How one company’s remote-forward work model has led to an applicant surge amid the RTO mandates

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The return-to-office war wages on, as disgruntled employees head back to work and are being greeted with a host of logistical and interpersonal challenges. But one technology company chose to go against the grain by keeping—and expanding—the distributed model of work they implemented during the pandemic. 

“For us, it was never a thing [where] we will think about return to office one day when things get normal,” Avani Prabhakar, chief people officer at Atlassian, tells Fortune. 

A fully distributed work model had been in the works even prior to 2020, but efforts ramped up when lockdowns forced employees to work from home. In an effort to utilize a data-driven approach to work, Atlassian introduced a “Team Anywhere” within its people department, which included the Teamwork Lab, a group of behavioral scientists conducting research to solve problems and innovate how work gets done for both clients and the company itself.

There are four key components to the company’s remote-first model: asynchronous communication, in which teams favor written communication for collaboration, “open by default,” meaning that written materials should be available to all, connection, and time zone awareness. 

It looks like the company's gamble on remote work has paid off: Atlassian’s workforce has tripled in size during the four and a half years that its flexible work policy has been in place, and the number of candidates who apply for open roles has more than doubled, according to the company.

Employee satisfaction is intrinsically connected to the “Team Anywhere” approach, 91% of employees say that flexibility is an important reason they stay at the company. 

You can read more about Atlassian’s WFH policy here.

Sara Braun
sara.braun@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com