Remote Job

A remote job is work that takes place outside of a company-owned office. Under these flexible work arrangements, employees can work from their homes, coworking spaces, coffee shops, or other places that are not sponsored by the company. Remote work can be full-time, temporary, or part-time.

Remote work is the practice of employees performing their work from a location other than a central office operated by the employer. Such locations could include an employee’s home, a co-working or other shared space, a private office, or any other location outside of the traditional corporate office building or campus.

Why is remote work so popular ?

Remote work has become increasingly popular because it offers benefits for both employers and employees. It also garnered a lot of renewed attention as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many organizations to rapidly shift from a traditional face-to-face work environment to a fully remote workforce for health and safety reasons.

The long-term popularity of remote work is tied to the advantages it can bring, including reduced or eliminated travel times, recruiting and hiring advantages, and productivity improvements.

Levels of Remote Work:

Enabling remote work doesn’t necessarily mean your workforce is out of the office full time. There are different levels of remote work that mean your workforce can be in or out of the office, or a bit of both.

1. Remote work option. Companies with a remote work option are not remote companies and do not consider themselves as such, but do take remote work into account. These are sometimes called “flex days” or “remote Monday/Fridays,” where employees can work remotely on days they have an appointment or special circumstance, or on specifically designated remote days.
2. Temporarily Remote. A temporarily remote business is fully or partially remote with the understanding that it is not permanent and employees are expected to return to the office at a later date.
3. Hybrid. A hybrid model is a business split between remote and in-office employees. These companies have employees who report to an office, fully remote employees who always work from home, and some employees who do both.
4. Remote-First. The first remote companies have an office, but are still considered remote companies. The office could be used as an occasional meeting space or a place where employees can visit infrequently. The office usually cannot accommodate the entire workforce.
5. Totally remote. Fully remote companies typically do not have an office for employees to visit and all work is done on virtual platforms from a remote and dispersed team.

How does remote work work ?

Remote work requires a combination of the right culture, processes and technology, specifically geared towards enabling virtual teams to work successfully from anywhere. Culturally, for remote work to be successful, it must be assumed that an individual or team will work offsite as the norm. While there is no single blueprint for this strategy, a successful remote workforce typically shares some common characteristics, including:

1. Strong and Reliable Connectivity: Virtual teams rely heavily on fast Internet and mobile technologies that can withstand heavy usage.
2. Communication and collaboration tools: Remote workers need to be able to work together as if they were all in the same place. This requires high-quality, secure apps and platforms for technologies like chat, video conferencing, file sharing, remote desktops, and other common business needs.
3. Healthy culture – High-performing virtual teams typically have cultures of trust and teamwork, often more focused on results than “face time” or hours spent in the office. A culture that promotes remote work also includes supportive management that believes in the remote approach. and empowers individuals and teams to succeed with this style of work.

Advantage and disadvantages of remote work:

While some people enjoy remote work because it allows them more freedom to travel and prioritizes work-life balance, others miss the connection with coworkers and the collaborative nature of office work.

Advantage:

• Provides more freedom and autonomy to employees.
• Reduces the cost of office space and supplies for employers
• Prioritize work-life balance and flexibility.
• Increases productivity among employees.

Disadvantages:

• Reduce face-to-face communication between employees.
• Collaboration between teams decreases.
• Makes some employees feel lonely or isolated

Remote Work Best Practices:

While there is no single “correct” way to work remotely, there are some general best practices to set the stage for success. These include:

• Clear guidelines and policies: A culture of trust is often based on a healthy understanding of expectations: Is a person expected to be “in the office” (or accessible for online communication) at a certain time or during a certain period of time? number of hours a day? ? How is performance measured? What devices and apps are approved for commercial use? And so on.
• Teamwork: A virtual team is still a team. Managers, in particular, have a responsibility to build collaborative and communicative teams that are invested in each other’s success. This could include occasionally meeting in person when possible, such as for a retreat or social event, as well as other practices such as celebrating individual and team accomplishments.
• World-class technologies: Companies with high-performing remote teams invest in the technologies their people rely on to get their jobs done. These include remote desktops and mobile devices, high-speed broadband, reliable and easy-to-use applications, and other specific business needs.

Remote work challenges:

Problems with remote work tend to arise when best practices and basic principles of how remote teams work are missing. This leads to challenges such as:

• Productivity drain – Without clear guidelines and policies, employees can lose their motivation and reduce productivity.
• Distrust and micromanagement: Lack of trust, or the virtual equivalent of looking over someone’s shoulder to make sure they’re doing their job, can increase anxiety and lower morale.
• Unreliable technology: Inappropriate tools and technologies can kill the productivity and morale of virtual teams. Poor broadband connections, unreliable apps, outdated hardware – all of these can lead to frustration and greatly diminish your results.
• The reluctant remote workforce: Finally, another challenge can arise when the employee or employer does not work remotely as an intentional choice or strategy. Remote work is best suited for individuals and organizations that are looking for it for its advantages.

