Finding the hybrid sweet spot: how a tech company made their RTO policy a success

Summary

Goal: A major tech company wanted to increase in-person collaboration in its hubs.

Action: Update the hybrid policy to drive more face time in the office.

Key Outcomes: 

• >30% increase in average office occupancy.
• Meeting room saturation increased by 10%, and meeting room squatting (use by 1 person) reduced by 24%.

The touchy task of evolving a hybrid policy.

Hybrid work policies are popular for obvious reasons - they offer a balance of flexibility and in-office connection that appeals to employees and employers alike. 

However, hybrid can also backfire. It’s not uncommon for an employee to trek into the office only to hunker down in a phone booth for non-stop Zoom meetings.

One Density client, a major e-commerce company, was looking to maintain the flexibility of remote work while growing in-person collaboration. Starting in April, they updated their hybrid policy to mandate more time in the office for employees, ranging from a few visits per year for remote employees to two days a week for local employees.

They turned to Density Advisory to understand the impact of their updated policies and see if their spaces or policies needed further iteration.

Here’s what they found.

More people showing up at the office.

The company’s offices immediately saw a 30% increase in average occupancy. What’s even more interesting is that in the 2nd month following the policy update, that increase was even higher at 37%. 

Meeting rooms were used more efficiently than before.

Not surprisingly, with more people in the office, enclosed meeting spaces were even more in demand: meeting room saturation increased by 10%.

Even better: meeting rooms were used more efficiently than before, cutting down on squatting where one person takes over a room. While 66% of meeting use was by just one person before the update, that dropped to 53% following the policy update, and down to 50% in the 2nd month afterwards.

Ongoing measurement for a winning workplace.

In the end, this policy update brought more people into the office for more time face-to-face. Plus, the office was seeing even more positive trends in the second month - both in the number of employees showing up and the meeting room efficiency. This suggests that as employees have gotten used to the policy update, they’re seeing the benefits and leaning into even more office connections.

With the help of Density's ongoing measurement, this company can understand employee behaviors to create a winning workplace and policy.

Learn more about Density Advisory or request a demo to see Density in action.