Last year, we decided to close all of our global offices for a week. And no, it wasn’t just an excuse to skip work, sleep in, and enjoy the sunshine. As our CEO Chris Hall pointed out last year, working remotely is a great exercise for management, and to practise what we preach when promoting a flexible, open work culture.
As a tech company that depends on collaborating with colleagues across the world, it’s important that no matter where we are, we have the freedom and tools in place to get the job done—whether we’re in the same office or not.
Now that we’ve joined forces with (what was) one of our biggest competitors, Webdam, this is more important than ever. In our increasingly digital world, remote working is becoming more a necessity than a luxury. That’s why Remote Week is the perfect opportunity to step out of the office and put everyone’s flexibility—and the tools to support that—to the test.
Learning, and building on, last year’s Remote Week
As a company, we took a lot away from our nomadic work experiment last summer. By having all Bynder employees fill out a post-remote week survey (see the results here), there was a lot to learn from the experience.
What worked well
Having some respite from everyday office distractions was one of the big positives coming from the experience, with 54.2% of employees reporting that they felt more focused than they did in the office (with 24.2% reporting the same focus levels.)
Interestingly, the freedom for employees to work at their own pace (and place!) had a positive impact on their personal lives too, with one colleague summarizing it nicely:
I found myself to be more focused, well rested and relaxed as I was able to claw back time otherwise spent commuting.
Lessons learned
It was interesting to see how different departments approached the remote experience, each with their own set of unique needs and challenges. Our developers often rely on double-screen workspaces and came to miss their usual working environment.
On the other hand, those with client-facing roles, i.e. Sales and Marketing, experienced the easiest transition and were less reliant on office infrastructure.
Differing departmental needs has definitely been taken into account this year, and we were able to secure creative co-working spaces on the request of our tech team, as well as an off-site summit for our marketing team (at the beach of course!)
While we’re a global team here at Bynder, a lot of us came to miss all those office distractions too. Collaboration with colleagues is a daily necessity across all departments, and while remote work brought more focus, in some cases it came at the expense of the tried-and-true way of communicating: face-to-face.
Although we have great communication channels, I don’t think that anything can truly replace face-to-face communication with coworkers. I feel like if I was in the office some things would have still been faster and more efficient
This gets to the heart of what successful remote working relies upon: a robust tech stack/infrastructure. And it’s something we’ve definitely learned from ahead of Remote Week 2018.
As the modern workplace goes digital, companies need to prepare their team with the tools and resources they rely on not only inside the office, but outside the office too. That way, collaboration and productivity doesn’t depend on being under the same roof.
This begs the question: is your team future-proof and remote-ready?
Prove it and join us for Global Work Remote Day 2018
While we #goremote for a whole week from July 30th - August 3rd, we want to make this a global movement and encourage you to join us for #remoteday on August 3rd.
Aside from gaining brownie points from your PR department, taking part in Global Work Remote Day is the perfect opportunity to put your team and tech stack to the test and inspire new ways of working. After all, a little shake out of the comfort zone can do wonders for creativity.
How to take part
Well, a good start is to ask your boss first! We’re determined to make this a global movement, and the first step is spreading the word (and hashtags!).
- Join the event on Facebook and promote the cause to your network with the #remoteday hashtag
- Partner with us to make it a company-wide initiative by emailing us, and we’ll submit your logo to the official Global Work Remote Day webpage
- And of course, show us on social how you #goremote on August 3rd—and get creative! (beachwear optional 😎)
