Hall of Fame
Updated 2024-09-09. Originally published 2024-06-02.
With more and more organizations moving back to hybrid or 100% in-office employment, it takes a thoughtful and disciplined approach to talent management to resist the trend and continue to embrace remote-first work. These employers deserve a shout out. I’ll continue to add to the Hall of Fame as I learn of more employers who earned a spot here.
Dropbox
Dropbox has a Virtual First approach to employment, which means employees are free to work remotely 90% of the time, only commuting in for the occasional meeting or happy hour. Dropbox’s co-founder and CEO, Drew Houston, told Fortune that “employees have options … they are not resources to control.”
Expensify
Expensify’s management is betting on remote-first employment to be the way of the future. From Expensify’s website: “The tightly-closed Pandora's box of ‘work from anywhere’ has burst open, and will never be resealed. No amount of begging or coercion is going to work in the long run: the businesses that demand it are fighting a losing war of attrition against an infinite universal energy.”
HubSpot
HubSpot allows employees to choose between 3 work options: @home, @flex (their term for hybrid), or @office. This is HubSpot’s remote work policy. HubSpot’s VP of Culture and ESG, Eimear Marrinan, told HR Brew, “Our data shows that employees can be productive and engaged regardless of work preference.”
From an interview with Startups, CEO Conor O’Neill said "When you’re bootstrapped, you need to get creative about how to be a better place to work, compared to competitors where employees can likely receive higher salaries. The way I’ve tried to do this is by thinking about every aspect of previous jobs I’ve had that I didn’t like, and creating a company culture that was the complete opposite."
Plex
Keith Valory, CEO of Plex, told FlexJobs, “As CEO of a 100 percent virtual company, one of the greatest, and most unexpected, benefits we’ve seen is that the relationships between people on the team, including execs, are much stronger than in other companies we’ve been a part of.”
Soleo
Soleo’s founder, Sam Szuchan, is a staunch advocate for remote employment. He uses his Linked platform to explain that remote work is good for workers, families, and companies. He said, “Remote work is more than a job perk — It’s a way of life for your employees. And a way of work worth betting on.” You can follow Sam Szuchan on LinkedIn to read more.
Thumbtack
Thumbtack, a company that helps home owners find service providers, transitioned to a virtual-first model in 2021. Marco Zappacosta, Thumbtack’s CEO, told CEOWORLD Magazine that 75% of both leaders and employees reported increased productivity with remote work. He said, “Remote work rewards intentionality. It forces leaders to think, design, and act deliberately, which typically creates better outcomes than the ad-hoc, ephemeral interactions of an office.”
Yelp - link removed because of persistent 503 errors
The co-founder and CEO of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman, is famous for slamming hybrid work, calling it “the hell of half-measures.” Explaining Yelp’s continued commitment to fully remote work, Yelp’s Chief People Officer, Carmen Whitney Orr, said remote employment is best for their employees and their business.
Looking for more employers who promote work-from-home or work-from-anywhere? Here is my list of remote-first employers.
