The Future of Work Isn't Remote

The future isn’t remote.

The present is.

It’s here.

Remote work; distributed living.

1. Improved lifework balance.
2. Higher quality of living.
3. Increased flexibility.
4. Greater control.

No commuting.

Higher productivity.

More time with family.

Improved health/well-being.

I thought remote work would be a revolution lead by workers.

The most talented people demanding remote, flexible opportunities as a condition of employment. The existing 20m full-time remote workers from home swelling to 33-40m by 2030 as companies gave them what they wanted to attract and retain them.

I was wrong.

The current situation has accelerated remote work by 10 years in 10 days.

Companies everywhere have been forced to figure out remote work on the fly and what they have realized by doing so is that almost every job can be done remotely. As their offices sit empty work continues to get done showing offices aren't needed for companies to function.

The rise of remote work will be driven by companies who are now comfortable with remote having experienced it. Companies who embrace this and transition to remote-first operations will dominate the next decade.

The implication of this is significant.

1. There will be far more than 33-40m full-time remote workers by 2030.
2. Remote-first and office-first is not a Zero-sum game.

How many full-time remote workers by 2030?

At least double the estimates. 66m across the EU and US full time will be the minimum. IT could easily be as high as 80m. If you're not hiring remotely you will be:

1. far less talented than teams that are.
2. far less efficient than teams that are.
3. far less diverse than teams that are.

Office-first teams won't be competitive.

They will lose all their best people to their biggest competitors, become less talented with every hire, and, at the same time, they will spend far more money than remote-first teams.

Remote work is the smartest strategy every company needs to adapt to.

But it's not a zero-sum game.

I assumed that it would become a straight choice; remote or the office. The reality is more nuanced than that. There will be instances where it is an either-or but almost every company will take a blended approach.

Slash real-estate footprint.

Most companies will reduce their office footprint by 30-50% across the next 3-5 years. Workers will operate between the office and home spending 2-3 days in each location.

How can companies do this easily?

Setting up a remote team with all the things they need to do great work at home is expensive, time-consuming and expensive.

We're working with some of the most important businesses globally to make this simple. We let them develop a remote working strategy instantly. Firstbase takes care of everything as a monthly subscription; delivering, maintaining, repairing, upgrading and collecting the materials on your behalf without companies having to do a thing.

Sign up to check out a demo of our platform here