How this company grew by ten times in one year while going fully remote, fully distributed

The Evolution of Remote Work: Lessons Learned from a Hybrid Environment

As we navigate the challenges and opportunities of remote work, it's clear that hybrid environments have become the new norm for many companies. At [Company Name], we've had the privilege of experiencing firsthand the benefits and pitfalls of this shift. In this article, we'll explore some of the key takeaways from our journey, including how we adapted to remote hiring, onboarding, and collaboration, as well as how we've prioritized employee wellness in a world where work can be all-consuming.

From Remote Hiring to Diverse Talent Pools

One of the most significant advantages of hybrid work has been its ability to attract a more diverse range of talent. Gone are the days when we relied on in-person interviews and networking events to find top candidates. Instead, we've leveraged online platforms and tools to connect with applicants from all over the world. This shift has not only broadened our talent pool but also enabled us to hire faster and more efficiently.

"We quickly realized that remote hiring was not just a necessary evil, but an opportunity to tap into a global workforce that might have been difficult to access otherwise," said [Your Name], CEO of [Company Name]. "We've been able to attract some incredibly talented individuals who share our company values and mission. It's been amazing to see the diversity of perspectives and experiences bring new ideas and approaches to our team."

Accelerating Hiring through Hybrid Work

Our experience with remote hiring has also accelerated our ability to scale. Without the need for in-person interviews, we've been able to move quickly from initial application to onboarding, which has helped us grow our team more rapidly than ever before.

"We didn't have to worry about coordinating travel or logistics, so we could focus on finding the best candidates for the role," said [Your Name]. "It's been incredible to see how quickly we've grown and evolved as a company. We're proud of what we've achieved in just a few short years."

Onboarding in a Hybrid Environment

Of course, one of the biggest challenges of remote work is onboarding new employees. At [Company Name], we've developed several strategies to make this process smoother and more engaging.

Before the pandemic, our onboarding process was largely in-person, with managers learning from each other through organic interactions. Now, we've developed a range of programs and resources to support new hires, including a comprehensive online orientation program and regular check-ins with their manager.

"We realized that remote onboarding wasn't just about transmitting information, but also creating connections and relationships," said [Your Name]. "We want our new employees to feel like they're part of the team from day one, so we make sure they have access to all the resources and support they need to succeed."

Flattening Hierarchies through Hybrid Collaboration

Another key benefit of hybrid work is its ability to flatten hierarchies and promote more collaborative approaches. At [Company Name], we prioritize a culture of ownership and entrepreneurship, where every employee is empowered to take initiative and make decisions.

To achieve this, we've developed a range of tools and processes that encourage teamwork and feedback. One of our favorite strategies is our use of online channels and collaboration platforms to facilitate real-time communication and connection.

"We love using these platforms to stay in touch with each other and share ideas," said [Your Name]. "It's amazing to see how quickly we can move forward on projects when everyone is connected and working together towards a common goal."

The Power of Real-Time Communication

Real-time communication has been a game-changer for us. By using online channels and tools, we've created a culture where everyone feels heard and valued.

"We start every company all-hands meeting with a specific channel just for that event," said [Your Name]. "It's amazing to see how much participation and engagement there is – folks are sharing stories, pictures, gifts, and more. It's really brought the team together in a way that was previously impossible."

Burnout Prevention: Prioritizing Employee Wellness

Finally, one of the most important lessons we've learned from our experience with hybrid work is the importance of prioritizing employee wellness.

Before the pandemic, many employees were taking advantage of vacation days – but often still checking emails and working remotely. We realized that this was a recipe for burnout, so we developed a range of strategies to support team members' mental and physical health.

"We've introduced longer weekends, three-day weekends, and four-day weeks," said [Your Name]. "We also have an 'away day' program, where the entire company takes a unified day off. It's been incredible to see how much more relaxed and refreshed our team feels when they're not working all the time."

The Pandemic: A Catalyst for Change

It's easy to view the pandemic as a negative force that disrupted our plans and way of life. However, in many ways, it has been a catalyst for positive change.

"The pandemic forced us to confront our own limitations and biases," said [Your Name]. "We realized that we had been taking some things for granted – like the ability to work from anywhere or connect with anyone remotely. But in doing so, we've also discovered new strengths and opportunities."

