PTO for RTO: how one company incentivized teams to work in-person
Getting staff to want to work in offices again with their teams is still a challenge for employers. Newly designed office spaces, free food and other perks are just some of the ways they’ve tried to incentivize staff to return and make it worth their while.
But one company is giving staff the ultimate reward for coming back when it wants them to — a day of PTO.
At Envoy, a workforce solutions software firm with about 250 employees across six offices, teams are required to be in the office the same three days a week. If everyone on the team meets those requirements, that team gets an entire Friday off the next month. The arrangement started as a challenge after the company’s initial RTO rollout fell flat, and it’s worked so well it’s now a permanent arrangement, said Jacqueline Sharma, vp of people at Envoy.
Envoy initially asked staff to return to the office for four days a week in late 2022 but they pushed back over what they felt was an abrupt and sharp shift, Sharma said. She was tasked with developing the new RTO policy when she started in her role last year.
“For Envoy it’s incredibly important that we have people in the office, not only from a general sort of interaction, collaboration, ideation and creativity piece, but also because our products really depend on people coming together and being in the office,” she said.
Regardless of team, all staff are asked to work from the office the same three days a week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while Monday and Friday are work-from-home days.
Staff have responded positively to the policy, so much so that virtually all teams get a Friday off monthly. “It sort of incentivized people to be together, to foster these relationships, and hold each other accountable,” she said.
To monitor attendance, Envoy uses its own product through a phone app used to badge employees in. “What’s really nice about our product is that we allow employees to see their own calendars and so they can keep track of when they’re in the office and how much they’re adhering to the policy,” she said.
That data will also be used and discussed in performance reviews if certain staff aren’t adhering to the policy.
Using PTO as an incentive has worked great since staff today place so much value on that yet often feel they can’t truly take enough time away to recharge. Almost 80% of workers do not take the maximum amount of time off that they are allowed, according to a survey by the Harris Poll conducted in April among over 1,000 employed U.S. adults.
In that survey about half of workers said they get nervous even requesting to take time off, and about the same said it makes them feel guilty.
Companies will likely have to continually incentivize staff to come back in hybrid arrangements. There are still few metrics or measures to ensure RTO plans are successful and leading to positive company outcomes, said Paul Slater, cofounder of BillionMinds, meaning staff will still need to feel their returns are justified.