Lahore-Careem, the Super App for the greater Middle East and Pakistan, is now a Remote-First company. Careem colleagues in 36 offices have the freedom to work from a remote location. The company’s physical offices will remain open and are being re- designed into spaces that facilitate collaboration and team building while also providing flexible workspaces for individual colleagues. Careem anticipates that permanent remote working will increase productivity, reduce costs, and lead to an even stronger value proposition for talent. In the recent work-from-home arrangements, colleagues reported higher productivity and stronger relationships with peers in other countries - leading to strong business recovery in the last two quarters. The shift will also save real-estate costs as offices get re-imagined and optimised for collaboration and flexible working rather than day-to-day. And most importantly for a business that is still growing rapidly, the Remote-First approach will allow Careem to attract and retain top talent globally with a strengthened colleague value proposition. “As a digital business with operations in more than 100 cities, we always invested in tools and mindsets to effectively collaborate with remote colleagues. When the pandemic hit and our movements were restricted, we were able to seamlessly adapt while continuing to support our customers and partners.
As the work from home continued, our colleagues started reporting higher productivity and found they valued the flexibility.
That’s when we went to the drawing board to challenge our set of beliefs on work and productivity.” CEO and Co-Founder Mudassir Sheikha.