It doesn’t need repeating, how we work has changed immensely in the past few years. What started as a very fast transition to remote work, is now stabilizing and with that, new opportunities, practices, and problems come.

With that in mind, we decided to have a special event presented by our friends at Remofirst, where their CEO, Nursayl Serik, and the CEO at We Work Remotely, Kevin Kirkpatrick, talked about what this future of remote work looks like and how, as remote leaders, we can get there, always keeping in mind that there are humans behind the screens.

You can watch the complete conversation here:

As Nurasyl said, “the biggest shift in the next 10 years of remote work should be about the tools, a lot more companies will build better tools.”

Both Nurasyl and Kevin agreed that the tools we currently use are just starting to adapt to remote work. Most of them were created with the traditional office or with the very productive side of work in mind. The result? Many tools aren’t considering the social and team-building part of running a remote company. The next big question is, how can we make remote work more human without tools to support that? Which brings us to our next main takeaway.

We know running a company is not easy. There are many things that remote leaders need to think about and, while that can be overwhelming, starting with the culture and the kind of team you want to have is a great beginning. According to Kevin, “the most important is to set a foundation for your team culture. It’s not only about the tools but about the practices.”

Remote leaders need to ask themselves what it means to be remote. “Every company should think about building foundations,” said Nurasyl when asked about how companies can prepare for the future of work.

During the conversation there was one thing mentioned over and over again: companies need to be intentional about their practices. Especially, companies should be thinking about the people they work with and how companies are supporting them, instead of the other way around.

People are already expecting to work remotely and, through a proper team culture and a set of intentional practices, remote leaders can better connect people within their organizations. Ideas like letting go of core working hours, shifting to asynchronous communication, and planning getaways or regional hubs so teammates can meet in person were mentioned during the conversation.

Being intentional about these practices is the only way to humanize remote work.

A topic we always get asked about at We Work Remotely is how it works to be employed for a company that’s not established where you’re based. The combinations are infinite but the question remains the same: can I be employed by a company in [any country] if I live in [any country]? And the answer is always yes, but it depends.

Companies like Remofirst are making this job very easy and, in the opinion of Nurasyl, will make it even easier in the future to hire truly internationally in just a few clicks and days. More companies using EORs means that more people around the world will have the opportunity to work remotely.

Which brings us to our last takeaway.

English is the second language of many of us who work remotely (including the person writing this!). It’s exciting that one language can bring so many people together but with the adoption of async communication, it can be difficult, especially for those who aren’t “great” writers, to communicate with their teams. For that reason, companies need to be mindful of that and “use huddles, audio notes, or quick meetings to make work better,” as said by Nurasyl.

“The whole point of remote work is to level the field,” said Kevin, “not create silos. You need to think about what it means to be a truly global company.”

Want to join our next event? Sign up for our newsletter to be the first one to know.