Zillow CEO Says His Company Will Stay Remote
Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman recently said that Zillow would remain a remote-first company.
He made the comments in an interview with Entrepreneur. Wacksman said, “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 continued to say that remote work helped with recruiting. “We now see four times the number of job applicants for every job we have versus what we did before the pandemic,” he replied. Wacksman also said that remote work, and the flexibility it brings, has been a great way to retain employees.”
On the subject of company culture, he explained, “Different strategies work for different companies. For Zillow, the size we are, the type of workforce we are, CloudHQ has been a huge benefit for us. While folks work at home predominantly, we have lots of gatherings, lots of ways for folks to get together and meet in 3D. The flexibility that comes, the collaboration that we get, and the intentional time we have together really gives us the best of both.”
Zillow went remote during the Covid-19 pandemic, and decided to make remote work permanent in 2021. Zillow Chief People Officer Dan Spaulding wrote at the time, “The shift was not made to save money but instead based on trust in our employees to deliver, regardless of location. And in overwhelming numbers, they told us they want to work remotely all or most of the time. Those of us at Zillow believe the future of work is anchored in a shared mission, not a shared physical location.”
