A the last massacre of RTO orders including from large companies Amazon, Starbucksand Goldman Sachs show that the fight over remote work is not over. But some business are standing firm behind them distant policies
Pinterest for the first time he established his “PinFlex”. flexible work model In 2022, employees can choose whether they want to work in person or remotely from anywhere in the country. Doniel Sutton, CPO at Pinterest, tells us luck that all 4,500 employees worldwide can work from home, but still have access to 22 offices located in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Sutton says that when he saw the wave of CEOs By order of RTO measures a couple of years backhe simply doubled down on the company’s flexible working policy. And this latest wave does not phase him. “Amazon and others promise to send people back to the office during the week, but we’ve stayed true to our flexible working model as the core of who we are,” says Sutton. “It allowed us to open up from a talent perspective.”
Historically marginalized job seekers have been eager to join the company because of its flexible work policy, according to Sutton. About 79% of all Black, Indigenous, Latino, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander workers who joined Pinterest in the past year were from outside the Bay Area, compared to 60% of non-BILNP workers. It has also been an advantage popular among women—the company’s US female employee population has grown by 6% since PinFlex was introduced. Flexible working hours are particularly important for certain groups, e.g new parentssays Sutton, as well as the people in charge caring for elderly parents. That’s important considering that about 80% of the company’s workforce is millennials, and growing taking care of both their children and their parents.
Since the expansion of PinFlex, the number of employees of the company has increased by 22%. And the week after Amazon went down its RTO hammer in September, Pinterest says it had 90% increase in job demands. But although PinFlex has attracted a a larger and more diverse pool of candidatesSutton notes that the virtual workforce comes with its own obstacles.
“While this is a great benefit, I think it has created challenges from a management perspective,” he says. “Our staff managers are the players’ coaches, which means they have to be really effective in this virtual environment. We have a lot of new young managers, and they haven’t necessarily developed the ability to manage virtually.’ This problem is not limited to Pintrest, only 28% of managers they are really trained How to lead a hybrid workforce, according to a 2024 the report Gallup, a workplace consulting and research firm.
To combat the problem, Pinterest introduced the Manager Kickstart program in the first quarter of this year. It provides essential onboarding templates for all new supervisors, how to approach one-on-one interviews, teamwork agreement outlines, and career development guides. Manager Kickstart has skills courses on recruiting, onboarding, developing feedback mechanisms, and how to reward employees while leading flexible teams. Pinterest also conducts internal manager effectiveness studies with Worklytics, a workplace analytics software company. The company says the findings of these studies help supervisors adjust how they supervise their teams. Later next year, the business plans to roll out a multi-year leadership development strategy to train managers in leading a diverse and distributed workforce.
Sutton says the success of any flexible policy relies on a strong, interconnected workforce. And that means making sure management is capable of leading their teams in virtual settings.
“The staff you build, the teams you build, have to be very efficient,” he says. “You have to spend time understanding what good management looks like.”
Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com
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around the table
Summary of the most important HR topics.
Kraken, one of the largest crypto exchange platforms, will cut around 15% of its workforce amid corporate restructuring and the appointment of a new CEO. New York Times
The leader of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents about 391,000 workers, called on members to vote for Kamala Harris, for the good of the union. The Guardian
Technology company Dropbox will cut 20% of its global workforce, or more than 500 employees, due to slowing business growth and financial problems. NBC News
More than 500 Amazon employees signed a letter to the company’s web services chief, criticizing his remarks about the five-day RTO mandate and asking him to reconsider his position. Business Insider
Water cooler
Everything you need to know luck.
Advance notice Jack Dorsey told Tidal employees that another big release is coming upbecause he wants the music streaming platform to operate “like a startup again”. —Kali Hayes
WFH withdrawal. Companies that rank well for flexible work options having better long and short term stock pricesaccording to a new study. —Sasha Rogelberg
Brain drain A new report shows The typical UK worker feels unable to work 50 days a year due to mental health struggles, and for those under 30, this number increases to 60 days. —Orianna Rosa Royle
