Thread by @chris_herd

1 year ago today the world changed. Offices locked down & people finally realized how serious Covid was

I've spoken to 2,000+ companies about their plans for hybrid and remote work since then

A few predictions on what will happen in the next 3 years

[ a thread ] 💻🏠🌍

🎢 Hybrid Working: 24 in 25 people want to work remotely at least part-time going forward

Companies will slash commercial office space by 50-70%

The will allow every worker to work from home 2-4 days a week, and come into the office 1-2 days a week

🚜 Rural Living: People will move to smaller cities and rural areas, have a lower cost of living & higher quality of life

These regions must innovate quickly to attract that wealth. Better schools, faster internet connections are a must

⏰ Asynchronous Work: Offices are instantaneous gratification distraction factories where synchronous work makes it impossible to get stuff done

Tools that enable asynchronous work are the most important thing globally remote teams need. A lot of startups will try to tackle this

⚽️ Hobbie Renaissance: Remote working will lead to a rise in people participating in hobbies and activities which link them to people in their local community

This will lead to deeper, more meaningful relationships which overcome societal issues of loneliness and isolation

🌍 Diversity & Inclusion: The most diverse and inclusive teams in history will emerge rapidly

Companies who embrace it have a first-mover advantage to attract great talent globally. Companies who don't will lose their best people to their biggest competitors

✅ Output Focus: Time will be replaced as the main KPI for judging performance by productivity and output

Great workers will be the ones who deliver what they promise consistently

Advancement decisions will be decided by capability rather than who you drink beer with after work

💰 Private Equity: The hottest trend of the next decade for private equity will see them purchase companies, make them remote-first

The cost saving in real-estate at scale will be eye-watering. The productivity gains will be the final nail in the coffin for the office

🏝 Time-off: Remote companies must prevent burnout

Many will introduce 'wellness days' where they order time off without prior warning that they're about to occur

Most companies will do 1 day every 2 months

✈️ Remote Retreats: Purpose built destinations that allow for entire companies to fly into a campus for a synchronous week

Likely staffed with facilitators and educators who train staff of how to maximize effectiveness

❤️ Life-Work Balance: The rise of remote will lead to people re-prioritizing what is important to them

Organizing your work around your life will be the first noticeable switch. People realizing they are more than there job will lead to deeper purpose in other areas

❌ Gender Inequality: The rate of women falling out of the workforce during Covid has been horrific

Companies must react to correct this every way they can, whether that is space away from home, help with childcare or anything else

🧘‍♀️ Health & Wellbeing: A lack of commute will give workers 25 extra days a year to do other things

Workers will exploit the freedom they have to organize things more freely in their day. Afternoon runs, morning meditation, 2 things a lot of people I know now do

🤖 Personal RPA: Robotic process automation will transform work for individuals

No-code tools that enable workers to built bots that automate menial parts of their roles will be huge

🤝 Time-together: being remote doesn't mean never being together physically

Remote teams will meet up as frequently as they need to maintain and create deeper connections & trust

The cadence will vary across orgs & functions, somewhere between 1-5 times per quarter on avg.

🚐 Remote Living: Work from anywhere RVs will become huge business

Associated business parks and services will spring up. This will happen even more rapidly as self driving tech emerges

Expect a @Tesla product in this space

⚖️ Lifework Balance: Massive increases in part-time and freelance work

A recognition that we no longer have to sacrifice life for work and we can begin to organize work around our living

👩‍⚖️ Remote Laws: Many companies are beginning to operate under the assumption that the choice to work remotely will become a legal right

This will do more to democratize access to opportunity than almost anything in history as where you live doesn't effect what job you can do

🎟 Remote Visa: Small nations coming together in order to attract remote workers at different stages of the year

Huge opportunity to synchronise education to enable families to be more fluid in their locations

🛑 Meeting Death: Wasting 2 hours travelling to a meeting will end. The benefits of in-person are eroded by the benefits you get of not travelling

Conferences and quarterly networking events will becomes more important for cultivating in-person relationships

🚪 Massive Turnover: We will see the highest turnover between companies in history

People who have moved away from the city their office was in would rather quit their job than go back to that office

Individuals will find companies who give them what they want

✍️ Written Over Spoken: Documentation is the superpower of remote teams

The most successful remote companies write down and record knowledge rather than lose it if people leave

Knowledge grows and is improved over time as everyone contributes to a repository of intelligence

Interested in why these companies are talking to me? FirstbaseHQ.com