Remote work works

'Wow' to working from the office only.

As a Wellingtonian (well, most of the time, as you’ll learn shortly), hearing the recent news about public servants needing to return to the office has been quite surprising.

In fact, it’s surprising just how demonised these 'big bad public servants' are becoming.

God forbid they’ve applied for jobs that were available, been offered those jobs due to their experience and qualifications, and subsequently become part of a growing public sector.

Reading daily news articles about the uncertain future of their jobs must be unsettling enough, and now, changing their work structure completely is another blow.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for optimising for performance and ensuring tax dollars are well spent.

But a regression to 'the old way of working' isn’t the only option. The shake-up is all wrong.

Let me tell you something: remote work works.

When I started Atlas Digital five years ago, a key goal was for it to be fully remote. I didn’t expect to be managing a business of up to 15 people at the time, but as we’ve grown, it’s been a huge honor to extend a completely remote lifestyle to our employees. They absolutely love it.

Can I tell you something else? We literally have the best employees.

Our hiring profile is simple and aligns with our mission of becoming the best tech marketing agency across Australia and New Zealand.

To be the best in the services game, you need to hire the right people.

Here’s what we look for:

• 7+ years of experience (yes, for all staff).
• A strong reason to work remotely. This isn’t “remote working would be easier.” It’s usually something like: “I have [important thing] in my life and I’d love to be able to do it more.” OR “I commute 1 hour each day.” OR “It’s easier for me to pick my kids up from school.”
• Then, combined with a phrase like: “I really love the work I do.” “I take huge pride in my work.” “I feel personally accountable for doing a great job.”

These phrases are like a recipe from Edmonds' cookbook for employee job satisfaction, which also leads to amazing work.

A staff member told me yesterday that she received a call from a recruiter. “It’s great, it’s just three days in the office.” Hard decline.

Let me rephrase that job for this individual, who has a one-hour commute to work and, along with our culture, really wanted to work fully remotely: “It’s great, it’s just 12 DAYS (yes, days!) of commuting per year, assuming you take four weeks off work.”

Surely we can all think of something better to do with 12 days of our time?

Now, I’m not here to bag on other office environments or policies (well, not much), but I’m clearly super passionate about remote work. I can also see how, for some businesses, a different work structure might be necessary.

Since starting Atlas, I’ve had more time for the gym, more time for fresh air, more time with my wife, family, and dog. I have a cleaner house, more time (literally, from not commuting), and more trips outside of Wellington (several months in other cities or countries).

I’ve been able to change how I work—some months, I decide to start work from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then take a chunk out of the middle of the day. Other months, I feel like I need to catch up on sleep. No matter what, I’m always better for it.

If remote work wasn’t working for me as the owner, surely we wouldn’t have continued to grow revenue, launched into another country (Australia), hired and attracted top talent, or worked with amazing tech companies.

The point is, remote work isn’t the key factor in a business’s success. And remote work isn’t ineffective just because people aren’t in the office and you can’t 'watch them work' (guess what—they’re not always working in the office either!).

It’s ineffective when there aren’t strong systems to monitor employees' productivity or hold them accountable.

Our policy is to start with a 'trust first' approach. We also measure employee success based on:

1. High level of output
2. High-quality output
3. Being available for client calls and meetings

We have the means to dig deeper into these aspects if we’re unsure. And we’re happy to have honest, upfront conversations when needed.

It’s these types of tools (measurement, clear communication, accountability) that lead to remote work success—and, equally, to remote work failure.

Looping back to my earlier point, here are a couple of suggestions for getting the most out of the public sector without forcing them back to the office:

• Say no to 'WFH is a privilege' and extend to people the opportunity to work in a way that suits their lifestyle. They’ll feel better about it, and surely we can agree that happier staff tends to lead to better job satisfaction.
• Prioritise assessing effectiveness in a role by assigning specific KPIs to performance and intervening when they aren’t met, rather than focusing on work-from-home reports (though there’s merit in having this information).
• Reinvest in community hubs and infrastructure to create hospitality opportunities.

Now, I don’t have all the solutions (and I also wouldn’t want the task of turning around a struggling economy), but my goal with this article is to share my point of view on creating thriving remote work environments that can hopefully continue to guide us into ‘the new way of working.’

Finally, I’ll finish with my well-worn analogy on High School and University.

At High School, the bell rings and you go to class. You then sit in class (ideally learning) until the bell rings again. We’ve all been there.

Then, for those who do, once you arrive at University, you either attend tutorials, lectures, and submit assignments, or you don't.

And, consequently, you either pass or you don’t. Basically, you’re accountable for the results you get. But you pay your tuition either way.

When it’s time to enter the workforce, for some reason, we’ve decided we want to 'ring the school bell' again, rather than let our staff of responsible adults be accountable for the results they get at work.

In my experience as a manager, employees truly thrive when they’re fully empowered, held accountable, and trusted to do it.