"It's certainly not easy to get right, but we know how much our employees value flexible work".

With the news full of companies forcing their employees back to the office on set days, we want to shine a light on the companies who have managed to make flexible hybrid work, work.

First up is Nina Gordon of Pleo, a tech company with around 850 employees across multiple offices in Europe and Canada. Currently, they have no company-wide hybrid work policy. Pleo prefers to give their leaders the freedom to find ways of working that make the most sense for their team, based on guidelines and principles, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

In a recent company survey, their own employees ranked working flexibility as the #1 thing Pleo gets right. So how have Pleo made such a success of hybrid work, when scores of other companies have had to resort to forcing employees into the office?

"It's pull vs push", says Nina. "You need to understand what your employees want from flexible work, and what they value in an office, and then provide that".

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Employee Survey on Flexible Work

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Pleo polled their employees to understand what they wanted, the results were surprising:

• 29% said they would ideally work in a 'remote first' role (less than 1 day per week in the office) - this is possible at Pleo if you're on a remote contract.
• 59% wanted to come into the office 2-4 days a week.
• In fact, 31% said they wanted to come into the office more than they currently do!

Asking what would make them come in more:

• Knowing their team are in the office
• Knowing there will definitely be a meeting room, phone booth, private room or quiet space available for them when they need it.

Asking what events bring them into the office:

• Community lunches and Friday bar
• Team building activities
• Strategic teamwork

"I think before we did the survey, we assumed more people wanted to be more remote than is actually the case," said Nina.

"Understanding that there are things within our control that we can do to improve office attendance gives us a platform to build from if certain teams do want to encourage people to come in".

"It also helps us highlight where asking people to come into the office won't have the desired results."

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Key takeaways:

• Give your team visibility of who is in the office each day - a tool like Officely does this for you.
• Get feedback from your team on what areas of the office need improving and action that.