In recent months, Amazon, JPMorgan, AT&T, and other companies have implemented strict return-to-office (RTO) policies, mandating five days back in the office. Even though there has been pushback, from hundreds of employees in some cases, companies are pressing on with these policies.
In this climate, a few companies are standing out for their determination to stay remote, including Spotify, Shopify, and the popular real estate listing and advice company, Zillow.
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Zillow has 6,800 employees as of its most recent financial results and everyone can work remotely. The company publicly decided to operate as a remote-first, “CloudHQ” company in March 2021—and even published materials encouraging other companies to do the same.
CEO Jeremy Wacksman, 48, told Entrepreneur in a new interview that while remote work started as a pandemic policy, it quickly became a permanent fixture at the company.
“We pivoted the company and committed to [a cloud-headquartered or CloudHQ] model almost 5 years ago now, and it’s been fantastic for us,” Wacksman stated.
Zillow, which offers users more than 160 million homes to browse in its database, averaging 233 million monthly unique users, is No. 33 (as of press time) on Comscore’s top 50 digital media ranking — higher than Netflix and the New York Times.
Jeremy Wacksman, CEO of Zillow. Credit: Zillow
Wacksman stated that remote work benefited recruiting by opening up the virtual doors to talented employees located in all 50 states, noticeably increasing demand for Zillow’s job postings.
“We now see four times the number of job applicants for every job we have versus what we did before the pandemic,” Wacksman said.
Remote work has also been a key retention tool to keep employees at Zillow. Wacksman noted that employee engagement scores were at all-time highs, with employees appreciating the greater flexibility they have in a remote workplace. They can incorporate work into a schedule that also fulfills family obligations, like picking up kids from school, he stated.
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Balancing remote work with building a team
Some companies endorse in-person work for its team-building effects. For example, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mandated that Amazon corporate employees return to the office all five days per week by January 2 to strengthen company culture. While that approach may work for Amazon, Zillow thinks its culture is strongest at its most flexible.
“Different strategies work for different companies,” Wacksman said. “For Zillow, the size we are, the type of workforce we are, CloudHQ has been a huge benefit for us.”
However, Wacksman said that remote-first doesn’t mean employees don’t meet up in person from time to time. Zillow employees have opportunities to meet in person to get to know each other.
“While folks work at home predominantly, we have lots of gatherings, lots of ways for folks to get together and meet in 3D,” Wacksman said. “The flexibility that comes, the collaboration that we get, and the intentional time we have together really gives us the best of both.”
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Zillow employees can travel to one of Zillow’s 15 office locations across the U.S., including in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, to get work done, have meetings, or complete training. However, Wacksman clarified that most employees are at home on a day-to-day basis.
Wacksman’s vision for Zillow
Wacksman took the CEO role in August 2024 after working at the company since 2009 in a variety of roles, including chief operating officer and chief marketing officer.
In addition to remote work, Wacksman is taking steps to make Zillow evolve into a transaction-based business and make it the place where people buy, finance, rent, and sell homes—rather than just browse listings.
“Everything else in our lives we can do from our phone, but once you start to click the make an offer button, everything goes offline in real estate, so we’re trying to bring that online,” he said.
Related: Their Million-Dollar Home Was Listed ‘For Sale By Owner’ on Zillow for $10,200 — and Not By Them
Zillow has invested billions of dollars in software over the past decade to get to a point in the future where buyers can make an offer, sign, and close within the Zillow app. So far, the project hasn’t received pushback because real estate agents, who are business owners and entrepreneurs themselves, are “looking for better and new ways to do things,” he stated.
Related: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building Wealth Through Real Estate
