Navigating through these tricky times, whilst making your work spaces into warm and welcoming places for your employees is amazing.

Tell us about your role and your company.

Hey! I'm Kristina the Community & Account Manager here at Officely. The thing that I most enjoy about working here is getting to meet so many of you amazing people from all over the world! It’s so inspiring to hear what an amazing job you’re doing navigating through these tricky times, and I love seeing how you are all transforming your workspaces into warm and welcoming environments for your employees!

Where is your team located?

We're all in the London area. We have an office in Holborn.

What's your hybrid schedule?

Officely doesn't have a required schedule, we let employees decide what amount of time in the office vs working from home works best for them. Naturally, it seems like 2 to 3 days in the office is the most common but we also have team members who like to come in every day. I think it helps to mention that Officely operates on 4 day weeks, meaning we're off on Fridays! 

How easy are you finding it to encourage your team back to the office? What strategies are you using to encourage your team back?

It's happened pretty naturally over the first months of 2022. I think two things accelerated our return. One is that we've been fortunate enough to grow a lot as a team. When new hires join us, we all try to make an effort in being in the office for their first few days. This has helped speed up onboarding and made new team members feel welcomed. 

The second is using Officely ourselves! Seeing who's in the office and being encouraged to join them is truly a motivating factor for all of us. 

Officely boosts office attendance by showing who’s going in and what’s happening in the office, right in Slack.

What’s the most important element of your hybrid team culture?

Flexibility. Both being flexible and providing flexibility to your team mates. Meeting people where they're at (sometimes that's virtually, of course!) makes our team strong. 

How do you make sure your hybrid team feels supported?

We check-in with each other, especially when we're in the office. A great way to do that organically is to use Office Chat to organize lunch or coffee with my team mates. During that time, I try to make sure they're all doing well.

What’s been the hardest part of leading a hybrid team?

I've found hiring and interviewing while hybrid a bit tricky. Being able to schedule interviews with pairs of team members who are on different hybrid schedules can prove to be challenging. Something that's helped with this is asking those team members to book their office days in Officely a few weeks in advance that way I can schedule an onsite without having to bother them. 

Kristina's Hybrid Heroes:

Officely is the easiest way to transform your hybrid office.

"Not once have we had to explain how it works to the new starters! 

It's super intuitive and everyone loves it.” - Smitha, Thirva Health