This summer, companies all around the world have been busy navigating the return to office. For some, the decision to return or not to return has been an easy one. For others, bridging the gap between fully remote and fully on-site work has resulted in the creation of a hybrid workplace. These hybrid workplaces introduce another level of decision making, as business leaders weigh the factors that make up a truly hybrid workstyle. Will they need to downsize or rework their office space? Do they have the necessary tech already or do they need to invest in more? Do their employees even want to return to the office?

One of the primary discussions to emerge from this nearly universal embrace of hybrid work is differentiating between a remote first company and a remote friendly company. Both approaches are designed to fully support the needs of remote employees, but with varying degrees of commitment to the remote work lifestyle.

Regardless of which remote policies you enact at your company, all signs point to allowing for at least some form of remote work in a post-COVID-19 world being beneficial to all parties involved. Increased flexibility is proven to boost employees' wellbeing, with 77% of full time workers saying that being able to work from home after COVID-19 would make them happier. 

This desire for remote work has grown so much over the past year that it has even blossomed into an expectation, with 81% of workers saying that they think their employer will support remote work after COVID-19. And if they don’t, those companies can kiss half of their team goodbye— with 1 in 2 people saying that they won’t return to jobs that don’t offer any remote work.

Let’s take a closer look at the distinction between creating a remote first or a remote friendly workspace, so you’ll have all of the information you need to decide which approach is best for your employees.

What is a Remote First company?

Sometimes known as “fully remote” or “completely distributed” companies, remote first organizations have flexibility built right into their ethos. A remote first company is one in which working remotely is not only expected of employees, but actively encouraged. Typically, remote first companies were born remote and therefore have been designed with remote work in mind at every step. However, with the rise in popularity of remote work in recent years (particularly, after the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new age of remote work), more and more companies are pivoting toward a remote first structure (or starting as an entirely remote organization). In many cases, these companies won’t have any office space at all and their workforce will be spread out across multiple time zones.

A couple of the remote first companies leading the charge are automation software developer Zapier (which originated as a remote first company) and messaging app Slack (which has pivoted to remote first in the last year). 

What is a Remote Friendly company?

Remote friendly companies are those that offer hybrid schedules to their employees, allowing them to work remotely part of the time. However frequently this “part of the time” actually is (anywhere from one to four days a week) depends on the exact flexible schedules offered by the company. At some remote friendly companies only some employees are permitted to work remotely, while the responsibilities of others are deemed necessary to be fulfilled on-site. In other cases, every employee of a company works on their own, individually designed flexible schedule. Many organizations who found success working from home during 2020 are embracing more remote-friendly policies in order to support the return to office.

There have been an abundance of organizations adopting remote friendly policies in the past few years, including Amazon and job board website FlexJobs.

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The Difference Between Remote First Vs Remote Friendly Companies

The most prominent distinction between remote first and remote friendly organizations is the degree to which remote work is embedded in your company culture. For remote first organizations, everything— from the choice of software used by employees to the implementation of new policies and best practices— is designed to support a fully remote workstyle. On the other hand, remote friendly companies are focused on establishing hybrid protocols and allow for remote solutions when the need arises.

Although these two types of companies seem similar on paper , in practice there are many intricacies that set them apart. Primarily, the attitude that the two types of companies have when it comes to remote work. When you are a remote first company, you are a member of an organization that prioritizes remote working and accommodates those who would prefer to work from a coworking space or office building. As a remote friendly or hybrid organization, you prioritize both remote work and in-person work via satellite office, HQ, coworking space, or shared office building. 

At a remote first company, all actions are done remotely. From the moment you interview for an open position at a remote first company to the moment you bid it farewell, you will be communicating and collaborating with the other members of your organization remotely. 

An early tenet of remote first orgs was that when there was a video meeting, everyone would attend remotely, even those working from a shared physical space. Now, many remote first companies don’t have a physical office space. 

It takes a certain breed of worker to thrive in a fully remote atmosphere like this one. Employees of remote first companies are required to be:

• Strong independent workers
• Comfortable going months without seeing a coworker in-person
• Equipped with solid project and time management skills
• Clear communicators, with their teammates and clients
• Confident in their ability to work on their own
  
  

Employees at remote friendly companies are required to be a little more flexible than their remote first counterparts. Some people view remote work as the ultimate form of flexibility, but in reality the expectations that companies have for their hybrid workers often call for an even more advanced form of flexibility. After all, what is more flexible than working from multiple locations during any given week? In addition to being flexible employees, those who work at remote friendly organizations are required to be:

• Good virtual and face-to-face communicators
• Highly organized to balance multiple workspaces
• Able to advocate for their preferred work style
• Tech savvy in order to adapt to multiple setups
• Intuitive, so they can plan their projects around where they will be working from on any given day
• Confident in their ability to work on a hybrid schedule
  
  

Regardless of if you are an employee looking for the next company to call home or a business leader deciding whether or not to begin enabling remote work at your organization, this is not a simple decision to make. To help you make this decision, here is The Complete Guide to Remote Work.

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Benefits of Being a Remote First Company

• Without requiring employees to work on-site, your hiring efforts know no geological limitations and you can expand your recruitment radius indefinitely.
• With no corporate headquarters to anchor your location, every employee has the freedom and flexibility to move wherever they’d like to.
• Remote workers are known to be the happiest workers, with a CNBC survey finding that remote workers have a Workforce Happiness Index score of 75 out of a possible 100.
• Having a completely remote workforce allows organizations to minimize costs and restructure funds that would otherwise be used on real estate.
• Remote employees are able to create singular, streamlined processes for themselves that best fit their own personal workstyle.
• Working remotely every day saves an average of 40 minutes due to the removal of a commute.
• Another perk of not having a commuting workforce is the reduction of your company’s carbon footprint.
• Fully remote employees are proven to be more productive and more engaged in their work than their on-site counterparts.
• Due to an increase in employee satisfaction, remote first companies are known to have higher retention rates than organizations that require their employees to work from the office all or part of the time.
  
  

Benefits of Being a Remote Friendly Company

• For employees who enjoy variety, remote friendly companies offer a more engaging work-life balance than those working on fully remote schedules.
• There is a wide variety of hybrid schedules that employees of remote friendly companies can work on, allowing for them to fit their schedule to their lifestyle.
• Remote friendly companies use a combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication— as opposed to remote first companies that only use asynchronous forms.
• Employees of remote friendly organizations are able to use both specialized on-site facilities and workspaces, in addition to their personal home offices.
• For employees with hectic or busy home lives, the option to work on-site can provide some much needed reprieve.
• Remote friendly organizations offer their team members all of the best aspects of both remote and in-office work.

If your organization doesn’t yet offer any form of remote work but you are interested in starting to work remotely part or all of the time, you may not need to leave your job to find the flexible policy you’re looking for. Instead, consider starting your journey toward remote work by asking your current company to adopt more hybrid policies. To get started, here’s How to Ask to Work Remotely: A Comprehensive Guide.