Remote work in software companies has different shades. There’s no playbook or one proper way of doing things. Different organizations follow and mix different approaches together.
Eventually, there are many ways of doing work outside of the traditional office.
Let’s look together at the 3 common remote work models we can distinguish.
Fully remote 🚀
A fully remote company is an organization with the entire team working in a distributed way. There’s no office to go to.
This model has significant benefits both for workers and for the company. Sometimes it comes along with a flexible schedule or async working mode.
Key indicators:
- geographically distributed team
- there’s no office
Examples: Buffer, Doist, GitLab
Remote-first 🥇
Remote-first is the type of company, where remote work is a first-class citizen. In other words, there is still an office (or more) but everything optimizes for remote work.
Remote workers are a vital part of the organization and they’re not excluded.
Essential characteristics:
- transparency and visibility of decisions
- async way of communication
- results over the hours worked
Examples: Auth0, Basecamp, StackOverflow
Hybrid remote 🍰
The hybrid model of remote work requires you to go to the office for a certain number of days in a week. For instance, it could be 3 days in-office and 2 days at home schedule. It depends on the role but in some cases, it could even be a 1-day visit per month.
Home-office days are whether picked by team members or fixed for all of them.
Hybrid remote mode gained its popularity when pandemics started. This pattern is also known as a remote-friendly mode.
Main attributes in a hybrid model:
- remote work is a perk and privilege, not a business advantage
- requires visiting the office
Examples: Ahrefs, DigitalOcean, Netlify
Find what works for you
This was a quick overview of the 3 most common remote work models in software companies.
Of course, there are different shades of it. Most of the companies are mixing them together, learning the best approach as they go.
Would you like to find more companies that follow these patterns? Check the remote-first, fully remote, or hybrid remote companies list.
Have fun!