Chimers Chime In: Working from home at Chime
If you walked into Chime’s office in San Francisco in July of 2021, you’d see every employee’s office belongings neatly packed into boxes near new desks on two entirely unused floors. That’s because the day before we decided to close our offices and employees began to shelter in place, our new office floors had just been completed.
“At the time, it felt surreal,” says Kai Shane, our Director of Real Estate and Workplace. “It was hard to understand how long we’d be out of the office — we talked about coming back ‘next month’ — and then slowly realizing we weren’t coming back for a long while. It fell on the People, IT, and Workplace teams to communicate the ‘new normal’ we found ourselves navigating each day and make sure that every Chimer thrived while working from home, no matter how long it lasted.”
Before moving into real estate and workplace experience in the tech world, Kai spent much of her career in retail in the outdoor specialty industry. Working for brands like Patagonia, Prana, and icebreaker, her focus at the time was bringing brands to life through retail. “What many people don’t realize is that it’s not unusual to make the shift from retail or hospitality to workplace experience,” she explains. “We’re customer-oriented and understand operations; in a workplace role, we’re bringing a brand experience to life in a space for employees.”
Kai loves that her role allows her to design meaningful physical spaces that allow employees to connect Chime’s purpose. One example is the ‘Chime in the Wild,’ installation, built with snaps of members using their Chime debit cards out in the world. “Making an office into a space where Chimers connected with our mission and members was one thing; I never expected to deal with a change like a global pandemic,” Kai says.
Here’s a look at how Kai and her team supported Chimers through the past year.
First responders
When Chime was thrust into a work from home (WFH) reality, Kai and the teams she partnered with were forced to spin up new processes very quickly in order to keep things moving along at Chime. From onboarding to getting mail and sending laptops to new employees, they quickly mobilized to set up new processes and support systems so that Chimers would be set up for success in the new WFH environment — it was a huge cross-functional effort that involved many key players.
“Since the beginning, there’s been a deep sense of people Teaming Up through this — one of our company values — and showing up for each other,” Kai says.
The biggest change her team had to respond to was modifying a central pillar of their department’s work: events and engagement programming for Chimers. “We pivoted to an all-virtual events program in a matter of weeks,” Kai says. “I’m so proud of how creative my team was and how dedicated they remained to the employee experience, even though everyone was at home.”
What we’ve learned: 1 year out
Kai and her team have learned a lot since they first took their programs online. “We didn’t have a guide or rulebook going into the pandemic, but we’ve learned that engagement is the most important part to supporting a distributed team,” Kai explains. “Because everyone is in their own homes and, in a way, having entirely separate experiences, bringing them together through our various engagement channels has been instrumental to cultivating a sense of belonging.”
“The irony is that during WFH, when our offices were closed, my team’s work became more visible, not less; what had been something that happened organically through our space and in-person programming — helping Chimers feel a sense of belonging and connection — was brought to the foreground of the company,” she says.
When Chime’s engagement survey results were recently released, Kai and her team learned that what they’ve been doing is working. “We saw a higher engagement score than ever before, which is great on a normal day — let alone after a year of working from home,” she says. We suppose the proof is in the pudding that her team’s work — in collaboration with many other Chime teams — is working. :shrug:
Why offices matter — and why people matter more
“My work product has always been the physical office space, so the loss of that was disorienting,” Kai explains. “One part is employee engagement — something we’ve been really successful at maintaining — but understanding the value of our physical spaces was a critical step in the past year.”
“We’ve gone through various exercises around our future work plans, many of which centered around what the value of physical space is to our teams and our work,” Kai says. “We clarified the importance of coming together to collaborate and solve problems and articulated what space means to us — something we had never done before. In the past, the office was a default, but now, we’ve had the chance to take a step back and ask if we really need it — and the answer is yes.”
The Workplace team has begun to define how the office supports culture, enables creative work, and brings Chimers together. They’ve learned that for senior Chimers, for example, who may be more independent, working from home might be more productive, but that for junior Chimers looking for mentorship, there’s no better way to get it than in person. “Ultimately, working in an office together meets practical needs and it also supports important cultural functions. The office is more than a place to get work done; working side by side also cultivates shared purpose, fosters belonging, and strengthens culture,” Kai shares. Her team has developed a framework that identifies culture, connection, collaboration, creativity, and coaching as fundamental reasons for coming together in a shared space.
“While space and how we use it is important, the most important part of all of this has been supporting our people,” Kai says.
When we initially started to shelter in place, there were folks who had been hired to perform roles that could only be done in the office — Kai’s team had to decide what they would do. They never downsized their team and even continued to support day porters and vendor employees through the shutdown. “As we’ve looked to the future, we’ve learned how capable our team is of coming together and evaluating all of our possibilities,” she says. “We’ve learned why offices matter to us and what connects our teams, and stayed grounded in our Be Human value and the reason my team does this work: for Chimers.”
Moving forward — and back into the office
After a year of working from home, the excitement to get back to the office is palpable. Kai’s team has come up with a phased plan, starting with making the office accessible on a voluntary basis as soon as local health guidance allows, and then shifting to our new FlexWork policy. “The reality of working from home is different for everyone — some find it very comfortable, others have had a harder time and want an opportunity to get out of the house,” Kai explains. “We want to cater to all Chimers while providing — and following — clear health and safety guidelines so that everyone feels safe and supported coming back to work.”
When the office reopens, there will be uncertainty and a need for transparency, sensitivity, and an understanding that a year of working from home will inevitably bring up fears and anxieties for some when returning to work in an office. “We’re planning lots of communication with all Chimers and to set up channels for Chimers to express their concerns or give feedback,” Kai says. “We want Chimers to know that their safety is our number one priority.”
Chime’s new FlexWork policy
With offices reopening and a newfound understanding of what being in the office means to Chimers, Chime’s leadership team recently unveiled our new FlexWork policy. It was developed after extensive conversations and listening to teams and leaders across the organization. “Fundamentally, we wanted to craft a policy that made sense for Chime and protected our TeamUp culture of collaboration,” Kai says. “Our new policy allows departments and teams to craft the approach that works best for them, so expectations to be in the office will vary based on teams and working styles.”
With a lot of headlines about tech companies going fully remote or distributed, Chime’s leadership team wanted to ensure they were making the right choice that supports Chime’s culture and our members. The result is a highly flexible policy that is grounded in what each department needs. “We believe that coming together as a team is important and want to balance that with our pragmatic approach to empowering teams to work in a way that’s best for them,” Kai explains. “We believe that this way of working will be best for Chimers and, ultimately, our members, too — after all, they’re the reason we come together as a team.”
Coming back together after hypergrowth
When Chimers return to the office this fall, the company will look and feel a lot different than it did one year ago. “We’ve hired nearly 800 Chimers since we closed our offices, so not only will there be lots of reunions, but also a lot of new faces,” Kai says. “Chimers are really excited to see and meet each other, many for the very first time.”
“There’s a surreal feeling to it all — from the time we went into shelter in place to when we all walk into the office and realize how tall everyone is when they’re not on Zoom — but it’s nice to know that we’ve all shared this experience together,” says Kai. “I couldn’t be more proud of the village of people and teams who made this all come together and who, ironically, are now more visible than they ever were prior to the pandemic. Chimers are more aware of the work we do in support of the workplace experience and I can’t wait to see how we bring a sense of place and belonging to Chimers in the year ahead.”
