Permanent changes leave the pandemic in workers 1:41
(CNN) --
As we enter another year of the pandemic, businesses continue to grapple with uncertainty about returning to the workplace.
Many have attempted to reopen their offices, only to have to change plans due to new variants or outbreaks necessitating another closure or delayed reopening.
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So some companies are taking the guesswork out entirely by deciding to work entirely remotely… permanently.
This is what happened when these companies decided to move to working remotely full time.
Enable employees to make big changes in their lives
When David Cancel started the sales and marketing software company Drift in 2015, he and his co-founder were strong believers in an in-person work culture.
"We were very strict about it. No one worked remotely. Everyone was in the office five days a week. All of our rituals were in person, like our meetings, our kickoffs, our events...a very team-centric culture. face-to-face time," said Cancel, who is also CEO.
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But when the pandemic hit in March 2020, offices across the country were closed, including Drift's headquarters in Boston and three satellite offices, and work was done entirely remotely.
"It was a big panic," says Cancel.
"It's not that we didn't support working from home, it's that we were against it. We didn't have any ritual, or setup, or practice to do anything remotely."
At first, adjusting the company culture to a remote model was a challenge.
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"The hardest thing for me in this transition was that I had a limiting belief that I couldn't hire people for senior positions ... without meeting them in person. But I was forced to do it [when the pandemic started] and once I saw that it was working and that those people were engaging and productive, so ... I said, 'Oh, we should do this forever,'" Cancel said.
In early 2021, the company announced that employees will work remotely full-time, with office spaces being used as "chat spaces" for meetings, collaboration, and events.
"Those spaces will not be used for or configured for primary work."
The radical change from remote work had benefits for both Cancel and his workers.
For example, it allowed him to return to New York City, and his employees have also been able to make big life changes.
“We have seen many advantages for the team: people have moved to lower cost places, closer to family… and thanks to those moves, they have been able to get married earlier or make different life decisions that they had been putting off for a long time. ".
The company decided that employees who relocate to lower-cost cities will not have a salary adjustment.
"We're location agnostic when it comes to pay," Cancel said.
Also, hybrid work, in which workers spend some days in the office and others at home, was not an option.
"Intrinsically, we have a bias toward people who are close, whether we can detect it or not," said Cancel, who claimed to have seen this firsthand at a previous company.
“The people who were in the office with the leadership…were disproportionately favored for promotions and opportunities. I wanted to make sure that we were fair and no matter where you were, you had the same opportunities for everything in the company.”
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Davis Smith, CEO of outdoor gear and clothing company Cotopaxi, was also adamantly against remote work before the pandemic.
But less than two months after employees began working from home in March 2020, he changed his mind.
"We're starting to realize that [remote work] is working. Our teams are working more efficiently than ever," he said.
The decision to go fully remote means Smith doesn't have to worry about the constant decision-making that comes with reopening or closing offices.
"It seems like a distraction to us ... we're just focused on building the business and a great culture. We're not worried about having to make all those decisions. That's benefited us tremendously, making that decision early," he said.
The company kept its Salt Lake City office, and Smith said some employees decide to go every day.
"It's a small percentage... those people wanted a place to go."
Smith said he rarely goes into the office these days, but finds he's more intentional with his relationships working remotely.
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"Every day I make a point of reaching out to someone on our team; I never did before. It wasn't that intentional, I just thought, 'Oh, I'll meet them at the office.'"
The company has tripled in size during the pandemic and being fully remote has allowed it to build a more diverse team.
"It's much easier to hire a diverse team when you're not limited to a specific geography."
Although he has been successful so far, Smith said he is still concerned about the potential long-term implications of a remote work model.
"I've asked myself many times: At what point will this catch up with us? Because a lot of people are new and maybe don't understand the culture that deeply. But our culture has changed and all those rituals and traditions, we had to erase them and start over and we've created new ones that work for this new environment.
The company sends employees a weekly survey via Slack asking about things like engagement, culture, and other topics like compensation and burnout to help maintain employee loyalty and morale.
"There's been a lot of power in us saying from the beginning that we embrace this new way of working. This is the way of the future: we can fight it or embrace it and figure it out faster than anyone else," says Smith.
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Before the pandemic, most online brokerage Robinhood employees were expected to be in the office every day.
But in December, the company told its employees that it would become a primarily remote company, meaning there will be no location or regular office requirements for most workers.
But it will keep its offices open, including its headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
The shift to remote work over the course of the pandemic has had a noticeable effect, said Cindy Owyoung, vice president of inclusion, equity and belonging at Robinhood.
"Over time, it became increasingly apparent that our employees were happiest and did their best work when they had the flexibility to determine where and when they work best," Owyoung said in an email to CNN Business.
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