Most organisations that say they are distributed are not doing it deliberately. They fell into it, adapted to it under pressure, or copied what they saw elsewhere. The companies at Running Remote 2026 that are genuinely good at this built it on purpose — and the difference shows in everything from engagement scores to real estate strategy.
This panel brought together leaders from Dropbox, HubSpot, and One Workplace — three organisations with different models, different sizes, and different pressures — to share what it actually takes to govern distributed work at scale.
Three different models, one shared philosophy
HubSpot operates with three work preferences across its workforce: 74% fully remote (home-based employees), 19% flex (primarily home but office-accessible), and 7% office-based. These ratios have remained stable year over year. One Workplace determines classification at hire, with clear categories for office-required, remote, and hybrid employees. Dropbox moved to virtual first years ago, now operating with 90-95% remote work and intentional in-person gatherings typically once per quarter.
What all three share: flexibility, clarity, and choice as core principles. Dropbox reimagined their offices as studios — collaboration spaces designed for gathering rather than daily work, with on-demand access for when teams need to come together.
The right starting point is six months before year-end
One of the most practical contributions from the panel was around planning. Organisations should begin resource planning for the following year six months before the year closes — identifying the guiding principles for each role, including whether outcomes can be measured without tracking computer time (which erodes trust and confuses busyness with productivity).
The challenge acknowledged openly: C-level teams often do not plan far enough ahead or think about workforce strategy early enough to build real flexibility into the operating model. The organisations that are best at this have built planning rhythm into the executive calendar, not as an HR exercise but as a strategic capability.
Shared responsibility, clear ownership
Distributed workforce management is not the People team’s problem alone. The panel described a model where IT and systems teams own productivity infrastructure, People teams own manager training for distributed environments, and department leaders own outcomes. Everyone has a lane. Everyone is accountable.
HubSpot introduced an org health scorecard — a data tool that helps leaders make decisions based on outcomes rather than preference or philosophy. Their North Star for the people organisation is delivering four things: clarity, belonging, growth, and recognition. Every major people decision is evaluated against those four elements.
Dropbox took the product thinking approach from the beginning. They designed Virtual First with a build-learn-iterate cycle, treating employee experience as a product with a lifecycle. When programmes stop serving a purpose, they are deprecated. When new needs emerge, new programmes are built with employees involved in the design. The result is less noise and more investment in what actually matters to people.
Equity is not the same as sameness
One of the more nuanced threads in the panel was around equity. Going distributed does not automatically create equal experiences. Remote employees felt genuinely more included when Dropbox moved to virtual-first — no longer missing side conversations in conference rooms while dialled in. Zoom created a more level playing field where rank and tenure are less visible.
But equity requires active design. Holiday events that fund in-office gatherings while remote employees receive swag create resentment. HubSpot found that remote employees’ preferences shifted over time: initially they wanted local area meetups, and later they wanted team gatherings with colleagues they speak to daily but never see. One Workplace funded fully regional meetups after simply asking their remote workforce what they actually wanted.
The next evolution for benefits is personalisation — offering multiple options per benefit category so employees choose what speaks to them, removing the grass-is-greener feelings that come from one-size-fits-all approaches.
Getting CEOs on board
The panel was direct about the resistance that still exists at leadership level. Most CEOs have not recognised the need to change traditional workforce planning norms, even as data consistently shows productivity increases with flexible approaches. The core fear is lost productivity when people are not physically present. The antidote is not argument — it is small wins evangelised frequently. Data on operational savings, meeting behaviour patterns, and developer productivity resonates with CFOs. Momentum builds from there.
Small and mid-sized businesses are leading innovation in this space. They cannot match large-company compensation, so they compete on how they work — and they are building approaches that larger organisations are eventually going to follow.
The work is never done
Every panellist agreed on this: designing distributed work as a product means the work is never finished. Senior leaders who come from office-heavy environments default to in-person expectations under pressure. New hires need clear onboarding into the flexible model and its philosophy. Managers need ongoing support, not a one-time training.
The organisations doing this well have accepted that it is a continuous capability, not a project with an end date. They have also learned that understanding why a manager resists remote work — rather than arguing against the resistance — creates far more openness to change than policy enforcement ever does.
