Entrepreneur Callum Adamson is the CEO of Distributed, a tech-enabled start-up launched four years ago. Founded on the belief that the businesses of the future will thrive without in-house development, the Distributed platform enables users to work with Elastic Teams™️ - fully managed, globally distributed teams - as easily as local teams, allowing them to build and maintain software to a higher standard faster, safer and with more visibility.
With the Covid-19 pandemic having accelerated the digital revolution and seen more and more firms move toward remote working - with their teams distributed across towns, cities, counties and nations - Adamson believes that a larger-scale transition toward remote working as the status quo is inevitable.
Speaking on The Leaders Council Podcast, Adamson explained: “From as far back as circa 2016-2017, I have held the firm belief that the workforce of the future is on demand, composable and it's going to be predominantly independent. And it makes a lot of sense, when you look at the basics of the existing talent models in a world where talent has never been in such short supply. There is such a shortfall of skills that the talent pool will not meet demand size for at least ten years, so business leaders have to think of new ways of engaging talent and driving business forward.
“Remote working is a common-sense revolution that will happen, especially as more millennials and those from Generation Z move into management and senior leadership positions. Moving toward remote working is a move toward measuring the things that matter, focusing instead on outcomes and not input; developing a better quality of people management; making sure that your team members operate with empathy; high quality and clear communication; providing the right support to team members, and above all, trusting.”
In Adamson’s view, much of what has been seen during the Covid-19 pandemic within business has not constituted true remote working, with many changes having come out of necessity, rather than choice.
“Remote working is a conscious choice, and it is structured. It ought to be built in a way that actually works better than office work and office collaboration. But it doesn't happen overnight.
“If your business wasn't a remote first company before the pandemic, then there probably will be a return to office if there hasn’t already, and that may come in the form of a hybrid return. However, the cost savings, the improvement of employee happiness and health, and higher productivity are all positives of remote work. All of these things are factual data points that businesses are now very, very acutely aware of.”
As Adamson elaborated, he sees business leaders in the short-term adopting a gradual approach toward making their business processes fully remote over several years.
“What I think you'll see most companies do is create a step approach toward going fully remote over a period of months, maybe a period of years. There may be an initial snap back to getting things back to the way firms are familiar with, as we have seen with some going back into office. That gives them a grace period to predict things and care for team members properly, and then leadership will initiate that gradual move toward a remote-first world.”
And when it comes to adapting to that remote-first world and seeking to recruit talent within it, Adamson believes that his business is one that will be best placed to help firms.
He said: “What we've been able to do and what we've been able to drive forward over the past couple of years is the adoption of this new talent model. When businesses were starting to go remote-first and seeing talent costs skyrocket, the time it takes to bring skilled people on board has increased dramatically. It now takes something like four or five months to hire a single software engineer. We at Distributed have been that on demand pressure release valve for firms over the past two years.
“Having intervened like that during the pandemic, we are now developing what we’ve done into longer term relationships and helping clients restructure their workforce, so it is fit for the future.”
Photo by Euan Cameron on Unsplash
