6 Roles That Can’t Be Performed Remotely

— August 18, 2017

6 Roles That Can’t Be Performed Remotely

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Remote work is all the craze right now, and for good reason. It’s a no-brainer way for your company to save money on overhead, and it’s a way for employees to save money by avoiding relocation or long commutes. For many roles within your company, hiring remotely is a great way to go. We live in an age with advanced software that lets us chat with colleagues, store files in the cloud, manage tasks, and host video meetings.

But that doesn’t mean it’s ideal for all roles. In fact, some jobs, whether because of the need for in-person collaboration or equipment restrictions, are just better suited for a physical space. So with that, below are six roles that just make more sense to keep in-office.

#1 Operations

Operations employees have a finger on your company’s pulse. And for that reason alone, it makes sense that they be housed in an office, where they can get to know employees, stay on top of bills and maintenance, lead strategic meetings, and manage. Operations employees are also often on the frontlines of keeping customers and clients happy. So if your clients ever want to meet at your office, that’s where your operations team needs to be housed.

#2 Designers

It’s not that design work can’t be performed remotely. But design work is highly collaborative, and it requires more feedback than any other role within most companies. Having designers housed in the same building speeds up the process and helps your team produce better results.

#3 Interns

Don’t just hire interns to get menial tasks done on the cheap. They’re an opportunity for your company to provide mentorship to eager, young professionals trying to get vital experience in their early careers. It also gives you a chance to train someone on how your company operates, making them ideal hires when new full-time positions open up. Given the oversight needed to give your interns a great experience with your company, it’s more sensible to have them supervised in person.

#4 Videographers

If your company is in a position to bring on an in-house videographer, consider all of the difficulties of hiring them remotely. If you’re having them film fellow employees, it’s prohibitively difficult to ask a remote videographer to make their way into the office for projects while transporting heavy, expensive equipment. And having them in the office helps spurn new ideas, and enables your marketing team to turn out great videos faster.

#5 C-Suite

For a myriad of reasons, it’s tough to lead a company remotely. There’s nuance to great leadership, and it’s exponentially more difficult to run a company when you don’t have personal rapport with employees. Having your C-suite work amongst other employees within an office will give them more opportunities to meet with fellow executives within the company, and it will foster more productivity and clarity for the managers reporting to them.

#6 Office Manager / Employee happiness

Yes, I realize that without an office you don’t need an office manager. But a major component of office management is keeping employees happy and engaged. Especially as your company grows, it often takes a full-time role to plan company parties and team-building exercises. Without having a physical location that houses employees, this vital role, which is crucial to employee retention and productivity, cannot exist.

There are, of course, exceptions to all of the above. Many successful companies don’t even have an office. Take automation software company Zapier, for instance, which has over 100 employees — yet every single one of them works remotely. They’ll even pay their employees to delocate to less expensive parts of the country.

And my company, JotForm, is no stranger to remote work. Many of our company’s developers and support staff perform their jobs from all corners of the globe. For many roles within the company, it’s actually advantageous. Take customer support, for instance. Because our support team lives in multiple time zones, we’re able to offer help to our users around the clock. However, many of our roles are just better suited for a traditional office.

Hiring remotely can make a big impact on your company’s bottom line, so it should be considered. Just proceed with caution to make sure you’re hiring for roles where your remote workers can truly excel.

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Author: Chad Reid

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