Matt Benham says one of the keys to managing staff who work partly from home is to construct a set of principles so employees can make decisions without having to consult the person sitting next to them.

The country leader for Amazon’s retail business in Australia said the online retailing behemoth’s key principles included the need for staff to think as if they were an owner of the business when making decisions; to always deliver the best results, including where they should physically be in order to deliver that result; trusting that colleagues also work in accordance with the principles; and ensuring that everyone has a set of goals to meet and a plan about how to achieve them.