In 2023, Allstate was able to fill 49 percent of open roles with internal team members by leaning into this location-inclusive approach to career mobility7. Distance Bias2 (aka Proximity Bias) is our brain’s natural tendency to put more importance on the people and things that are closer to us than those that are farther away. Similarly, Recency Bias puts more value on the people that you have communicated with or seen more recently. By adjusting behaviors to be more location inclusive, organizations can drive deeper engagement, empowering employees to feel connected, valued, and motivated — no matter where they are.

• Teams spanning continents and time zones are no longer the exception—they’re the rule.
• Our workshop caters specifically to multinational teams and leaders of distributed teams.
• Home was becoming a work-place and work had its place in the home.
• The topics are relevant to the fields of talent management, human resources, organisational development and business growth.
• Working a traditional 8-5 is near impossible in the context of being at home, almost as if it was at the office.

What Makes for a Successful, Simulated Phishing Attack?

While my views on WFH before actually transitioning to fully remote work may vary from yours, or be a bit different to the environment you had to endure, I certainly saw little to no challenges during that phase. To address the challenge, team leaders should consider location inclusion— a commitment to valuing individuals no matter where they live or work. At its core, location inclusion is about fostering a sense of belonging across your organization; bridging time zones; and ensuring equal access to information, people, roles, and growth opportunities, regardless of physical location. In today’s interconnected world, remote work has transitioned from a trend to the norm. Teams spanning continents and time zones are no longer the exception—they’re the rule. However, with this shift comes the challenge of maintaining seamless collaboration and communication.

Why Writing for Humans Matters

We’re here to help you turn cultural diversity into your most valuable asset. Leading a team remotely brings a different set of challenges, and stepping into a leadership position in a remote setting adds a different dynamic too. Both scenarios provide additional areas for growth and development, often producing a well rounded team and resilient leader.

About Nano Tools

In fact, utilising that much time, and with so much efficiency, made the transition from Product Specialist to Product Manager almost seamless. I already knew who was responsible from an engineering, marketing and sales perspective and building out a more global team of collaborators was hugely coding jobs satisfying. ” “Leveraging access to what we have, what would you have me prioritise in order to renew?

That single commonality is and was the fundamental reason 90%+ of the organisation came to work, remotely or in office. While you may never have every single employee in Teamwork Without Borders your team, or in the company buying into what the ‘culture’ is, you can tell when a significant portion of them do, and it’s often palpable. Not long ago, working remotely meant the occasional WFH day.

As long as what I was aiming for was achievable, within the acceptable boundaries of what we’d agreed at home, then the exceptions didn’t hugely impact the balance of it all. Tech company Dropbox introduced its Virtual First model in 2020, which meant that remote work became the primary experience for all employees, while also providing opportunities for employees to gather at least quarterly for in-person collaboration. As a globally distributed company, 92 percent of employees work with peers across time zones, and 73 percent say clear communication and documentation are the most effective ways to support asynchronous collaboration8. Dropboxers moved to “non-linear workdays” with defined core collaboration hours that overlap across time zones while still allowing for individuals to block time for individual focused work. They moved away from a culture of back-to-back meetings to an “async by default” mindset, so that meetings are reserved for discussion, debate, and decision making, not for FYIs and updates9. Using their own tech products, like Dropbox Paper and Dropbox Dash, has enabled a better balance of async communication.