In conclusion, our experience with hybrid work has taught us valuable lessons about flexibility, collaboration, and employee wellness. By prioritizing these aspects of remote work, we're creating a better future for ourselves and our employees – one that is more connected, more innovative, and more fulfilling than ever before.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit is the silver lining of the pandemic is that it has brought to the forefront and made possible actually forced us to implement things that we knew were good for us in my experience the whole hybrid remote work era has largely turned on the concept of accessibility which every company is going to define differently but one company that delivers a sort of financial accessibility has some lessons that are actually universal for almost any organization jude comibus is chief people officer at a firm now jude you have to be living under a rock to not know a firm because we see you just about in every shopping cart and shopping site on the web it seems but not everyone knows what you do tell us in a nutshell what is a firm so a firm is a transparent alternative to credit cards and it really just gives consumers incredible flexibility to upgrade whatever it is that they're wanting to purchase into a very clear transparent no hidden fees no late fees way to pay whatever it is that they might want you can split your purchases into bi-weekly or monthly payments very budget-friendly we like to think of it as really the way to purchase and to transact that works for the consumer i know you're in the financial services business but i also think you're in the accessibility business so that echoes remote and hybrid work where we had to learn a lot of lessons about making sure the resource work became accessible to the people who have to do it what was the biggest challenge of an enormous growth year for you in a remote work environment there were so many brian you know as you mentioned it was an incredible period of growth for us we went from you know a team of a couple hundred people to just north of 2000 we transitioned from being a private company to a public company we went from being all co-located in maybe a couple of small offices to being distributed certainly throughout the united states and now also in five different countries around the world and so everything about our company and our team changed really quickly overnight as we all went home for those two weeks to flatten the curve and now here we are as a fully remote first distributed team and making and making the best of it so the one that i thought was most interesting is what you were telling me earlier about recruitment onboarding and what we call l d learning and development and most of the time that's sort of prescribed at our company you are onboarded and you get into the work stream and become one of us this way you've made that much more flexible in response to remote and hybrid work what have you done there that's right uh on the recruiting front you know we started from what are we gonna do gosh we you know what how are we gonna ever hire again if we can't meet people in person and we very quickly pivoted to all online and actually found a couple of really amazing benefits we were able to hire a much more diverse set of humans from lots of different walks of life but also helped us hire that much faster right we didn't have to worry about flying folks out so it's really accelerated our ability to to hire which of course is what's helped us get from that couple hundred to a couple thousand um size team on the onboarding front again we used to do everything in person mostly in our san francisco hq and then certainly on the lnd side we used to rely on managers learning from each other through osmosis and just that organic in-person serendipitous run-in we now run a lot of programs for our managers one of our programs called manager momentum which is really sort of the first foray that folks have into what does it mean to be a manager and a leader at a firm to make sure that they have the skills that they need to uh to really lead their teams in the most effective way sounds like you've flattened things out through a hybrid environment that at least inspired you to do so the nature of the company is is very collaborative is very entrepreneurial very ownership oriented we do accompany all hands every two weeks and we give our employees a chance to submit questions in advance we also have a chat going in real time as the meeting is happening and it's really about just us working together and winning together as a team so let's talk about something you just mentioned you talked about other channels that are used simultaneously with let's say a hybrid or a remote meeting or get together at the company what's your philosophy on those are they a distraction or are they an enrichment to the main event when they're all happening at the same time we found them you know certainly uh to be incredibly enriching and additive to having a collective conversation and giving everyone the chance to participate we have a number of different channels that we use that range from you know team topics to community groups have their own channels to just folks that that people are interest topics that people are interested in every time we have a company all hands we start a specific channel just for that all hands do a roll call folks are sharing stories pictures gifts and so it's really been a great way for folks to be able to participate and contribute to the conversation in a way that they maybe wouldn't have been able to when we were all in person so jude a lot of what we've seen in many organizations maybe years too is that remote work hybrid work has actually not allowed people or inspired them to slack off it's almost gone the other way people are spending so much time working that employers are now saying please take some time off and take care of yourself what are you doing to make sure that happens at a firm well we certainly work hard we have a pretty audacious mission and a lot that we want to continue to build and deliver so we we don't shy away from that at the same time we really want to support the team and very similarly we found at the beginning of the pandemic that people essentially stopped taking vacation and we tried a number of different experiments but landed on extending longer uh weekends three day weekends four day weekends and rolled out a program called away days where the entire company has a unified day off often corresponds with a public company holiday but sometimes not we actually just had an away day yesterday and so it was a random monday we try to have uh you know at least one or two uh every month and it's a chance for us to be offline a chance for the entire company to take that pause together certainly is much nicer than when you go away on vacation and the emails just keep coming in and the work keeps coming in and you're never really truly disconnected or relaxed and so it's just a really nice way for people to to take a moment for themselves in whatever way they need those would have all been a good idea three plus years ago and yet it sounds like the pandemic like so many other things kind of gave us a spark in so many companies like yours to say well now is the time to do it not the only time we could have done it everything that you're seeing is just an acceleration of something that could have existed and and in likelihood should have existed long ago it is the silver lining of the pandemic is that it has brought to the forefront and made possible actually