The remote work scene has changed massively, especially since 2020 due to the global pandemic. The ongoing health crisis has not only made remote working a preferred option, but has also helped organizations navigate these troubled times.

Most companies that switched to a home or remote working environment during the Covid period have mentioned whether they will continue to follow remote working practices or move to a hybrid working model.

This is the opinion shared by many business and industry leaders in all sectors. To keep up with the times and adjust to the new normal, companies everywhere are testing various types of remote work setups.

This is in an effort to find the one who will work for them and who they can scale up to see how remote working will stay in the future.

Let’s break down the different options and see what each entails.

Remote friendly workplaces

These are organizations that work mostly in person, but where employees can also work remotely if necessary. They also have staff and consultants who work outside or outside of their office space.

Such workstations allow a little more flexibility than the usual presence in the office during working hours. Employees have the freedom not to be in the office and still do their work from home or from another location. However, this only serves as a brief respite as most of the work still takes place in person and in the office.

Employees in such companies tend to use their home work privilege when they feel the need to do so. However, the freedom to do so is limited to a certain number of days in a month or year, depending on the organization and its remote working policy.

Remote first organizations

Being remote-first means hiring and managing remote teams by default. You may still have physical office space and have some teams or staff stationed there when needed. However, the primary recruiting principle is to hire and develop remote workers for such organizations.

Remote first companies embrace the idea of ​​remote working and are more inclined to hire accordingly. The culture, communication, management, etc. are designed to provide an easy remote work experience in these companies.

Completely remote teams in the same time zone / geography

As the name suggests, these are companies that are fully distributed, albeit in the same time zone and / or geographic region. Remote working is the only norm here. The idea behind this is that everyone works at the same time in order to achieve a seemingly better coordination between the various employees and teams.

Most of the time they work synchronously and everyone usually has the same working hours. It is similar to working in the office in terms of fixed or core hours, but with the benefit of working from home (or better not working from an office).

Such companies place greater emphasis on the need for real-time communication and collaboration.

Fully remote teams across time zones and regions

These are fully distributed teams in which teams from two or more time zones and / or regions work. They use an asynchronous communication model with employees all over the world.

In such a remote working environment, collaboration is usually not simultaneous due to the different locations and working hours of the individual employees. These types of teams are generally more diverse and bring a varied but unique experience to the table.

Finally

No two remote work setups are alike, to say the least. Because regardless of which remote working model organizations use, the subtle differences lie in the composition of the people who work there.

This is because the culture is built by the people. Different teams work well together in different conditions and working environments. There is no one particular model that works for everyone, although an asynchronous, completely remote setup comes closest.

Which model to choose or follow will depend on how your specific teams work together and what they need to be successful at their jobs. Listen to what they have to say and find out what type of remote working model will best suit your employees. Once you have that, it’s a happy remote work experience!