Australian-based Raisely co-founder Katrina Huergo reveals why her company has embraced working outside the office

As several big companies begin calling workers back to the office full-time, an Australian tech co-founder says she could not imagine making the same move.

E-commerce giant Amazon announced to staff last week that it is moving away from its pandemic-era working arrangements.

Chief executive Andy Jassy said “we continue to believe the advantages of being together in the office are significant”.

Betting giant Tabcorp also revealed a similar decision, saying bringing “teams together onsite every day” is part of its broader plan to build a “winning culture”.

More broadly, 83 per cent of corporate leaders surveyed for KPMG’s latest CEO outlook expect a full return to the office within three years, “a notable increase from 64 percent in 2023”.

But the Sydney-based co-founder of fundraising platform Raisely will not be jumping on that trend, arguing that while in-office mandates are often linked to productivity, “the two are not always positively correlated”.

Raisely moved to remote working in 2017 and by the time the pandemic hit in 2020, the firm had already ironed out the kinks and was “humming”.

“You can’t just fluke working-from-home productivity,” Katrina Huergo told 7NEWS.com.au.

“You have to build trust, hire the right people and have solid practices, meaning good communication and workflows to reduce bottlenecks.”

Raisely consists of a team of 40 employees based all around the world, with half living in Australia, and says it has embraced flexibility and individual responsibility.

“Unproductive” meetings have been scrapped, and the global team comes together in-person just once every 18 months.

The business also shifted to a four-day workweek in 2022, trimming 20 per cent of hours from the standard 38-hour work week.

Staff get the same pay but do not have to work extended shifts to make up for the lost day.

“We had a level of productivity which meant we could do that,” Huergo said.

“There are no exceptions in terms of roles, the whole workforce is ... able to participate in the four-day work week.”

Given time differences, staff can largely work the hours that suit them based on where they are — but management does aim for timetable consistency.

“We have tried to lean into working in a way that is smarter and better for the wellbeing of staff,” Huergo said.

“We have seen that investing in the team this way means they are engaged, they care about the work they are doing and they work hard because they want to.”

Huergo, a mother of two and Raisely’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said the flexible arrangements mean staff can “navigate major life milestones like parenthood or cross-country moves”.

“We can access incredible talent and build an engaged workforce we trust, that is outcome driven,” she said.

“It does need good management, and people need to know their roles.”

The percentage of fully remote new hires declined in the last year by 5.8 per cent for large Australian companies with over 5000 employees, according to LinkedIn’s Global State of Remote and Hybrid Work report released this month.

Medium-sized operations of between 250 and 4999 workers were down 7.5 per cent across the same 12-month period, and smaller companies remained relatively steady.

But the number of new hybrid role hires, where employees carry out duties both in and outside of the office, was up 5.1 per cent for larger firms and smaller companies with fewer than 250 staff (6.2 per cent).

New hybrid roles offered by medium-sized companies were down 1.8 per cent.

“As more time passes since the COVID-19 pandemic, we observe diverging trends in how countries are adapting their workplaces after several years of remote work,” the report said.

“For those eager to find remote work opportunities, international firms can be a promising starting point.

“Overall, hybrid work remains a prevalent workplace model, reflecting a compromise between employers and employees over flexible work — a trend that is likely to persist in the future.”

According to 87 per cent of the 1300 business bosses who responded to the KPMG survey, workers who commute into the office more often are likely to be the staff rewarded with favourable assignments, pay rises or promotions.

But KPMG International’s global head of people Nhlamu Dlomu suggests money and position are not the only motivating factors.

Dlomu said successful leaders will be those who realise that employees “don’t just desire, but expect, a more agile, flexible working environment and a better work-life balance”.