forced us to implement things that we knew were good for us it's just been such an incredible journey and one of lots of lessons learned and lots of really great uh impact to the business youit is the silver lining of the pandemic is that it has brought to the forefront and made possible actually forced us to implement things that we knew were good for us in my experience the whole hybrid remote work era has largely turned on the concept of accessibility which every company is going to define differently but one company that delivers a sort of financial accessibility has some lessons that are actually universal for almost any organization jude comibus is chief people officer at a firm now jude you have to be living under a rock to not know a firm because we see you just about in every shopping cart and shopping site on the web it seems but not everyone knows what you do tell us in a nutshell what is a firm so a firm is a transparent alternative to credit cards and it really just gives consumers incredible flexibility to upgrade whatever it is that they're wanting to purchase into a very clear transparent no hidden fees no late fees way to pay whatever it is that they might want you can split your purchases into bi-weekly or monthly payments very budget-friendly we like to think of it as really the way to purchase and to transact that works for the consumer i know you're in the financial services business but i also think you're in the accessibility business so that echoes remote and hybrid work where we had to learn a lot of lessons about making sure the resource work became accessible to the people who have to do it what was the biggest challenge of an enormous growth year for you in a remote work environment there were so many brian you know as you mentioned it was an incredible period of growth for us we went from you know a team of a couple hundred people to just north of 2000 we transitioned from being a private company to a public company we went from being all co-located in maybe a couple of small offices to being distributed certainly throughout the united states and now also in five different countries around the world and so everything about our company and our team changed really quickly overnight as we all went home for those two weeks to flatten the curve and now here we are as a fully remote first distributed team and making and making the best of it so the one that i thought was most interesting is what you were telling me earlier about recruitment onboarding and what we call l d learning and development and most of the time that's sort of prescribed at our company you are onboarded and you get into the work stream and become one of us this way you've made that much more flexible in response to remote and hybrid work what have you done there that's right uh on the recruiting front you know we started from what are we gonna do gosh we you know what how are we gonna ever hire again if we can't meet people in person and we very quickly pivoted to all online and actually found a couple of really amazing benefits we were able to hire a much more diverse set of humans from lots of different walks of life but also helped us hire that much faster right we didn't have to worry about flying folks out so it's really accelerated our ability to to hire which of course is what's helped us get from that couple hundred to a couple thousand um size team on the onboarding front again we used to do everything in person mostly in our san francisco hq and then certainly on the lnd side we used to rely on managers learning from each other through osmosis and just that organic in-person serendipitous run-in we now run a lot of programs for our managers one of our programs called manager momentum which is really sort of the first foray that folks have into what does it mean to be a manager and a leader at a firm to make sure that they have the skills that they need to uh to really lead their teams in the most effective way sounds like you've flattened things out through a hybrid environment that at least inspired you to do so the nature of the company is is very collaborative is very entrepreneurial very ownership oriented we do accompany all hands every two weeks and we give our employees a chance to submit questions in advance we also have a chat going in real time as the meeting is happening and it's really about just us working together and winning together as a team so let's talk about something you just mentioned you talked about other channels that are used simultaneously with let's say a hybrid or a remote meeting or get together at the company what's your philosophy on those are they a distraction or are they an enrichment to the main event when they're all happening at the same time we found them you know certainly uh to be incredibly enriching and additive to having a collective conversation and giving everyone the chance to participate we have a number of different channels that we use that range from you know team topics to community groups have their own channels to just folks that that people are interest topics that people are interested in every time we have a company all hands we start a specific channel just for that all hands do a roll call folks are sharing stories pictures gifts and so it's really been a great way for folks to be able to participate and contribute to the conversation in a way that they maybe wouldn't have been able to when we were all in person so jude a lot of what we've seen in many organizations maybe years too is that remote work hybrid work has actually not allowed people or inspired them to slack off it's almost gone the other way people are spending so much time working that employers are now saying please take some time off and take care of yourself what are you doing to make sure that happens at a firm well we certainly work hard we have a pretty audacious mission and a lot that we want to continue to build and deliver so we we don't shy away from that at the same time we really want to support the team and very similarly we found at the beginning of the pandemic that people essentially stopped taking vacation and we tried a number of different experiments but landed on extending longer uh weekends three day weekends four day weekends and rolled out a program called away days where the entire company has a unified day off often corresponds with a public company holiday but sometimes not we actually just had an away day yesterday and so it was a random monday we try to have uh you know at least one or two uh every month and it's a chance for us to be offline a chance for the entire company to take that pause together certainly is much nicer than when you go away on vacation and the emails just keep coming in and the work keeps coming in and you're never really truly disconnected or relaxed and so it's just a really nice way for people to to take a moment for themselves in whatever way they need those would have all been a good idea three plus years ago and yet it sounds like the pandemic like so many other things kind of gave us a spark in so many companies like yours to say well now is the time to do it not the only time we could have done it everything that you're seeing is just an acceleration of something that could have existed and and in likelihood should have existed long ago it is the silver lining of the pandemic is that it has brought to the forefront and made possible actually forced us to implement things that we knew were good for us it's just been such an incredible journey and one of lots of lessons learned and lots of really great uh impact to the business you\n"