We recently completed a survey of the Unqork workforce and were blown away to discover that our employees live in 181 municipalities spread across 30 states, plus DC, Puerto Rico, the UK, and Australia. And we have fewer than 300 full-time employees!
Those numbers really underscore our belief in the power of remote work, even as many of the world’s businesses are encouraging, and sometimes forcing, employees back to the office, as KPMG recently found.
Clearly, there is a disconnect between these employers and the large majority of American workers. A recent Robert Half research found that nearly 80% of workers in the U.S. want to work remotely at least some of the time—and 37% would opt for a fully remote job if they had their choice. Yet, 70% of U.S. job postings are for fully in-office positions.
Unqork takes a different approach.
“We have successfully hired and built most of our teams in a remote setting,” explains Lionel Nyama, Unqork’s Lead Talent Acquisition Partner. “And we leverage virtual tools and best practices to ensure our employees are set up for success from anywhere in the world.”
The remote-friendly policy has also been a great help in building Unqork’s strong and diverse team, underscored by some other findings from our recent survey. Though Unqork is a relatively young startup, 60% of our employees have a tenure of 3+ years. And thanks in part to the flexibility of a remote-first workplace, more than 1 in 3 (37%) Unqorkers are parents with children still living at home.
Unqork also knows many people prefer to work in the office, and we make sure that’s an option, too.
“While many of our roles are remote-first, we also offer flexibility for local employees to work out of our bright and welcoming headquarters in New York’s Union Square neighborhood,” says Tara Buchney, Unqork’s Head of Talent Acquisition.
In short, Unqork does everything we can to give our employees the choices that work for them.
“We believe in giving our employees the flexibility and trust to help balance out their work and personal life,” adds Buchney.
Making remote and hybrid work a win-win proposition
Done right, a remote-friendly workplace can deliver big benefits—and not just to employees but also employers.
To start with, remote work saves about an hour a day in commute time for the average American employee, providing “a big boost to work-life balance,” Forbes reports. And when you don’t have to fight traffic or negotiate public transport, you also avoid commute-related burnout.
Remote work can also result in significant savings, from lower transport and meal costs to reduced spending on everything from dry cleaning to childcare. If you crunch the numbers, all these savings can add up to $6,000 a year for the typical employee, according to USA Today.
But remote-friendly policies can truly be a win-win, because they help businesses prosper too. For example, they can reach a much wider talent pool, increase retention rates, and create a more agile and resilient organization.
And all that eventually boosts the bottom line. From 2020 to 2022, businesses with fully flexible policies grew revenues by 21%, significantly higher than the 5% growth reported by businesses requiring in-person work, Forbes reports.
Remote work and DEI
Like making remote work an option, Unqork doesn’t consider diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) a luxury. We consider it a necessity. From recruiting to career development, DEI initiatives touch every single person in the organization and shape our organization’s core values and the way we work together.
The cool thing is, our remote-friendly policy actually helps reinforce our DEI goals. As Fast Company reports, remote work opens up recruiting beyond expensive regions that are increasingly out of reach for many potential employees. And often, that means companies can reach more women and people of color. “Companies that truly want to support diversity and inclusion must actively support remote work,” writes workplace expert Paul Estes in Fast Company.
At Unqork, we really believe in choice, flexibility, and inclusion. It is the right thing to do, of course. And we believe it also enables all of us to prosper. So, if you are interested in a remote or hybrid role or want to join us in our bright and welcoming Union Square office, we invite you to check out our current job openings.
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