U.S.-based employees at sales intelligence company ZoomInfo will be in offices one day a week starting next year as part of a plan developed with input from the workforce.
The Vancouver, Washington-based company — which was founded in Massachusetts and also has an office in Waltham — is the latest to roll out an office strategy as companies have faced varying degrees of acceptance and pushback on return to office plans.
So far, the feedback from the ZoomInfo (Nasdaq: ZI) employees has been good, said Chad Herring, who joined the company in August as chief human resources officer.
“We are approaching this as a living design,” he said. “It’s not a commandment.”
That means there is flexibility in the plan, but generally the company expects employees who live within a 30-mile radius of a major office to be in that office once a week. Which day of the week is up to teams and their leaders to agree upon. The aim is to have meetings, training and employee growth activities on days that teams are together.
It is meant to eliminate the scenarios where people come to the office only to sit on video calls with colleagues who are remote.
Ahead of the change, employees were told 90 days in advance so they could prepare, Herring said. The company is also honoring agreements made with employees hired during the pandemic or existing employees who transitioned to fully remote positions to continue to be remote. No one is being required to move.
The company also continues to hire and recruit for fully remote positions. This change is meant to offer employees and the business structured time in an office while still acknowledging that remote work is something a large subset of workers want.
As the company hires there is sometimes 10 times the interest in jobs that are remote over those tied to an office, Herring said.
“For people who want to relocate to Waltham (Massachusetts) or Vancouver/Portland (the company’s two main offices) that is great. But, very few if any roles will be tethered to an office,” he said.
For those that do want to be in an office, he said the company is focused on making sure there is a reason to be there. That means not just amenities but making sure time is intentionally spent with co-workers or bringing in speakers and other learning opportunities.
For his part, Herring, who was hired from a company in Austin, is moving to the Vancouver/Portland metro early next year.
This ZoomInfo strategy was formed over a four-week period and led by Herring. It included a company survey as well as 75 interviews with employees across demographics as well as functions and levels within the company.
Some interviews were held in focus groups up to six people and others were one-on-one. Everyone was asked the same 15 questions so information gleaned was consistent and could be compared.
Questions included:
- What inhibits you from coming to an office?
- What are reasons you do want to come to an office?
- What are things that if the company decided to implement would change your mind about coming in?
- What do you like best about remote work?
- What helps you do the best work from home? From an office?
This return to office plan is focused on the U.S. and United Kingdom offices. Herring said the company’s offices in India and Israel have been a different experience, with those workers coming back on their own. Talking with those teams, the company found that the remote model was not accepted the same way in India and Israel as in the U.S. and European markets.
ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. sells business intelligence software to sales organizations. Its huge data set and software integrates with other business technology like customer relationship management and email tools. It went public in 2020 and has 3,500 global employees and 750 locally.
The company plans to continue its aggressive growth in 2023, Herring said.
