As a self-proclaimed extrovert, Erin Bury always intended to have a personal office culture at her company.
Co-founder and CEO of Toronto property management agency Wilful, Bury and her husband Kevin Olds first opened office space in downtown Toronto in February 2020.
“We had built the company with the intention of having a very personal culture, and we were in the space about six weeks before the first lockout,” Bury told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.
By the summer of 2021, vaccines had begun to roll out to the general public and there seemed to be a lull between waves of COVID-19, so Bury reopened her office to electives — but no one came, she says.
By this time, many employees had moved further away from the office or adjusted to a work-from-home routine.
“People came in maybe once or twice a month, and so we always joked that it was like a $1,000 office visit every time someone came in because they actually benefited from it,” she said.
Bury says that realization, combined with employee feedback, prompted her and her husband to get rid of the space, move their company of about 20 employees permanently remote, and implement a “work from anywhere” policy.
Kevin Olds, left, with Erin Bury (Courtesy of Bury)
The policy states that employees can work from anywhere in Canada and, as long as they are available from the “core hours” of 12:00pm to 4:00pm EST, they can add whatever extra hours they want.
“Before the pandemic, I was a hard person, not working from home, in the office, but now I’ve completely changed my tune,” she said.
Amanda Li, an employee at Willful, says she didn’t realize how much the policy change could positively impact her work-life balance until she made the change.
“It allows me to move [to Windsor, Ont.] where the cost of living is lower,” Li told CTV News Toronto. “And recently I was lucky enough to buy my own home here.”
Of politics, Bury says, “I don’t care when or where people work.”
“We just don’t watch it – as long as people are doing their thing, I don’t really care if you’re working on Sunday night or Monday morning or from Paris.”
The policy allowed Bury and Olds to move to a home in Prince Edward County, Ontario. “As a new mom, it also allows me to pop in and breastfeed in between appointments,” she said.
To date, she says there has been no problem with worker productivity.
“I think it’s such an outdated view that just because people are working from home, they’re not working hard,” she said. “It’s usually the old-school, leery employers who want to spy over your shoulder and make sure you’re actually doing your job.”
Bury says Willful has taken a different approach, holding employees accountable using a “rigorous” goal-setting framework.
Janet Candido, founder and CEO of Toronto-based human resources consulting group Candido Consulting, says many companies are opting for a hybrid model now, where employees work from home some days and attend in person on others.
“Some people have developed a comfort level working from home, some are afraid of getting sick,” Candido told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday. “Some have school-age children who can’t go for a day because they have the sniffles … or immunocompromised people at home.”
“People deal with all kinds of challenges. It’s not so cut and dry.”
But no matter what policy companies choose, Candido says successful companies tend to be the ones that provide more flexibility and listen to employee feedback.
“I always recommend that when companies want to bring employees back into the office, they consider the emotional and mental health of the employees,” she said.
Bury admits that while the telecommuting option provides a degree of flexibility, employees still crave personal connections. To combat this, she says her team meets practically several times a week and gathers for a company retreat twice a year.
“We think the personal connection matters,” she said. “It just doesn’t have to be daily or in an office—it can be a few times a year, interspersed with virtual networking opportunities.”
Li says he hopes more companies will become open to the idea of working from home.
“I think flexibility really brings a better work-life balance for people and gives them back time in the day to spend with their families or do things they love.”
Volunteer Team Members (Material provided by Bury)
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