Even before the onset of COVID-19, employees across the world had witnessed a dramatic uptick in remote work opportunities. The onset of the pandemic and lockdown policies roundly accelerated those trends.

According to workplace statistics published in November of 2020, 88% of the world’s organizations either mandated or encouraged their employees to work from home since the implementation of COVID-related restrictions.

However difficult the shift might have been for many of the people involved, the impact has not been without its upsides. Per the same set of statistics, 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home. Additional research estimates that businesses lose $600 billion a year to workplace distractions, and that remote workers are 35% to 40% more productive than their in-office counterparts.

The Basement Sports team has always excelled in the remote medium, and managed an easy transition to the new ecosystem. At multiple points during the pandemic, the home offices of our team members spanned from New Jersey all the way to Serbia and Bangladesh. Judicious and strategic use of Slack facilitates easy communication, and keeps the team aligned. Bi-weekly Zoom calls foster additional dialogue, and the use of screen-sharing and the recording of training sessions foster information retention and the exchange of institutional knowledge. Most notable of all, the team was able to bring the Basement Sports Starter Kit to the market at the height of the lockdown so that kids of all ages might continue to engage in healthy play despite the ongoing restrictions.

COVID might have accelerated the remote-working trends, but the changes are here to stay: by 2025, 36.2 million Americans (22% of the workforce) will be working remotely. The experience of our team has proven that would-be disruptions to the workplace can be transformed into opportunities for growth and advancement. We hope other companies will continue to share our success.