One year on, Flux Federation has no plans to go back to “normal”
For many companies, last year’s sudden shift to remote work caught them off guard. Twelve months earlier, the idea of the entire organisation working from home seemed inconceivable. But for New Zealand tech firm Flux Federation, the decision to become a remote-first business pre-dated the country’s first lockdown.
Leaping into the unknown a week before the government announced the nationwide shutdown, the company decided to embrace the unprecedented shift that was about to sweep New Zealand.
Speaking to HRD, Kushla Beacon, Flux’s capability & experience lead, said embracing greater flexibility has widened the talent pool, meaning staff no longer need to live near major cities like Auckland and Wellington.
“We’ve been able to spread our wings and ask, where is the new talent located across New Zealand and especially in the regions?” she said. “It's also meant that our people have been able to move to places like Queenstown, Christchurch, Nelson, and even recently to Palmerston North."
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No longer having to spend time stuck in traffic commuting into Auckland and Wellington, where Flux’s offices were previously based, the shift has given employees an average of two hours and seven minutes commute time back each week. It’s enabled vast improvements to work/life balance, as well as reducing the company’s overall carbon footprint.
On average, employees are working one day a week in the new, hub-style coworking spaces they’ve moved into in Auckland and Wellington. Office expenditure has reduced by over $5,000 and the weekly CO2 emissions from employees commuting has fallen by 76%.
While many businesses have been busy reopening offices in New Zealand, Flux plans to retain its remote-first structure. So, what has the company learned over the last 12 months?
From the outset, Beacon said it was important to invest in tools that would enable flexible working to be successful and equitable across the entire workforce. Atlassian’s agile working products like Jira and Confluence, as well as collaboration tool Miro and communication platform Slack, all form part of Flux’s toolkit. Onboarding software Greenhouse and 15Five, a performance management and engagement tool, also enable team leaders and the HR function to garner continual feedback.
“Working remotely can be really hard if you don't have the right tools or people don’t know how to use them,” she said. “One big learning has been making sure we have the right tools, not too many, but the right ones that are fit for purpose.
“It made sense for us going remote-first and through lockdown that we needed to invest in the proper tools to make sure that when people walk through our virtual doors, they have the information they needed, and they know what tools to use for their role.”
Read more: Remote work: Are employees struggling to adapt?
Once a business is functioning well remotely, it allows the purpose of an office or collaboration space to evolve. The main function can be socialising or connecting in person, rather than a focus on productivity. Flux’s space has hotdesks and shared workspaces, as well as quiet areas for neurodiverse employees or those who might find the atmosphere overwhelming.
Beacon said embracing flexible working wholeheartedly has created a “high-trust environment” which gives employees autonomy to balance their life and work. Being relatively new to the remote-first shift, she said the company is still evolving how it builds culture across dispersed teams and it will continue to be a focus for Flux's internal remote working group.
It's one of the big unknowns facing many companies trialling remote work. Creating accidental conversation and “watercooler moments” is hard in a virtual world. But as companies in New Zealand and Australia continue down the path of hybrid and remote working schedules, organisations will continue to experiment and find what works for them.
For both countries, embracing remote working could be key to overcoming the talent shortage facing the tech industry. By capitalising on regional areas away from the typical tech hubs, as well recruiting a more diverse range of employees, remote working offers a wealth of possibilities.
