'Distributed teams are the future of work'

"Whether all-remote or hybrid, distributed teams are the future of work."

This is the statement of Australian software firm Atlassian as it marked this month its third year in becoming a remote-first company.

Atlassian launched in 2021 its Team Anywhere initiative, the company's scheme that grants employees the flexibility in where they want to work.

"Team Anywhere allows us to hire the best person for the job regardless of how close they live to one of our offices," the company said in its letter to shareholders.

Since launching the programme, the company now has full-time employees in 13 countries on four continents as of the fourth quarter.

"In fact, over half of the people we hired in FY23 live more than two hours away from an office," the company said.

To maintain a strong workplace culture, the company said employees are reconnecting in an office each quarter and are joining other in-person events.

"To be clear, getting 10,000 distributed employees to sing in perfect harmony is no small feat," it said in the letter. "But with an average of 67% of the company connecting in an office each quarter and strong participation in our in-person 'intentional togetherness' events, Atlassian is demonstrating that distributed work and deep connections between teammates can go hand-in-hand, even at this scale."

Benefits of 'Team Anywhere'

The report comes amid a widespread push from executives across the world to return to offices amid fears of declining productivity and central business district vibrancy. This has led to clashes between managers and employees, causing an exodus of talent due to the lack of flexibility.

Implementing a remote work policy impacted likely spared Atlassian from this - as its employees cited the initiative for choosing to remain with the organisation.

"Ninety-one per cent of our employees say Team Anywhere is an important reason for staying at Atlassian, and 92% say it allows them to do their best work," the company said. "The more we lean in here and lead the way, the deeper our competitive advantage."

Its CEO, Scott Farquhar, have also been a strong critic of on-site return policies, even calling out Elon Musk's order on Tesla staff to come back in the workplace.

According to Atlassian, other business leaders have accused them of "abandoning something essential to our esprit de corps."

"We see it differently. We see a chance to lead. Atlassian is one of the only enterprise companies to go all-in on distributed work," the organisation said. "Customers and peers are turning to us for advice, inspired by the example we're setting."