The one and only Coworking Uferbau, which is beautifully situated on the river Aare in Solothurn, recently organised an open house with workshops, lectures and discussions on the topic of entrepreneurship, idea development and new work. Also on board, our Founder & Managing Director Benny, who was invited as an expert speaker on behalf of remote work.

Some of you may wonder what makes Benny an expert. Well, it’s because he founded Ofri in 2011 and has been operating it as a remote company since 2015, so he has seven years of in-depth experience under his belt. We’re definitely not the new kids on the block and the fact that we were remote before it became cool can't be ignored, right?

The story of the hatching phoenix aka the beginning of Ofri’s remote world

The whole idea came up around 2015: Ofri was 4 years on the market, Benny was managing the whole company on his own. He tried to hire someone locally in Zürich every now and then, but couldn’t find the person he really wanted to work with. Either they were not qualified enough, or if they were, they preferred to work for established companies. Also, Benny started to enjoy his freedom of working wherever, whenever he wanted and that is when he started to think:

“If hiring locally is such a blocker, and it doesn't fit my own preferences so much, this may actually not be the right thing to do, I'm trying to fit into a box, that isn’t mine.”

Shortly after, Ofri had its first two fully remote employees, a customer service representative and a software engineer.

The ground rules for an ideal remote workplace

But what does it mean for a company to be fully remote? And what are the requirements for an outstanding work experience?

You definitely need a different framework for remote work. These have proven to be particularly important for us:

1. Technology

Finding the right technology to create a digital workplace is the first step: There has to be a system in place for everyone in order to stay on top of their game. Therefore, Ofri uses a bunch of proven applications and still loves to experiment with different ones to make remote work even greater.

2. Communication

In a remote set-up you have the possibility to text, video-call or just audio-call someone. There is a way for every situation. Over time you develop a sense of what is appropriate in which circumstances, and how to communicate best with different people in the team.

Communication must be crystal clear, especially in writing. So before asking others you always have to ask yourself the following questions:

What do you want to know?
From whom do you need this information?
Do you need to provide more context?
Is this question/task prio? Will it block you when I don’t get a fast answer? Mentioning it doesn’t hurt.

3. Organization

We document nearly everything and put as much info as possible out in the open. This way we make sure that all team members can look up information whenever they need to.

This also requires everyone to keep the status of their work and projects up to date.

What makes a remote workplace attractive?

Remote work brings a lot of benefits to a company’s team members. Here are some of them:

No commute
Fewer distractions from team members
Work with pets/children
Flexibility in work location and time
More inclusive (accessibility etc.)
Fewer workplace politics

Therefore, it makes businesses that offer this option highly attractive in the job market. And this seems to be more important than ever before. After all, the baby boomer generation is gradually retiring in Switzerland and there is already a shortage of skilled workers in the labour market. The situation will continue to worsen in the near future.

Interested in more insights into remote work?

There is obviously more to talk about when it comes to remote work. Would you like to know more?

Feel free to contact us, we are happy to talk about the topic and help companies to be more successful in this field.

A big shout-out goes to Coworking Uferbau for inviting us to this wonderful event. We were impressed by the great atmosphere of the premises, located in a historic building next to the river. You just felt comfortable because it felt familiar and personal. And on top of that, the agenda items of their anniversary celebration were very exciting and have made us think.