2022 Guide to Remote-First Business Operations

The pandemic completely changed the way remote work is viewed and implemented. There had for years been a push to talk more about remote work and make it a reality, but it didn’t always come to fruition.

The pandemic changed things from a theory to a must, and now companies are increasingly sticking with some version of remote work. That may mean a hybrid environment, or what’s sometimes called remote first.

Remote first work environments have benefits, but they aren’t without potential pitfalls.

For example, companies are just really starting to understand the cultural and cybersecurity ramifications of ongoing remote work. Luckily, when businesses recognize the problems early on, they can combat them with smart solutions like identity and access management and Zero Trust cybersecurity approaches.

The following is a general guide to remote-first operations and what organizations should know.

What is Remote-First?

The term remote-first is one that is being used a lot in recruitment right now, but what does it actually mean?

Overall, while there can be distinctions depending on the company, in a remote-first environment, there isn’t a difference between an in-office and a remote worker.

This is different from just being able to work from home.

Remote-first is intended to signal some important distinctions. For example, remote-first should indicate a company's culture and collaborative style.

In remote-first offices, you should be on an even playing field with your coworkers no matter where you work.

Traditionally, remote workers have been viewed and treated differently or perhaps skipped over for opportunities. With remote-first, there is a priority placed on communication, development, and inclusion for all workers even when they don’t come to the office.

Remote-first doesn’t necessarily mean an organization is fully remote. Many remote-first companies do have at least one in-person space that they might use for collaboration or if someone prefers to come in and do work.

Remote-first contrasts with remote-second, which is when remote working is okay but perhaps not prioritized as much.

Things like identity and access management become incredibly important in a remote-first office because all employees should have as much access to information, assets, resources, discussions, and decisions as anyone working in an office.

The employees can work remotely in a remote-second or remote-ok setup, but it’s not the default. There is often a headquarter location where the majority of employees work permanently, and major discussions and decisions are made inperson.

Remote workers have to receive information usually well after key decisions are made, through indirect messaging.

Another term is remote-friendly. When an office is remote-friendly, working outside the office sometimes might be seen as an occasional privilege. Still, ultimately the physical office is where decisions are made, and collaboration is done.

In a remote-friendly office, it’s easier overall to work in the office, even with employees opting to work-from-home a few days a week or month.

Distributed vs. Remote Teams

A distributed team is what you’re more likely to see in a remote-first company. Distributed teams are all physically distributed physically distanced away from each other. Team members very rarely see each other face-to-face, if ever, and they can work in different countries and time zones.

Managing distributed teams can be tricky, but there are advantages, particularly when it comes to recruiting great talent.

Remote teams are physically separated, but not everyone necessarily works from home.

There are also companies that, even though they offer remote options, require that employees be located within a certain distance from the office.

When an office is remote-friendly, while you might be allowed to work from somewhere else, in remote-first, you are actually empowered to do so. There is a potential bias toward office workers receiving promotions and other advantages in remote-friendly, even if it’s not recognized. Both people are information are more available in-office in a remote-friendly office.

Characteristics of Remote-First Companies

There are no hard and fast rules for what makes a remote-first company and what doesn’t, but some of the things these organizations tend to share in common with one another include:

• With collaboration, there should be asynchronous messaging and written procedures and processes when possible.

• All the written materials are searchable and permanent in a remote-first organization to streamline communication.

• Asynchronous communication means that messages might be longer for more clarity—instant messaging platforms might not be sufficient.

• In remote-first, if there needs to be a face-to-face of any kind, even though it might actually be done by video, there needs to be advanced planning and scheduling. It’s difficult in remote-first offices to have on-the-fly brainstorming sessions or conversations, which can be a pro or a con depending on how you look at it.

• The focus in remote-first is on output. Remote-first environments tend not to focus on things like time worked or being logged in all the time. If the work is being done and expectations are being met, that’s what’s important. A lot of this stems from the fact that people may be working in different time zones, so trying to force employees to stay online during set hours doesn’t work.

Creating a Thriving Remote First Culture

Along with logistical challenges like cybersecurity, one of the biggest issues with remote-first that businesses have to solve is the ability to connect employees to a unified, positive culture.

Since the DNA of a remote-first company is working from anywhere, all of the systems and processes need to be built around this, which will help contribute to culture.

Some of the features of a remote-first culture to implement include:

• Decisions need to be made with remote workers included in the conversations. Every remote employee has to feel like they have the opportunity to contribute to discussions and like their opinions and input are playing a role.

• Since people aren’t typically meeting inperson, systems need to be designed around an efficient, seamless, and accessible flow of information online.

• Video calls are the primary way of conducting meetings.

• Create more information opportunities for conversation through water cooler Slack channels. You want to prioritize employees bonding with one another in ways that step outside of the confines of just work-only conversations.

• When hiring employees, the priority is talent over the physical location. In a remote-friendly or traditional environment, a candidate who’s located near the physical office or willing to move is prioritized even if there are other candidates with better skills or more talent in a particular area. The ability to reach outside of geographic confines to tap into talent will be one of the most compelling reasons for companies to consider going remote-first. The ongoing talent and labor shortage is one of the most pressing issues that will impede growth if businesses of all sizes don’t get creative.

• Productivity is measured based on results rather than the number of hours worked. This tends to have very positive effects on culture in almost all cases.

The Downsides of Remote-First

While remote-first looks poised to become the default for many businesses and industries eventually, it’s not without downsides.

First, communication is a challenge. Yes, you’re setting everything up so that it’s facilitated online, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be inherently quick and effective to communicate when people aren’t physically located near each other.

Distributed team members tend to have more productivity and engagement overall, but accountability can suffer sometimes. It’s difficult to argue there’s inherently more accountability when you’re working side-by-side with someone than around the globe. It’s an element of human nature that employers and thought leaders do have to factor in and address.

If digital tools fail or an employee isn’t comfortable with them, the impacts on productivity in a remote-first environment can be significant. For example, an internet outage at an employee’s house could mean they don’t work for a day or more.

If you’re in a traditional office environment, you can likely keep working in other ways if there’s an outage or technology disruption. For example, you could do collaborative work during that time.

What’s Needed to be Remote-First

If you’re thinking about a shift to remote first, you first need to establish and outline your processes and how those are going to help you meet your goals.

How will you manage things like task and project management, mentorship and development, and time tracking? How can you be intentional in tracking output? How will expectations and deliverables be defined?

From there, you can start to think about technology. How will employees gain secure access to everything they need to do their work? How will you prepare them for success as far as collaboration and communication tools?

Next, you can begin to think about your systems for hiring and onboarding remote employees.

What are the mindful decisions and things you’ll do every day to support a remote-first culture rather than one that’s just remote-friendly?

There’s a sense of flexibility, agility, and plenty of advantages to remote-first, but it also requires a complete shift in thinking and strategy.