Hiring From Anywhere: Why You Should Think Distributed Team First

Buffer, the company behind the popular social media marketing tool, recently reached a special milestone as their team grew bigger. Now, the company gets powered by a team of 50 people.

With this special milestone, Buffer also took a big step to finally ditch their office and go  completely remote. Now, all their 50 employees work from their homes, coffee shops, and literally anywhere they want.

Buffer is not the only company to go 100% remote with their team. Many other companies, like Groove, have done it before and plenty more are already doing it. It’s actually starting to look like a trend.

Why are all these startups ditching the conventional ways of having a physical office and going remote-only? Well, there’s more to it than just saving office rent.

Here are a few reasons why startups build remote teams, and why you should consider doing the same.

Hire Only The Best For Your Team

If you put quality above everything else, like most other successful startups, you may already be aware how important it is to hire the best for your team.

“The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” – James Cash Penney

A great benefit of having a remote team is that you’ll have the freedom to find and hire the best people for the job. You’re not just limited to those who live near your office or who apply for the position. Which will ensure that your products and results will always be the best quality.

And, who knows, having an experienced team will almost certainly give you an edge over your competition as well.

Find Specialists From Around The World

Why limit your company to local talent when you can go International?

“I considered only looking at new hires in the Providence/Boston area, so that we could at least begin to assemble a “home” team. These were both big mistakes,” says Alex Turnbull, the CEO and Founder of Groove.

Think about it. If you were to look for an experienced WordPress plugin developer in your area, how many applications will you receive?

If you were to build a remote team you could expand your search worldwide. How many experts will you be able to find then? And the best part is it’ll cost much less to hire those experts than finding local employees.

A Happier And More Energized Team

People who work remotely are able to work from anywhere they feel most comfortable with, eat healthy, save transportation costs, and spend more time with their families. Who wouldn’t be happy and more productive while working with benefits like that?

According to a study, 82% of remote workers have reported low stress levels while working remotely. Another study found that 80% of remote workers show high morale while working from home.

Since there’s no need to participate in office gossip sessions, be distracted by other co-workers, or have a boss hover over their shoulder looking at every keystroke they make, remote team members have also found to be more productive when working from home.

Build A Culturally Diverse Team

Making your team more culturally diverse is not just about following good ethics, it also plays a strong role in building a more effective and an engaged team.

A study done by NPR found that multicultural teams produce more successful results than homogenous groups. It’s all about offering different perspectives, point of views, and adding more value to teamwork.

“It’s a matter of looking at individual teams and making sure they’re different perspectives, different points of view, different backgrounds,” says NPR’s David Greene.

As a remote team, building an ethnically diverse team won’t add more to your costs. In fact, it might actually cost you less because you won’t have to spend extra on building an office environment where people from all cultures feel comfortable with.

Better Team Engagement And Collaboration

Even if your team work in the same office, sometimes it’s difficult to keep them all on the same page and updated on the current progress of the projects you’re working on. It’s really easy for some employees to get into a chat about last night’s episode of Game of Thrones and completely lose track of the tasks that needs to be delivered within the day.

This wouldn’t happen with a remote team because remote teams stay alert and engaged with other teammates, especially when their work depends on it. There are plenty of great tools and apps out there that make this process a breeze.

In fact, studies show that remote teams tend to pay more attention during video conferencing meetings than the employees who attend meetings in a physical office.

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth

It’s Now Easier Than Ever

Ditching the conventional office work environment isn’t easy. Switching to remote work is a process. But, today it’s easier than ever before, thanks to all the amazing cloud-based apps and services.

Heck, these days, you don’t even have to go looking for talent online to find the best people for your team. There are services out there that do it for you with a quality guarantee (Hint: CodeMyViews) and allow you to hire teams on-demand. No more monthly salaries!

Cloud platforms like Basecamp, Trello, Slack, and Asana will also provide you with solutions for easily handling team communication, project management, and many other aspects of remote team management at affordable rates. Removing the need for employee training and months-long onboarding programs.

You’ll be able to manage your team from anywhere in the world.

The days of browsing job postings on newspapers and posting ads looking for local talent ended a long time ago. Many believe that the future of work is remote. It’s the main reason why most new startups now think remote-first when building teams.

“Remote work still feels like the right solution for us, for reasons including freedom, time zone coverage, productivity and lots more. Now we can say we’re 100% remote!” says Courtney Seiter from Buffer.

Well, what are you waiting for? Come join the future!