Our central support team is now “remote first” – what that means & how we got here

Moving forward, GiveDirectly will be “remote first” for central support team members – that is, team members who serve the organization as a whole, like our Research Team, Data Team, and Growth Team. The new policy allows these team members to work from anywhere, assuming they are legally authorized to do so and there are no circumstances of the role that require them to be located in a specific place. The policy assumes remote as the default, but for those who prefer to come into an office, that option will be available in cities where we have more than 5 team members. To facilitate connection and deepen bonds in a “remote first” model, team members will spend ~1 week per quarter in-person with their immediate team for planning and reflection.

Our field ops teams - who interact most closely with our recipients (or support those who do) -  will need to be where those recipients are. They’ll return to in-person ops work in communities and offices as it becomes safe to do so.

Early this year, as we researched, surveyed, and discussed internally to land on a post-COVID work policy, we started with the same question that guides all of our decisions at GiveDirectly: “How can we maximize dollars delivered to people living in extreme poverty?” We identified 6 principles that enable our team to do that well and evaluated several options against these principles:

1. Diversity – It is important to us that we unlock access to (and retain) diverse, global talent as we grow our team. “Remote first” has already enabled us to hire new central support team members in various countries and allowed existing team members the option to relocate.
2. Equity – We know that our team members also have diverse individual needs and preferences with regards to how they work best. “Remote first” has allowed team members to define and create the conditions they need to do their best work in service of recipients. We view “remote first” as equitable in that it provides flexibility for individual needs and preferences, rather than forcing an “equal” work environment on everyone.
3. Flexibility – Our work at GiveDirectly can be intense, high stakes, and fast-paced. Because of this, it is important to us to enable team members to have the flexibility they need to care for themselves and their families. “Remote first” allows team members to better maintain and maximize their self and family-care routines.
4. Sustainability – We believe “remote first” will be more sustainable for the organization than our pre-COVID in-person work model, given 1) the model will allow us to grow our office spaces more gradually over time, even as we hire on more new team members, and 2) we expect the benefits of “remote first” to increase retention of our team members (cutting down on costs of turnover and hiring).
5. Culture – Over the past year of remote work, we’ve proven the ability to maintain and evolve our organizational culture even while nearly doubling the size of our central support team during COVID. That said, we do believe opportunities to connect, build trust, and deepen relationships are decreased in a fully remote model, which is why we’re requiring quarterly meet-ups. 
6. Productivity – We want team members to feel that the time they spend working is as productive as possible. All indications show that remote work during COVID has not decreased productivity at GiveDirectly, so we expect that “remote first” will continue to enable team members to maximize productivity. We’re continuing to check-in on team members’ engagement via regular surveys.

We do expect challenges to arise – and we plan to learn from them. We shared the news of this new policy with the team in May, with full recognition that we didn’t have all of the details worked out yet (How much office space will we need? How exactly will we adjust salaries?). Our principles driven approach continues to guide us through these decisions. We’ll stay “remote first” through at least 2022, and continue to ask ourselves along the way if we’re effectively supporting the team in maximizing impact for recipients.