Remote but reachable

In September, we launched a new approach to working at Luno: Remote but Reachable. Lunauts will come together “in-person” at least once per quarter, although our workplaces are open for them to use as often as they want.

We want to embed all of the parts of the work experience that we have come to value over the last 18 months into a permanent, post-pandemic world; the flexibility, the lack of commute, the additional time spent with families or passion projects, and the more deliberate, thoughtful interactions with each other.

It’s taken us a while to commit to our longer term approach. Indeed, the last 18 months have seen us all lurch from an adrenaline-fuelled dash for toilet roll at the start of the pandemic; parents hastily stepping into the role of home-schooler; teammates adapting to life working at home in the midst of a pandemic, through to feelings of languishing; joy; listliness, feeling like “we’ve got this” and settling into a new routine.

It’s precisely because of all of these different phases of the pandemic that we’ve taken our time. Luno, and the way we work has evolved, and mindsets have changed often! And although our teams may have wanted us to confirm our stance earlier, Luno operates from a “principles-first” perspective, which means designing our approach to work into something that is right for our long term success. Therefore, we didn’t want to commit to decisions that could have long-term implications, in the midst of a pandemic when life was changing almost daily.

Instead, we’ve spent months listening to our Lunauts and leaders, often going back and forth over small but important details and edge cases, and approached this project from three angles: our guiding principles, leadership insights and Lunaut feedback via our internal surveys.

The guiding principles set the foundation for Remote but Reachable, and will help us iterate the experience; they are our moral compass and support our Moontality (values). So what are they?

• We trust our Lunauts – in essence we trust people to be able to do their work effectively, anywhere and we know there is no one-size-fits-all approach to where we each work best.

• We value in-person connection – we believe that Lunauts spending some proportion of their time in-person with each other is incredibly important to both Luno and Lunauts. Not because we believe work is done better in person, but because our business is built on the strength of our relationships with each other.

• We value consistency – Remote but Reachable means that working outside of a Luno workplace becomes the default working option for the majority of Lunauts, the majority of the time, rather than something that is agreed by exception or on an occasional basis. We want to ensure that everyone, regardless of their working preferences, has an equal opportunity to develop, grow their career and contribute to the success of Luno.

• We keep it simple – By having the same set of principles for all Lunauts, with the same level of flexibility and minimum expectations of in-person connection we are applying simplicity to what is an incredibly complex world.

• We will learn and adapt – There is a lot for us to figure out in creating a Remote but Reachable Luno business. We are comfortable admitting what we don’t know. We will act with humility and will continue to listen to our teams and apply our collective intelligence to solving hard problems!

Building a successful company where the default is not the office 9-5 comes with a lot of challenges but also a lot of opportunities to build something even better than what came before. We are committed to building a consistently amazing employee culture irrespective of working preferences, where Lunauts can positively contribute to our ambitions and grow their own career equally.