It’s time to re-evaluate your company’s perks and benefits (again)
We have to acknowledge that this situation grows exponentially more challenging and more complicated as the weeks tick on.
With the circumstances we’re dealing with right now, it’s easy to divide your company’s story into two natural categories:
1. Before the pandemic set in 2. Since the pandemic took hold
We all, in our own ways, long for a time when life felt simpler and we had more control over when and where we could go. As we begin to discuss a reopening plan in more states, my people team at SquareFoot, the commercial real estate company I founded and have led since 2011, is hard at work preparing and proposing plans for what the office will look and feel like upon our return. But, here in NYC, we’re still at least several weeks away from stepping foot in our office space again. Between now and then, I’ve asked my team to hang on and to continue to show strength against the odds.
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I’ve spent parts of the past three months checking in individually on various team members to ensure that they’re still as okay as they tell me they are when we’re in group settings. I’ve paid close attention to any small, subtle changes to employees. I’ve begun to note some changes in their responses and in their behavior. If we had known in early March, when we moved home, that this quarantine would last many months, indefinitely, we might have arranged a plan different from what we’ve done.
Our people team is monitoring the situation and giving the best instruction and insights they can with what we know. But we have to also acknowledge now that this situation grows exponentially more challenging and more complicated as the weeks tick on.
One thing that I’ve realized through these conversations is that what worked for us in March and April wouldn’t be the same keys to success in May and June, and so on. My team and I have had to revisit what aspects and elements of our company culture we keep and what we leave behind. In normal times, the perks, amenities, and activities you put forth will last you a while–probably a year or more, until you have to explore what might be better for the staff at the next growth stage. We’ve always been open to these types of discussions, as it’s important for us to make the necessary tweaks to all parts of the business on a regular basis.
Company culture is one of many categories that we try to improve as we go. However, with this pandemic, like many things it has brought with it, we have to move more quickly and to identify what’s working and what’s not.
So rather than see our current offerings as set in stone as long as we’re all at home, we’ve determined that more often than we could have anticipated we must be nimble and flexible with what we put forth to the full team. Virtual happy hours, while innovative some long months ago, have become passe. People have been documented to be experiencing Zoom fatigue, and they don’t want to log on to yet another meeting. We’ve adjusted our schedule accordingly.
What used to be daily informal lunch gatherings are now happening twice a week. We’ve implemented for the first time this season an Article Club, similar to our longstanding Book Club that meets quarterly, but for long-form articles to discuss over lunch with colleagues more regularly. We don’t just want to fill the calendar with items and ideas; we want to give people what they’re looking for, and find desirable, that month and season.
The greatest innovation along these lines that we have scheduled is off-days. Throughout May, and now into fall, we have decided to close our offices every other Friday. We’re trying to do the same amount of work in nine days that we would ordinarily do with 10. It’s a gesture I felt was important to make as the days draw on. Especially now that the weather is nice, I want people to know that they should be taking care of themselves and leaving their homes and making the most of as many three-day weekends as our company can comfortably assign them. The initial feedback from the team has been overwhelmingly positive, and I hope to keep this program alive throughout the summer. In the fall, we will see where we are.
My advice to executives right now is to pay attention and to listen to your team members. The rules from the office are long gone, and we’ve all had to make whatever necessary accommodation. But now that we’re closing out a third month of this stay-at-home order, and especially as the next stage of transition is upon us, it’s worth considering whether the rules and policies you put into place back in March are still relevant and regarded in June. It might sound like it’s too soon to have those conversations.
I can tell you, from experience, not only is it worthwhile from a cohesive company culture standpoint, these peer-to-peer conversations with your staff might be the most valuable ones you have all year. It’s more than about checking in on their welfare. It’s about finding out what additional resources they need to take care of themselves first and their work second to ensure that all parties feel supported and elevated during these unprecedented times.
I never would have imagined in March, when everything was in flux and there was so much uncertainty to grapple with, that we’d close our business on perfectly suitable workdays. But I have to say now that we’re doing it, I appreciate it as much as anyone on the team. I get to breathe a bit easier those days, which is more powerful, I’ve found, than anything else we could think to offer at the start of this work-from-home experiment.
Jonathan Wasserstrum is founder and CEO of SquareFoot.
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