FROGs, WFA and Remote Work

As we pointed out yesterday, working remotely is increasingly common for both independent workers and those with traditional jobs. 

Two recent articles also point this out and add several new buzzwords to our remote work vocabulary.

The Harvard Business Review's Is It Time to Let Employees Work from Anywhere? points out there is a new form of remote work emerging which they refer to as "WFA" (work from anywhere). Key quote:

Even as working from home (WFH) becomes relatively commonplace, a new form of remote work is emerging: working from anywhere (WFA), in which employees can live and work where they choose, typically within a specific country, but in some cases, anywhere in the world with a reliable internet connection. While many companies are just starting to consider allowing employees to work from anywhere, developed WFA programs can be found at firms such as Akami and SAP.

The article goes on to cover examples of productivity gains associated with remote work. 

The second article, Medium's Here Come the Frogs (Fully Remote Organizations), is from earlier this year. 

This article covers the growing number of organizations that don't have offices or co-located employees. Instead, everyone works remotely. 

Key quote on the advantages of being a FROG from the CEO of Invision, a fully distributed company with over 1,000 employees:

David Fraga, COO of InVision said, “Being a fully distributed company has been a powerful advantage for us at InVision. We’re able to find and work with the best talent in the world, no matter where they are, we have a higher than average retention rate across our team and our products reflect a diversity of perspective and experience that comes from having teammates from all across the country and around the world.”

While there are relatively few large companies that are FROGs, a lot of smaller firms and teams of independent workers are fully distributed. 

Both articles cover the drivers behind the growth of WFA and FROGs, which are pretty much the same as we covered yesterday: 

• improvements in remote work enabling technology
• organizations realizing remote workers are effective
• the desire by many to work remotely

We've just finished up a study on digital nomads. Because of their location independent lifestyle and high levels of mobility, they provide interesting insights into the future of remote work. 

We'll be reporting on the study's findings in the near future.

See our Digital Nomad section for more on this topic. 

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