Yanis Mellata has been working remotely for over five years. As Founder and CEO of Kosy, a virtual space for remote teams to be more connected, Mellata manages a fully remote team and operates his entire company without any offices. The founder told FlexJobs that one topic he thinks of daily is the connection between remote work and agility. Mellata maintains that when it comes to determining if and how remote work can build a more agile organization, one truth is this: “Every company, department, and sub-team is different,” he said. “There isn’t one model that works best for all.”

Therefore, the only way for teams to be as agile as they can is to try various ways of working, according to Mellata. When companies ask him how to become more agile, he recommends that they first define all of the core tasks that each department needs to achieve, and then define processes for each of these tasks to be completed, noting that some will be synchronous (scheduled) and others will be asynchronous (unscheduled). “Start with that model for a few weeks,” Mellata said. “After the few weeks, do a retro to understand what went well versus not and experiment with changes; for example, changing a certain meeting frequency, or replacing a meeting with an async process.”

While some teams will naturally lend themselves to more agile work processes, such as engineering and product teams, Mellata believes that every department can benefit from intentionally thinking about how their work gets done—because agility equates to better performance. Here are two of the top ways that remote work builds more agile companies.

Global Problem-Solving While You Sleep

Paw Vej, Recruitment Manager and Team Leader of remote workers of Financer.com, has been running a remote team and recruiting remote workers since 2016. Vej explains why he has found remote work to be one of the most popular ways for companies to build more agile companies. “By allowing employees to work from anywhere, companies are able to foster a culture of collaboration and flexibility,” Vej said. “This enables them to respond more quickly to changes in the marketplace, leading to a more efficient work environment.”

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With employees working from different locations, Vej notes that companies can also tap into a global talent pool, which allows them to recruit the best and the brightest from all corners of the world. In addition, he points out the agility boost gained by allowing employees to work from home, which saves companies money on office space and transportation.

The SaaS startup Filestage is an example of these principles in action. The company is fully remote, with around 50 employees spanning 27 countries from Canada and Mexico to Indonesia and the Philippines, making them well-versed in remote work. Niklas Dorn, CEO and Cofounder at Filestage, explains that because of time differences, the remote team harnesses the “huge opportunity” for asynchronous collaboration, which helps make the whole group much more agile.

“I can share a problem just before I finish here in France; then, by the time I open my laptop in the morning, it’s been solved while I’m offline,” Dorn said. “If we all had to work together in real time, this wouldn’t be possible.” The CEO notes that while working asynchronously may not suit every industry, his team has found it “incredibly effective” because everyone can work whenever they feel most productive, instead of being forced into a rigid schedule.

Dorn shared that as collaboration tools have ballooned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the company’s Year in Review survey found that over half of respondents expect to work asynchronously in 2022. “This suggests that employees and employers alike are happy with this new way of working,” Dorn said.

Happier Employees Lead to More Productive, Adaptable Business

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, doubters about remote work used to point to their belief that working from home would reduce individual, and thus company, productivity. Many employers who were forced to create remote teams to stay in business in 2020 and beyond have since found such fears to be unfounded myths. In fact, many have discovered quite the opposite—that remote work lends itself to greater, not lesser, productivity.

“As any business leader can tell you, your company is your employees,” said Lars Koch, Finance Specialist at Kredit Finance. “When your employees are happy, your company is happy. Remote work offers a unique way for employees to balance their life with work in a way that’s satisfying both for the company and the employees.” Koch added that remote work offers a “freedom and flexibility that you just can’t get in the office,” which naturally ends up resulting in more productive employees. While enjoying the increase in productivity, Koch notes that companies who favor remote work also spend less money on office space and supplies.

According to the finance specialist, the switch to remote work brought to light an additional factor in a business’s ability to be successful: adaptability. “Those companies that can adapt and pivot to respond to changing circumstances are those that will ultimately see success,” Koch said. “Having remote employees can help drive that adaptability as you’re constantly having to be innovative with the tools and methods needed to get the job done while working remotely. “Companies that leaned into this process are going to see the benefits for years to come.”