It was February of 2020 and we were on a roll. I had just founded my latest organization, The Center for Respectful Leadership, a few months before and we were in high energy, rapid growth mode. I was huddling daily with my team of part-time marketing/biz dev folks in our leased offices in downtown San Diego; breaking bread with and enrolling major coaches and thought leaders into our Advisory Council; and traveling to conferences all over North America and Europe to keynote and lead seminars on the power of respect and Respectful Leadership. We were a close, committed, and hardworking group – and we truly valued our in-person facetime with each other. We were getting s**t done, big time, and in person!
Then the pandemic hit; we all went into lockdown; and started working remotely from home. Meeting virtually, and communicating by email, text and videocall become the daily norm for us. We found ourselves in back-to-back videoconference calls and meetings for hours every day; we texted each other almost constantly, and we conducted all of our new staff interviews exclusively over video.
Today, we’ve decided that this new virtual work environment, with a completely remote workforce, is the absolute right thing for us and will be for the foreseeable future. This is in spite of the fact that we’ve doubled in size and despite the re-discovered opportunities for us to work together in person.
We’ve learned that while growing a service company during the pandemic isn’t easy, if you have the right people, the right respectful relationships, a willingness to try new ways of working, then a highly productive, respectful virtual organization is totally possible.
Here are what we at the center consider to be some of the biggest benefits of a virtual organization…
1) Reduced Overhead and Travel Expense. like many cities pre-COVID, traffic in San Diego was a nightmare, especially during rush hour. In 2019, the average commuter in the US spent over 60 minutes getting to and from work with many people spending twice that much time stewing in their vehicles and spewing greenhouse gases into the sky. These days, we could get back together in person if we want to, but we’ve become so efficient in working remotely, we now only choose to do so on special occasions, and that makes being in person with each other even more special.
As for leased office space, furniture and equipment rentals, utilities, and in office perks like coffee, etc., unless you’re in a relatively rural area, when you add it all up, your office could run you as much $23 per square foot a month! For startups and small organizations like ours, that’s a lot of cash that could be better spent on staff and marketing. Telecommuters do not require any of these things.
2) Reduced People Costs. These days, many – but not all – remote workers are professional independent contractors who not only provide their expert services to your organization, but to many other similar clients as well. You are not required to offer health insurance or pay for workman’s comp for independent workers like these folks. There are a number of tax benefits as well: no employer portion of the federal and state tax to pay.
And no, you aren’t taking advantage of your independent workers – this is what they want. (Believe me, if they wanted health insurance and other benefits, they’d find work in companies that offered them…right now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there a thousands of job openings all over the US that offer these kinds of benefits in every industry vertical.) This means that these days, if you’re operating virtually, there is a real possibility you can find top tier, independent, professional talent for a fraction of the cost that you used to pay out for full-time employees.
3) You Can Hire Experts When Needed
Do you need someone to write the occasional press release and maybe come up with a revision to your brochure every once in a while? Instead of hiring someone full time as your marketing person, consider outsourcing the tasks to a freelancer. We’ve built exceptional, long-lasting relationships with fractional resources. You will pay per project, or hire your freelancer for a few hours per month, instead of creating a marketing position. Freelancers give even small businesses the opportunity to hire an expert for almost any task.
4) You Can Expand/Contract Almost Instantly Depending On Demand
Do you expect a temporary increase in your workload, be it seasonal, or because you just landed a large project? Why not pick up a few remote workers for the task instead of working with inexperienced temps, or hiring in-office personnel that you may not need three months down the road. Big companies do this all of the time, why shouldn’t the little ones? Remote teams and fractional staff can combine the flexibility of temps with the on-the-job experience of permanent employees if you want it. You get the best of both worlds.
5) More Motivated Workers
Most remote Workers have very good reasons for why they want to work from home. Whether its because they want to stay home with the kids, or they have a disability, or are taking care of an elderly relative, or want to avoid a long, stressful commute, being able to work from home makes them happy. As you well know, happy employees are more motivated, and don’t count the minutes until they can leave the office. By the way, if you’re worried about productivity among remote workers, Recent studies clearly indicate that productivity is better for those working from home than in an office setting.
Again, I’m not saying transforming the Center into a full-time virtual/remote worker organization was easy. But it wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be. And now, after a year and half of operating this way, it’s working well for us. It might even work for you. After all, many companies insisted that their employees could “never be remote.” But when forced into it by the pandemic, they pivoted quickly and figured out ways to make it work for them just fine.
