While the coronavirus pandemic forced many non-essential workers into home-offices for the first time, remote work had been steadily growing in popularity over the last decade.

A seemingly glitzy lifestyle popularized by the likes of digital nomads and influencers, location-flexible working arrangements entered the minds of the skilled-workforce as a top-tier perk reserved for the extremely privileged.

With the rise of new communication tools, location-independent work, and the ever-increasing time and cash cost of working on-site, employees have started negotiating for more work-from-home arrangements. In fact, in 2019, 43% of American workers reported at least partially working from home.

When COVID-19 hit, companies already used to a remote work culture — such as Bbot — had a decisive edge in adhering to guidelines imposed by state and federal governments worldwide.

At Bbot, we pride ourselves on a high-performance remote work culture and have found having a distributed workforce supports our needs as a B2B hospitality tech startup. Having team members across the United States allows us to cover multiple time-zones and better address customers’ needs.

A myriad of larger companies like Github and Automattic, among others, often hire remote workers or operate fully remotely.

Reduced overhead costs of over $11,000 per employee, access to a much larger talent pool, and a 13% higher employee retention rate are among the chief benefits to employers maintaining a remote workforce.

At Bbot, our employees enjoy being able to save time on commute, cut costs by not eating lunch out every day, and enjoy flexibility in living where they’re comfortable.

Despite all the perks, working remotely does come with its challenges. One of the most prominent is collaboration. Tools like Slack, Zoom and Google Meet are extremely useful for overcoming digital barriers. Yet, in spite of the wide array of virtual communication tools available to employees, two out of three UK employees claimed they miss seeing their work colleagues.

Some of our earliest employees resonate with this feeling; one of which looks back on the many trips taken between Pittsburgh and New York to get face-time with fellow coworkers.

While it’s certainly tough to replicate the bonds developed in a physical workspace, Bbot employees have found it surprisingly easy to develop a sense of camaraderie.

Microsoft recently released a statement about their work from home policy, stating that, “moving forward, it is our goal to offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual work styles, while balancing business needs and ensuring we live our culture." Leadership members across several industries are identifying this shift in preference within their team’s culture, so it’s important to put those priorities and needs first to increase productivity and morale.

This can be partly attributed to the close-knit nature of the team. With a relatively flat hierarchy, end-of-day syncs and virtual happy hours, employees find support among their colleagues and can directly reach out to leadership with questions and ideas.

As a B2B tech company focused on serving the hospitality industry, Bbot has attracted a diverse group of individuals from new graduates interested in startups to seasoned sales and software engineering veterans, and everyone in between.

Lastly, a responsibility and commitment to both customers and each other is the primary driver of Bbot employees. All of these factors have differentiated successful geographically distributed companies from those that don't do as well.

In many companies averse to remote work, managers fear lower productivity from workers operating outside of the office space. Employees fear being “on-the-clock” 24/7 with boundaries between home and work life blurred. At Bbot, managers and workers set healthy boundaries, trust each other, and work collaboratively.

One benefit of remote work is a lower emphasis on hierarchy. New hires quickly find a sense of ownership and can propose and execute on company-wide beneficial projects. At a growth stage company where the average answer for a project deadline is often ‘yesterday,’ initiative is always welcomed.

Working in a space as competitive and exciting as hospitality technology is a privilege and a unique undertaking. For one, we at Bbot need to understand both our customers’ needs as well as those of their guests. Having invested more time and effort developing a contactless ordering and payments solution than competitors, Bbot has gained a relative advantage over newcomers in providing great service to customers.

For the foreseeable future, Bbot aims to remain a remote company. Despite some challenges with the distance, it works well for us and our customers.

Understandably, hospitality companies are not able to operate on a remote basis. Whether a fine-dining restaurant, hotel, or sports bar, offering a high quality in-venue or off-premise experience requires a lot of on-site work behind the scenes.

To learn more about how Bbot can help your business improve safety and productivity for your staff and guests, request a demo. To find out more about hospitality technology and contactless ordering, check out our e-book.