You know what? I reckon there’s actually a correct answer with this one…
Dav Nash
6 min read
Let’s get into the pros and cons of hiring full time office/remote staff or remote contractors.
I think when most people think of a digital agency, they picture an office full of staff.
This definitely used to be the case, but times have moved on and remote work has opened up a lot of possibilities.
Here are some reasons why you might still want to hire full time agency staff and have them in your office.
Agency owners like seeing a room full of their employees. It feels good to physically see the thing you’ve grown, and all the people you’re keeping afloat.
This seems a bit wishy washy, but it’s a genuine reason why some people hire in house and cling onto office spaces.
There’s something to be said for wandering around the office and chatting to people in person.
It’s easier to spark conversation, and quick queries can be dealt with without arranging a call.
For creative roles, having other creatives available in person can be serious advantage.
Office space can be a lovely place to bring your clients. They can see your staff at work and be impressed with your decor.
I actually think it’s a lot easier to convince prospects to come on board in a face-to-face environment like a board room.
Business has changed a lot since remote work became a bigger thing, but nothing beats locking eyes and shaking hands in real life.
There are reasons remote work is now a thing.
Offices cost money to run. Rent, utilities, supplies, insurance, it all adds up.
If you’re just starting off with a new agency, these costs can be a killer. You might be better off with a leaner, remote agency until you’ve got a steady and reliable cashflow.
If you insist on hiring into an office, you’re limited by commuting distance.
People actually have less of a tolerance for long commutes since remote work became an option. It’s rare you’ll find staff willing to travel more than an hour.
This vastly reduces your available talent pool to around 50 miles around your office.
Remember when “live for the weekends” was a thing? People don’t think like that any more. They want flexibility.
Forcing people into the office can tire them out with long commutes, and reduce their flexibility during the working day.
Some staff will be fine with this. Others will start looking for a more flexible employer after a short while.
This is the new way to work, made popular during COVID. Many people say “remote work is dead” every year, and yet, here it remains.
ONS (the UK’s Office for National Statistics) said in 2023, 44% of UK workers worked remotely in some capacity. Obviously, there is an element of hybrid work here, which we’ll talk about later. However, it’s clear this isn’t going away any time soon.
So, why choose to have remote staff?
The world is your oyster when hiring remote.
In theory, you could literally find the best person in the world for the job.
In fact, they could be a lot cheaper, as you can hire from lower GDP countries without sacrificing the quality of the employee.
No office means no office overheads. This can be a huge chunk of change and make or break a startup agency.
Remote staff generally report themselves as being happier. A Pew research article found 65% of people would prefer to work remotely full-time.
Happier staff means they may stick around longer. Consistent staff is important to keep your operations smooth and your clients happy.
In theory, you could hire from different time zones and subsequently, you can take on clients from all over the world.
24/7 operations can be super helpful for customer service.
Like I said earlier, it’s easier to build relationships when you can see people face-to-face.
Remote teams often struggle to build a rapport and rarely have friendships outside of work. This can be fine, but can also cause rifts and inefficiencies.
Having to arrange a call, send an email or wait for a message to be read can add up to a lot of lost productivity hours.
There’s something to be said for just walking up to someone to get a quick answer!
You need a robust project management system (both staff and tools) to make fully remote work well.
There are a lot of moving parts in an agency, and losing track of it all can be result in a quick downfall.
What a boring heading 🥱. It’s true though – a global workforce comes with global headaches.
Literally accounting for the tax and employment law in different countries can be a challenge.
One way around it is to keep your hiring within one country. You lose a bit of talent pool, but the administration is much easier.
This is a relatively new approach to running agencies. Some are very successful and thrive on the flexibility and scalability.
In fact, there are a few decent pros to this approach.
Lost a client? No worries, just drop a contractor or their allocated tasks.
Had a massive influx of work? Easy, just bring some of your dormant contractors back online.
Keeping a database of reliable freelancers means you’re ready for anything. Obviously, hiring and firing full-time staff is a massive headache compared to this.
If you find you need an expert on marketing tracking for a project, you can just find someone who is a specialist for that task.
Having an infinite number of niche specialists to hand can be amazing in a pinch.
Lost a client? Still gotta pay those wages.
Full-time staff are a given cost. Some like the predictability, but others find it super helpful being able to drop their staffing costs when the work dries up.
Absolutely. Full-time staff are a still a thing for a reason.
Just like you can choose to drop a freelancers, they can choose to drop you. It can be a challenge to keep long term relationships with contractors.
Equally, they often take on other clients. As such, you might not be able to use them when you most need them.
Contractors generally won’t care about your company values and long-term goals. It makes little difference to them, and you’re likely one of many of their clients.
This means they won’t integrate with any full-time staff and their decision making is inherently selfish.
Freelancers vary massively in terms of skills and quality. Unlike full-time staff, there’s rarely a lengthy hiring and onboarding process.
As such, work needs to be checked regularly and micro-management is more common.
They also need very clear briefs, or a lot of time and money can be wasted on revisions.
This is additionally complicated by different time zones and multiples projects. In some instances, it can be beneficial to have at least once full-time person just to manage the freelancers!
This might sound like a cop out, but I think all of the above.
For your core staff, I recommend having a lean, broadly skilled in-house team. Ideally, these would be on a flexible, hybrid basis. Having the office as an option is a great idea, but allows your team to still benefit from remote working.
If you have multiple departments, you could try an “on and off” method, where certain teams are in the office on specific days. This means the team members turn up to the office on the same day, increasing productivity and morale.
The you should also have a roster of contractors with various specialisms. For example, you could have a designer, a video editor, developers, tracking experts, copywriters etc etc.
By productising your services, you should be able to scale up and down quickly while retaining a core, motivated full-time staff base.