What is the difference between remote work and working from home?

Working from a home office is a form of remote work, but the two terms are not necessarily interchangeable. This is because remote work does not prescribe where someone works; it just means that they rarely go to a traditional office to do their work. His day-to-day norm is to work from somewhere else, which may be at home, but is not limited to that location.

Additionally, “working from home” can also refer to a temporary or less frequent version of remote work. This scenario could include, for example, an individual unexpectedly working from home for a day or two due to a short-term childcare need, but would normally work from the company office. This style of work is sometimes referred to as telecommuting or telecommuting. While remote workers typically work from an off-site location most or all of the time, telecommuting or telecommuting typically means the person also regularly works on-site in a traditional office.

Some questions to ask yourself before going remote:

• Will I take responsibility for completing my work properly and on time?
• Will I feel comfortable being separated from my coworkers?
• What do I like/dislike about working in an office?
• Does my commute make it difficult for me to get to and from work?
• Do I have children or other family obligations that would be easier to handle from home?
• Do I have the tools and equipment I need to work from home?

How to actually find a remote job:

We wrote a whole article about this! It’s called “Finding a Remote Job, Just About Everything You Need to Know.” If you’re up for remote work, definitely give it a read. But here are the main takeaways if you’re still browsing:

• Use job boards specific to remote work (see our list below)
• Bookmark the career pages of remote companies (see below for some of our favorites)
• Find Remote Jobs on LinkedIn(Opens in a new tab)
• Make sure you have a strong portfolio and resume, and write your personalized cover letters to underscore what a great freelancer and problem solver you are.
• Practice your remote job presentation skills for those inevitable video interviews

The beauty of the digital age is that job boards exist specifically for finding remote work. If you decide that a work from home, telecommuting, or remote job is right for you, you can go directly to the places where companies post more flexible positions. Here are some of our favourites.

THE 5 BEST REMOTE WORKING BOARDS

1. FLEX WORKS (OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
   FlexJobs has over 50 remote job categories, with positions ranging from freelance jobs to part-time jobs to full-time jobs, with remote careers ranging from entry-level to executive. The best part? FlexJobs screens your jobs before posting them, so you don’t have to search for opportunities that aren’t reputable. The site currently hosts over 20,000 job postings for digital nomads and work at home.
2. WE WORK REMOTELY (OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
   With a simple and straightforward design, this job board is a mixed bag for remote-from-home jobs, from customer service to web design and programming. Fulfilling its stated goal of “finding the most qualified people in the most unexpected places,” the We Work Remotely site connects more than 130,000 monthly users with telecommuting opportunities. It’s your ticket to remote employment in no time.
3. REMOTE.CO(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
   Remote.co hand-picks their list of remote jobs. These listings include customer service positions, design opportunities, developer jobs, recruiter and HR roles, sales jobs, and other remote jobs (including writers, managers, and marketers). The Remote.co site also has the handy feature of allowing you to search or browse by job type.
4. POWERTOFLY (OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
   PowerToFly is a dream come true for female job seekers interested in working remotely. PowerToFly focuses on matching women in technology with remote and work-from-home jobs. If you join the site’s talent database, you’ll go through a vetting process and be matched for a paid trial (a 2-4 week trial period) with a potential employer. The site was started by two tech-savvy moms who were dedicated to making other women’s digital nomad dreams come true, and PowerToFly continues that mission today.
5. JUSTREMOTE.CO(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
   I’ve gotten three solid interviews for positions off this board, so it’s definitely legit. It is especially targeted at web developers, designers, and marketers.

TOP REMOTE COMPANIES:

Here are some of our favorite fully remote companies:

• Skillcrush
• 10up
• Aha!
• Buffer
• Close.io
• Ghost
• Github
• InVision
• Knack
• MeetEdgar
• MoveOn
• Moz
• Salesforce
• Skillshare
• Stripe
• Toptal
• Zapier

Final Thoughts:

Whichever remote work model you choose will ultimately come down to three things: the size and nature of your company, the size of your team and the work they produce, and what your budget and operating costs are.

But no matter what the answer to all the criteria is, there is a model to suit your needs, especially when you incorporate Tameday into it. Remember that today’s employees really value work-life balance, and offering them remote work, in some way, is one of the main things that will attract the best and brightest minds.