Forgive us the cheeky headline but you\u2019ll understand why we don\u2019t quite understand the fuss around remote work and the endless debate over how long it\u2019ll last, what it\u2019ll do to morale, how it\u2019ll impact a company\u2019s fortunes and so on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
At Nayamode, we\u2019ve practiced a hybrid work model for well over ten years and can attest that it has worked, and worked well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Our move to remote\/hybrid was necessitated by a part of our team needing to collaborate with their colleagues offshore, in locations 12 time zones away. This meant that they were necessarily spending some time online at night and in the interest of not having our people burn out, we instituted a policy of having people work from home a couple of times a week. Further, on other days when they did come in, our hours were always flexible. And we did this with a diverse workforce \u2013 with people ranging in age from their mid-twenties to mid-fifties. It\u2019s also worth mentioning that this move was not a brainchild of senior management \u2013 rather, it was a suggestion that bubbled up from some of the younger people on the team, and we had enough wisdom to adopt it rapidly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The result was that we had one of the more supportive work environments you could find anywhere, which complemented by other benefits we\u2019ve offered, helped keep our attrition rates low. I can say without hesitation that this has been an unqualified success for us, with little loss in team bonding, morale building or any of those factors that many (including infamously, Malcolm Gladwell recently!) have warned against.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Is this a perfect solution for every organization out there? Likely not. Each one will need to evaluate their particular situation and arrive at an arrangement that works well for them, and for the specific roles within the organization. There\u2019s no one size that fits all (duh!), and even in the context of a professional services firm like ours (we offer Consulting and Creative Agency services primarily), we see significant differences in what each role requires. Take, for instance:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So what does this mean for us? Well, we\u2019ve adopted different stances across our offices in Seattle and the San Francisco area. Seattle, being our HQ for consulting, is all remote at the moment and the creative agency folks who do work here have continued with the remote model.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In the Bay Area on the other hand (where most of our designers are), we found and signed a lease on new office space last year and are working in a true hybrid model today. People come in 3 days a week and WFH twice weekly and so far, and we believe that\u2019s a great mix. We have the opportunity and room for in person collaboration and ideation on a regular basis, but also enough flexibility to allow people to enjoy the benefits that remote work affords \u2013 less commute time, more focused time, less expense of gas, tolls, etc.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
I don\u2019t intend to minimize the need (and challenge with hybrid) for the people\/bonding aspect. This is where we get a bit creative on ways to still foster that human connection. Some ideas that work well for us include:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Will this model become ubiquitous? At the risk of prognosticating a bit, I believe it\u2019s a fair assumption that some version of remote work is here to stay. With enduring, meaningful benefits to the firm and to our people. Given that our Seattle office has been using a hybrid model for well over a decade now, you could say we\u2019ve had a head start on making this work.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forgive us the cheeky headline but you\u2019ll understand why we don\u2019t quite understand the fuss around remote work and the endless debate over how long it\u2019ll last, what it\u2019ll do to morale, how it\u2019ll impact a company\u2019s fortunes and so on. At Nayamode, we\u2019ve practiced a hybrid work model for well over ten years and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,125],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-trends","tag-remote-work"],"yoast_head":"\n