By Katie Burke, Chief People Officer at HubSpot
Earlier this year, we announced that HubSpot was going to shift to a hybrid company model. One where people can do their best work — whether that’s in an office, in a home office, or a mix of the two. As part of that, we decided we would ask our employees at the beginning of each year to choose their work preference based on three options:
- @office: You come into a HubSpot office 3 or more days per week. You have a dedicated desk for your laptop, monitor, family photos, plants, and anything else that makes your workspace truly yours. Beyond taking your HubSpot laptop home if you’d like to, employees who are @office won’t get an at-home desk set-up.
- @flex: You come into a HubSpot office 2 or fewer days per week. When you come to the office, you’ll be allocated a “hotel desk”, which will be organized by team when possible. Because you opted-out of dedicated desk space in an office, HubSpot will help support your work-from-home (WFH) set-up.
- @home: You work the majority of your time from home in a HubSpot-approved entity. HubSpot makes sure your WFH set-up is safe, sound, and sets you up for success.
We recently shared the future of work selection data with the company, which reflects how our employees are choosing to work in 2021: that 39% of our employees prefer to work from home in 2021, 18% in the office, and 43% selected the @flex option.
Knowing 2021 would look different, we’ve spent the past six months getting ready to adapt and set our employees up for success in a hybrid world. Not only has operationalizing this shift been a massive undertaking for our finance, legal and HR teams, but understandably, employees have had a lot of questions. And honestly, we have a lot of unknowns too. But as we are a company rooted in transparency, we wanted to share an update on where we are and where we are going.
While we don’t have the perfect playbook for running a hybrid company and culture, we’re building stronger convictions every day about what our employees want from the future of work. Thanks to their feedback and vulnerability over the past year, we’re heading into 2021 with four beliefs top of mind:
1. People’s desire for flexibility isn’t going anywhere.
Ultimately, the data shows that people want flexibility and the ability to choose how they do their best work. But, that’s something we’ve known for awhile at HubSpot. As our Culture Code says, results matter more than the hours we work. Even pre-pandemic, our employees were encouraged to build their work around their lives — leaving early to pick up kids from school, signing off mid-day for a spin class (that’s me!), or using our unlimited vacation to travel the world. I believe that people’s desire for flexibility has only grown over the past year. So instead of saying ‘the future is fully remote’ or ‘the office is dead,’ we’re betting on hybrid. The future of work will be even more flexible than it is today and the data confirms our employees want the freedom of choice.
2. Embrace the good, the bad, and the human.
Bringing your family to work used to be relegated to one day per year or a framed photo on your desk. This year, we got invited into people’s homes, and spent more time than ever with their kids, dogs, and roommates. While it’s been incredibly challenging for so many people, it’s also given people a chance to be who they are — human, and to lean into the empathy that connects all of us.
One of my favorite Slack channels to watch this year is Families@HubSpot, which has been filled with pictures of adorable children, and honest questions around parenting and working through a pandemic. In 2021, we’ll spend a lot of time thinking about what we want to stop, start, and continue that we did in 2020. While I won’t miss a lot of things about 2020, the empathy we’ve seen emerge from managers and teammates globally is something I hope continues and grows in organizations globally.
3. There’s economic power in hiring talent remotely.
The tech industry has been largely dominated by big cities globally with just five metro areas accounting for 90% of all U.S. high-tech job growth between 2005 and 2017. This has not only contributed to income inequality, but its made opportunities for talent from smaller communities to pursue a career in tech extremely rare. In fact, our 2020 Remote Work Report found that 31% agree or strongly agree that they weren’t offered a job because of their remote status. The truth is, access to a career in tech shouldn’t be determined by your zip code. A greater embrace for remote work can help to redistribute economic opportunity and build more diverse and equitable workforces.
4. This data is reflective of our present reality, but the future is still largely unknown.
Yes, COVID-19 ultimately changed how and where people want to work, and what the traditional workplace looks like. But we’re also very aware that we collected this data while still in the midst of a global pandemic. Even with a vaccine rolling out this week to front line healthcare workers and soon to the general public, there’s still so much unknown, and we recognize that people may still be hesitant about re-entering public spaces when it’s safe to do so. While we asked our employees to choose their working style preference for the year, we know these numbers won’t look exactly the same in a year from now. That’s why we’re focused on building a culture that’s equitable for everyone. We’ll continue to focus on supporting our remote employees, lean into more flexibility, and ensure that the office is safe, secure and social for those who work their best.
There are a lot of assumptions companies can make when it comes to what keeps their employees engaged and productive. The truth is, employees want the same thing in their workplace that they want from their leaders right now: empathy, flexibility, and a realization there are still a lot of unknowns. Wherever and however our employees work, we’ll be growing better together in 2021 and prioritizing inclusion and transparency along the way.
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