As Covid-19 continues to reshape the work environment, more and more companies are using the phrase “hybrid workplace” to describe their 2022 plans.
But what does that really mean? Triangle Inno asked an entrepreneur who was doing it pre-pandemic – Justin Benson, CEO of Durham fintech Spreedly. He offered tips for CEOs who, as they mount their office comebacks are realizing that the “new normal” may be here to stay, and are trying to adjust accordingly.
In many cases, that’s likely to include both in-office and at-home workdays.
Spreedly, with over 100 employees, had instituted a hybrid structure pre-Covid. Employees were asked to be in the office Tuesday through Thursday.
“The others were optional,” Benson said.
When the pandemic struck, Spreedly was able to go remote “very seamlessly,” he said. And the company's pre-established emphasis on flexibility made it easier.
Benson said the future for Spreedly will also be all about flexibility – and that’s likely to mean even more remote work. He said a company's policy should start with a question – “What does the office do that remote cannot do? What’s its unique feature?”
The easy answer for Spreedly? Collaboration.
But enabling collaboration would be tougher than coming up with that answer. Benson said Spreedly saw its first speed bump with the conference room when it initiated the plan – long before Covid-19.
“Don’t build an office that’s a traditional-looking office if you're coming in a few days a week,” he said. If you do, you’ll find crowded conference rooms, as typically employees load their in-person meetings into those days that they’re required to be in the office.
But there are unexpected benefits, too. In Spreedly's case, suddenly its hiring managers had a bigger geography to work with.
“There were folks that might live in Clayton, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, they’ll sign up for a commute two times a week, but the thought of coming to Durham five days a week would have taken us out of the scope,” he said.
Spreedly has developed a cloud-based payment infrastructure intended to allow companies to work with multiple payment gateways simultaneously. Investors have already bet more than $81 million on the business, including a $75 million infusion from private equity firm Spectrum Equity in 2019.
Spreedly has been hiring heavily, particularly in engineering and product development.
The firm has about 130 employees, the majority of which are in the Triangle. And it’s expanded that team by 50 percent over the past year. The company’s platform enables and optimizes more than $30 billion in annualized gross merchandise volume globally.