What is a distributed workforce?

A distributed workforce, or distributed team, refers to employees and contractors who work for the same company but in different physical locations. A distributed workforce may comprise:

• on-site teams at one or more office locations
• remote employees who work from home, coworking spaces, or are traveling
• digital nomads

What’s the difference between a “distributed” and “remote” workforce?

​​The term “distributed” is commonly confused with the term “remote”. Although a company's employees and contractors can work together in both a distributed and remote manner at the same time, “distributed” tends to convey the way organizations are structured (see distributed work).

Example of a distributed workforce

Oyster is the perfect example of a distributed workforce. With no central office, all Oyster’s employees work remotely in locations around the world.

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