The early days of the pandemic — marked by uncertainty, lockdowns, rapid integration of new digital tools, and many employee’s first experience with working from home — may have been tumultuous, but nearly three years in, it’s clear that the forced experiment was a success.
While many companies and agencies are struggling on how to force employees back into traditional office settings, few have stopped to consider how to work better with work from home employees, and build on the successes of their remote workplaces.
Remember: despite the initially forced nature of remote work, productivity never ground to a halt, collaboration and brainstorming moved online far more seamlessly than many dreamed possible, and a great number of organizations were able to maintain business continuity despite the disruption happening all around them.
From the very start, Gigasavvy proactively embraced the change. We realized early on that, while some things might return to their pre-pandemic routines, work life had been irrevocably altered. To adapt, we emphasized the need for flexibility, iterated our workflows and organizational structures, and ultimately created a model that we call: the Nomadic Office.
Harmonizing with Every Work from Home Style
The Nomadic Office is a framework specifically designed to accommodate a wide range of personal styles, preferences, and influences.
Everyone has their own optimal work environment. Our goal is not to create restrictions that force people with different needs into a one-size-fits all box, but rather to synchronize many different modes of working so that we can all collaborate, create and communicate effectively — regardless of exactly where, when, and how the work is getting done.
Don’t Fight the Future. Shape It.
Discovering new places and experiences can’t help but stimulate your creative energies, provide new context for experimentation, and inject excitement into every day — all things that make a creative agency stronger. Once we embraced this principle we decided to give our employees the tools they need to work remotely, and trust them to deliver their work from anywhere.
To achieve that level of flexibility, we developed a threefold strategy, the three pillars upon which the Nomadic Office operates:
1. Consistent Manager-Organized Contact
Nomadic and work from home styles afford a high degree of autonomy, but there is still a need for routine oversight to keep everyone accountable. Managers are tasked with keeping their teams in contact, calling regular meetings, and also organizing events that serve to enhance collaboration, networking, and coaching.
2. Co-Working Opportunities
All key team members have company sponsored access to co-working spaces for client and internal meetings as well as for more informal get togethers. Team members can use day passes to work in common areas or rent private rooms on an hourly basis with manager approval.
Not only do these spaces offer all the amenities needed to support a remote workflow, but they can also serve as a needed respite from a home office — particularly when family matters tend to intrude into the work day.
3. Teamwide Destination Events
Every month or two, Gigasavvy selects a beautiful location to rent a property that will fit our entire team. Given our homebase in Southern California, there is no shortage of scenic, coastal venues available on home sharing platforms like AirBnB and Vrbo. We choose locations with large indoor and outdoor spaces, a variety of seating, quiet areas for work time and meetings, and enough space to accommodate company wide gatherings. Using this approach, our team has effectively planned fun and productive office days at the beach, the marina and even at Angels Stadium.
Join the Revolution
It’s easy to think, “Sure, that works for a creative agency, but we could never do that.” But Gigasavvy is not alone. More and more companies, including some of the largest and most innovative in the global marketplace, have realized that the trend of flexible work is here to stay — and that if they want to attract the young, digitally-capable, and in-demand workforce of tomorrow, they’ll need to adapt to them, not the other way around.
Microsoft, for example, announced it would cover all home office expenses for any employee that wanted to relocate either domestically or internationally. Evernote touted that one of its employees worked from her sailboat for six years.
“The past few years have brought new possibilities around the ways we connect and work,” said Meta spokesman Tracy Clayton. “We believe that how people work is far more important than where they work from.”
Employees, for their part, seem to agree. 68% of Americans now say they prefer a hybrid workplace model, and 30% say they would not want to work for an employer that doesn’t offer at least some remote work options. For Gen Z and Y, that preference rises almost to a hard requirement. Almost half say they would consider quitting their current company if it eliminated remote work opportunities.
The Nomadic Office concept delivers the best of all worlds: the freedom for employees to explore and be adventurous, combined with the tools to stay connected and in sync with their team. Gigasavvy’s Nomadic Office framework provides a foundation for successful remote collaboration, increased creativity and ideation, as well as efficient productivity.
Whether we’re thinking through employee culture, brand strategy, or content creation, the Gigasavvy creative agency applies innovative thinking to all situations. Contact us to see how we can help with your unique marketing challenges.
