Hybrid or flexible is different from full-remote. In a full-remote setup, the company has no single headquarters. Each employee can live and work anywhere, even executive members (as there is no single physical location).
However, your place of residence will impact your salary. Yes, you have read it right! Most full-remote companies use so-called “competitive” rates for each location, meaning you will get a different compensation if you are located in New York or Mumbai, even if you are working in the same position. You can find more information on the compensation topic in my previous article about remote work or at GitLab (GitLab Inc. is the biggest remote company in the world, with around 2000 employees) compensation calculator principles page.
Variations of the flexible/hybrid working model
With the growing popularity of flexible working models, there are many variants of the different working modes. In this section, you will learn all the different versions of flexible working and the associated key attributes.
Office centric hybrid
In this approach, the organization has mostly stayed the same. The organization needs to introduce new tools and processes that could help the employees’ asynchronous work. People are demanded in the office for a predetermined number of days each week. Also, in this model, the leadership continues to do what they always have done, with no mindset change or new culture. Earlier this year, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook requested that employees spend at least three days a week in the office because “innovation is not always a planned activity”. In this (link) article, I have researched how remote work affects innovation, check it out if you are interested in the conclusion. Companies using this model: Apple, Salesforce, Disney…
Flexible hybrid
The organizations in this variant start introducing new tools and policies designed to help remote collaboration and contribution. Office space still exists. The company is ramping down the office space because desk sharing/hot desks are introduced, and fewer desks are sufficient. The leadership supports this model by allowing new tools and processes to be tested and introduced.
Remote friendly hybrid
Tools are in place to work remotely, and all the processes and workflows are also designed to be remote-friendly. Companies still have offices, mainly not for day-to-day work but as complementary to remote work and collaboration. Leadership supports remote work at all levels.
Remote first
Remote work is the default, but the organization has not (yet) pivoted to the full-remote mode. The company has offices, and employees can come into the office occasionally. The organization has all the necessary tooling, process, and workflow for efficient remote work. In this model, the company’s default working mode is also the asynchronous mode thus, the distributed workforce can work (mostly) independently at the highest pace possible. Companies using this model: Shopify, Dropbox
Full remote
This variant is similar to the remote first option, with some key differences. All of the employees work remotely from all over the world. The company has no headquarters, and the leadership is also working remotely. All the processes and tooling are designed and fine-tuned to thrive in a virtual environment. In this model the company’s default working mode is also the asynchronous mode. Companies using this model: Gitlab, Hubstaff, Zapier, Swiftly, Toptal, and many more.
One thing is for sure, hybrid work is continually evolving and growing in popularity. Thus employers also should be open to changing their culture and adopting some of the practices or risk being stuck in the past and losing their competitive advantage (if any).
