A diverse and inclusive team is a stronger, smarter, and more empathetic team. As industries grapple with mechanisms to encourage and facilitate inclusivity, all-remote teams — where 100% of team members are empowered to work from anywhere — are more inclusive by default.
All-remote exudes inclusiveness
GitLab colleagues gathered in London.
Research from Deloitte shows that "teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to report that they are high performing, 20% more likely to say they make high-quality decisions, and 29% more likely to report behaving collaboratively."
GitLab recognizes that one advantage to being an all-remote company is that we can hire talent from a global pool. We are not restricted to the usual job centers, which gives us access to a tremendous amount of talent that many other companies will not consider for employment. It may take more effort to find talent in more diverse places, but that is an effort we are willing to make.
Currently, GitLab employs over 1,000 team members across more than 60 countries. This level of richness in cultural and geographic diversity is enabled by all-remote, and naturally shields against biases that form when entire teams live, work, and interact in the same region of the world.
We're surrounded by a tapestry of unique cultures, celebrations, and traditions. Not only does this give us a broader view of the world internally, it enables us to be more empathetic to the broader open-source community.
Sourcing talent from around the globe
All-remote allows people to thrive wherever they call home. Image by Darren Murph
GitLab's six values are Collaboration, Results, Efficiency, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging , Iteration, and Transparency, and together they spell CREDIT.
True to those values, GitLab strives to hire team members who are passionate, empathetic, kind, tenacious, and ambitious, regardless of their location. By opening the recruiting funnel to as broad a swath of the world as we can, we create a more inclusive hiring environment, lean on tight collaboration to drive progress across time zones, and focus our hiring decisions on results rather than location.
Hiring an all-remote team from across the globe allows GitLab to pay local rates. By hiring brilliant minds in locations with lower costs of living, GitLab is able to save money to hire even more people as we scale our business.
- All-remote means that you will not sacrifice career advancement by working outside of the office, as even GitLab executives are fully remote.
- All-remote creates a workplace where caregivers, individuals with physical disabilities, etc., are not disadvantaged by being unable to regularly commute into an office.
- GitLab's approach to spending company money enables all team members to create a work environment uniquely tailored for them.
- All-remote enables those who must relocate frequently for family and personal reasons to take their career with them.
- All-remote allows movement and relocation to physical settings that contribute to an individual's health (e.g., moving to a location with an improved air quality index).
Bolstering communities
When people aren't forced to relocate for work, their communities benefit. Image by Darren Murph
All-remote encourages team members to work and live in a place where they are most fulfilled. This enables our team to reside in regions or communities that provides far more than shelter, but enriches their life experience by enabling long-lasting relationships with people who shape and support them.
By not forcing people to relocate for work, companies which embrace all-remote are benefitting local comunities in a significant way. Rural communities receive outsized economic benefit, while major metropolitan areas experience less strain on infrastructure.
Stay-at-home parents who wish to further their career, caregivers, military spouses, and those who struggle with mobility can all contribute meaningfully when a company removes the location requirement from the job description.
All-remote opens the hiring door to places far beyond the usual job centers of the world. Candidates are not limited by geography and we champion this approach – to the extent that it’s possible – for all companies.
