I’ve worked fully remotely for the past 5 years and hybrid office-remote throughout my entire career. Hell, I even worked from my dorm room, a work-study gig as the web admin for the history department. So one could say I am a bit of an armchair expert in the field.

Today, working from home a couple days a week has become the norm across many organizations. Yet, companies are still reluctant to go fully remote or just hire remote-based employees. I contend its an untapped competitive advantage that allows you to find and retain the best talent. And, I assume we all agree, talent matters.

Why you should do it?

It’s what the potential hires out there want. I’ve interviewed and hired a bunch of folks over the past three years for a healthcare IT consulting firm. Travel to client sites has always been part of the work. But the overwhelming preference of everyone has been to work remotely, and I’ve found people generally deliver better work when working from their home office then after flying cross country.
Cost-of-living arbitrage leads to less cost and more profit. Done right, this is a win win. Great talent exists everywhere. Sure SF, NYC, London have become hubs. But there are also dedicated, smart and curious people all over the country. You can take advantage of the cost of living differences by hiring in lower-cost markets. Done right, you’re still beating the local rates, making your new employee happy while coming under the rates you’d end up paying for your market’s local talent. This arbitrage won’t last forever but might as well take advantage of it while it’s here. Of course, you’ll save on the cost of the physical space for your employees as well.
Remote facilitates a culture of ownership. Look, it’s not a magic bullet. But I’ve found that remote when done right brings along a sense of independence and control. You take breaks, lunch, walks, play with your kids, vacuum the floor, whenever you want. No one is watching you. The inherent focus is on results. Results and independence lead directly to an ownership culture. When you feel like you own your work, you do your best. From the other angle, micro-managing remote employees is hard, easier to just trust and let them go out there and conquer.

Ok, Pavel, it sounds interesting. Tell me how...

Starting a company from scratch? Take the plunge and hire remotely. There’s plenty of software from Slack to Google that will make it easy for you to collaborate. You’ll get your choice of the best talent on the market, not tying yourself to your local pool.

Hiring for an existing team? Having trouble finding the right hire locally? No time like the present. You likely have all the tools in place because your folks are already working remotely some of the time. Look for new hires that are result driven and independent. I’ll be honest, I think adding a remote employee to an existing team can be difficult. You already have all your non-virtual processes in place. You have to adjust, add dial-ins and start turning on video in your meetings. It can be rough for the first remote hire, hence, looking for someone who can tough it out with their result-oriented mindset. Now, to make this really work, you have to allow all of your current team members to go fully-remote. The new hire can’t be just some special case. It’ll be a transition but all that cash you save on your office lease can be used instead for a sunny beach-front company retreat. Hmm, that sounds pretty good.

Tactically, you can just indicate on all your job posting platforms that you’re willing to hire remote or even better post for positions in the lower cost market that have the talent you’re looking for.

In summary, people want to work remotely, you can find better talent at lower rates by playing the cost-of-living arbitrage game, remote working lets people control their time and focus on getting results, which is good for your business.