I’m a CEO — here’s why I won’t ask staff to return to the office

We bootstrapped OnSecurity for four years before we raised our first investment. When you’re bootstrapped, you need to get creative about how to be a better place to work, compared to competitors where employees can likely receive higher salaries.

The way I’ve tried to do this is by thinking about every aspect of previous jobs I’ve had that I didn’t like, and creating a company culture that was the complete opposite.

What I don’t understand about the debate with businesses trying to get their staff back to the office is that remote working is far from a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’. Our approach is to try and be empathic. One of our core values is to prioritise being employee-friendly.

Life-work balance

To begin with, we were a remote-first company. We didn’t have an office for the first year of operation. Even today, the majority of our technical staff still work from home most days.

Meanwhile, our sales staff are generally in the office most days (particularly in their first year). We feel they enjoy a more collaborative and cohesive working environment to thrive.

We have staff who love being in an office, and staff who hate it. If someone is deeply uncomfortable in an office and performs better at home, that’s where they will work from.

I want staff to do their best, but you can only do that by recognising that they’ve got a life outside of work first, and that takes precedence. Something I insist on as a CEO is to see it as ‘life-work balance’ rather than ‘work-life balance’.

I would say most people enjoy that feeling of knowing if something comes up in their lives, the business is there to support them rather than hinder them. We incorporate that mantra at OnSecurity and our staff retention rates are incredibly high, particularly for the cyber industry.

We also offer lots of holiday days, remote, in-office or hybrid working, ‘work from anywhere’ opportunities, and flexible working hours. Over the years, we’ve had people work as digital nomads in Argentina, New York, and South Africa for weeks or months at a time.

Remote-first culture allows people to travel, visit new places, immerse themselves in new cultures, and learn valuable skills they can bring back to the workplace. Not to mention the wellbeing and satisfaction levels they’ll sustain if they feel fulfilled in all aspects of their life.

Creating the environment

Today, we have a very flexible approach to working. But you can’t just switch that on. Here are some of the steps we followed:

1. Hire the right people

When we hire someone, we’re doing it because:

• We think they’re going to be great at their job
• We think they’re a great fit culturally

We are very careful in who we hire, and both of the above are extremely important to us in the recruitment process. When it comes to hiring, be more like a scalpel than a sledgehammer. Especially at senior-level or C-Suite positions.

2. Treat people like adults

This is absolutely key and is the motto OnSecurity lives by. Once you have the right people in place, we help them understand this is a business full of other adults doing good work.

I find it fascinating when new starters join us and pepper their line manager with requests like ‘Can I take my lunch at 2.30 instead today?’. This isn’t school and you don’t need a hall pass. You’re an adult, so we don’t mind when (or where) it gets done.

3. Fire fast

This sounds harsh but I’m afraid it is necessary. Despite your best intentions when hiring, there will always be one or two mis-hires and if you bring in the wrong person on a team, from a performance, but particularly a cultural perspective, it can be very damaging.

If you haven’t hired right, you’ve got to get a new starter out of there ASAP. If you’re a startup you cannot afford a poorly aligned hire, so don’t be afraid to cut your losses.

4. Clarity of mission

There’s no point in hiring great people if they don’t know what they should do and crucially WHY they should do it. Your mission should be crystal clear, the current objectives of the business should be set and measurable and everyone should know exactly where they fit.

5. Deploy technology

To achieve a flexible workplace, good communication and collaboration technology is key. All management needs good mechanisms to track the performance, output and wellbeing of their staff and we use various SaaS platforms to achieve this.

Happy employees “makes me proud”

The benefits for an employee of a flexible employer and the ability to work remotely are obvious, but for a business they really are powerful. Some are measurable.

If you’ve ever paid recruitment fees, you’ll know how expensive high staff turnover can be. There are direct financial benefits to being employee-friendly, alongside the experience and expertise that a long-time hire brings.

However, I think the most important benefits are less tangible. The main thing for me is the ‘vibe’ and that morale is high. Happy employees do good work and create a positive place to work for everyone else.

It makes me very proud talking to our new starters and hearing the contrast between their previous experiences and OnSecurity.

Conor O'Neill | Co-Founder & CEO of OnSecurity

Conor O'Neill is a cybersecurity expert and co-founder of OnSecurity. With over 12 years of experience in pentesting, he's led teams at major institutions and pioneered innovative solutions in the industry. His passion for cybersecurity and his dedication to excellence drive OnSecurity's mission to make the digital world safer.

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