to devolved responsibility and autonomy, ensuring that working practices are “default” remote, so that remote colleagues are not at a disadvantage. By embracing this stance, organisations can move faster, attract and build better teams, and prosper while their competitors are sat in traffic jams and delayed rail services. On that basis, I believe a change in working practices will relegate the office to an occasional work and meeting space, with the hub of organisations’ decision making and communication migrating online.

Having taken this approach for the past seven years, I’ve seen that a more fluid and flexible approach can work long term. And I truly believe this is what the future workplace really entails.

James Hirst, COO and co-founder at Tyk