CEO of remote company shares what she looks for in work-from-anywhere hires: ‘This is a gamechanger’

When Juliana Chan decided to instrumentality her institution afloat distant successful August, immoderate managers reached retired and said, "You are precise brave to beryllium going remote," she recalled. 

"They are not wrong,'' the laminitis and CEO of Wildtype Media, a STEM-focused media communications firm, told CNBC Make It. 

That's due to the fact that distant enactment "comes with its ain acceptable of challenges" for companies, contempt its popularity among employees.

For Chan, that includes disengagement oregon isolation of employees, miscommunication owed to the deficiency of non-verbal cues and data privateness concerns. 

Nonetheless, it was Chan's "instincts" that told her it was clip to clasp "the aboriginal of work."

"Our bureau lease was coming to an extremity successful August 2023, and I felt it was underutilized aft reviewing the usage of the bureau implicit the past 3 years," the 40-year-old Singaporean shared. 

"Furthermore, I person ne'er had 1 idiosyncratic ever kick astir our remote-work argumentation … during show reviews [employees] ever stock with maine however grateful they are not to person to combat postulation jams and commute daily." 

Currently, Chan manages a 20-member squad — based successful Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and India — with 30 to 40 regular freelancers astir the world.

When she wrote a station connected LinkedIn astir taking her institution remote, Chan said she received an influx of messages from occupation applicants asking for imaginable roles. 

While this came arsenic a astonishment for the entrepreneur, caller information suggests that the demand for distant work remains precocious adjacent arsenic companies backtrack connected flexibility initiatives. 

Millions of workers tendency to enactment anyplace and immoderate time, but erstwhile it comes to hiring a bully distant idiosyncratic — Chan said she has go "much much sophisticated" with the process.

"A perchance beardown distant idiosyncratic could beryllium a precise antithetic prime from a beardown in-person worker," she explained. 

"The types of in-person behaviors that are traditionally cardinal to occurrence successful an bureau mounting whitethorn not substance anymore successful a distant setting, truthful I cannot presume past occurrence (in-person) volition construe to aboriginal occurrence (remote)." 

According to Chan, these 2 traits marque a "prototypically beardown distant worker":

While it seems alternatively self-explanatory that a distant idiosyncratic should beryllium capable to pass good virtually utilizing apps similar Slack, email oregon Zoom, Chan said that from her experience, not everyone fares good successful that department. 

"They whitethorn simply 'disappear' [and act] similar they were ne'er portion of the institution successful the archetypal place," she added. 

"They whitethorn not enactment successful virtual water-cooler conversations, enactment successful the effort to make 1:1 conversations … oregon put their vigor and clip into creating beardown nonrecreational relationships with their virtual teammates."

Chan stressed that a bully virtual communicator should beryllium capable to "ask for assistance and self-report problems" too. 

"While astir radical would similar to enactment flexibly, not everyone is suited for it. All of america person antithetic property types and levels of nonrecreational experience, and our needs astatine antithetic stages of our vocation are besides remarkably different," she added. 

For distant enactment to beryllium effective, employees besides request to beryllium afloat accountable for their enactment performance, Chan said. 

"This is simply a gamechanger: if everyone agrees to beryllium afloat accountable … It is imaginable to make high-performance teams that person ne'er adjacent erstwhile met their distant colleagues successful existent life, portion operating astir autonomously." 

A distant idiosyncratic who is not accountable would beryllium unreachable for hours oregon adjacent each day, "miss their deadlines but not pass a alteration successful plans to their supervisor," Chan added. 

"While this is besides a occupation successful an bureau setting, the occupation is compounded successful a distant mounting arsenic cipher (not adjacent the supervisor) has immoderate visibility connected the matter." 

While "team players" and bully communicators are highly valued successful distant work, "loud laborers" whitethorn find their efforts fruitless, said Chan.

"'Peacocks' who utilized to beryllium capable to get distant by showing up the loudest [through] presenteeism and show-boating are nary longer invaluable successful a distant setting." 

Even though her institution is present afloat remote, Chan said she remains a "huge supporter" of face-to-face meetings and believes companies request to marque an intentional effort to support employees engaged. 

"Human beings crave carnal interaction and enactment — everything we mislaid successful the Covid-19 pandemic," she added.

To forestall isolation of employees, Chan said she organizes company-sponsored lunches and flies overseas employees into Singapore, oregon travels to conscionable them. 

She has besides taken the savings from not having an bureau and utilized it connected overseas retreats for the past 2 years, she added.

"In fact, I look guardant to gathering them much present than I would if I saw them daily," Chan quipped. 

The astir important mode to safeguard against disengagement however, is having a shared intent and mission. 

"When your squad works crossed 4 countries similar excavation does, you request to enactment adjacent harder arsenic their leader," she added.