alling all innovators, culture creators, tastemakers and game changers — the world is in the midst of a fundamental change in how work is done. Thanks to meaningful advancements in technology and the pressures of a global health pandemic, businesses everywhere are living through the newest evolution of work: remote work at scale or, as we’ve termed it, “Remotopia.”

However, many business leaders are struggling to come to terms with the shift to remote work, from adopting the flexibility required to meet employee expectations, to managing rampant attrition. Unfortunately, if the past 18 months has revealed anything, it’s that the employee/employer relationship has long been broken.

Healing that relationship is no longer optional. When the daily grind was put on hold for many office workers last year, people had the time, space and perspective to evaluate how their professional choices contributed — or didn’t — to their own value systems. People started to see how their lives fit around work instead of the other way around. Today, the power dynamic has shifted, especially as employees and job candidates now have unprecedented access to:

• Information about work (i.e., commensurate compensation, competitors, environments, practices, bargaining rights, ownership models, distribution of profit and wealth, and the impact of investment decisions)
   
• Alternatives to work (downshifting careers, entrepreneurship, self-employment, much-needed vocations)

Organizations that recognize Remotopia as an essential place for the future of work — and do what’s needed to become future-fit — will thrive. Those that don’t will continue to struggle to attract and keep top talent.