Writing in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Leading Edge President & CEO Gali Cooks and Chief Strategy Officer Amy Born explain how biting weasels explain the relationship between salaries and employee engagement. Here is an excerpt:

Every year, when Leading Edge releases our annual Employee Experience Survey, we tend to emphasize findings from the survey that most strongly contribute to employee engagement. “Employee engagement” is about feeling proud of the organization, feeling motivated to do great work, wanting to stay with the organization, and being likely to recommend the organization to others…

We can’t count how often people have asked us this question. Don’t people care about salaries? They ask because the nonprofit sector has an unfortunate—and unfortunately accurate—reputation for offering lower salaries than other fields. And salary is intuitively and materially important to people. It affects where we can live, what we can own, how we can educate our children, what we can consume, how much we can give and share with others, and much more. For those in the nonprofit sector, it is also often the clearest way we can understand and measure our value to the organization. Our own survey data shows that salary is, in fact, correlated with employee engagement. So people ask us why we don’t emphasize it more prominently. Don’t salaries matter?

Our answer is: Yes! They are not an “engagement driver,” per se, because other organizational factors do a lot more than salary does to drive employee engagement. Salaries matter, but they are not the most important thing that does.

To understand why, let’s talk about weasels.

Imagine a workplace where everyone comes into the office. (This story is set in 2019.) It's a totally normal office, except that for some mysterious reason, the company has always kept a group of weasels as office pets. The weasels have a special area in the back with their food and nesting materials and they are also free to wander about the office.

It isn't cute. The weasels bite. Unprovoked. Every day! They approach silently and employees have no warning. You're at your desk, lost in your inbox, when suddenly there's a piercing pain in your ankle and one of the weasels is running away before you knew it was there.

Everyone complains about the weasels. Even the senior team acknowledges that ideally the weasels wouldn't be there. But they've always been there, and no one has time to think of a good plan to get rid of them. Some employees can't take it, and they leave. Turnover is high.

One day, at long last, the senior team locates a shelter for weasels and moves them all out. For the first time, the office is weasel-free. The senior team expects big engagement dividends from this. They have been hearing employees ask to ditch the weasels for years. And on the first day Post-Weasel, the staff is ecstatic. “This is so nice!” everyone says to each other. “Best. Day. Ever.” someone posts (in GIF form) on the company Slack. They celebrate by throwing stuffed weasels at each other and laughing with relief. On Day 2, the atmosphere is still festive. The next week is calmer, but people still seem to have an extra spring in their step and an extra heart emoji in their DMs.

By the third week, however, the euphoria is gone. People's moods have sunk back down toward the old status quo. True, there are no more shrieks of “Youch!” every hour or so. People aren’t so resentful or nervous anymore. But they don’t seem more motivated about their work, either. The senior team is perplexed. What went wrong?

A better question than “What went wrong” is: “What didn’t go right?”

The reason that removing the weasels from our fictional office didn’t send engagement through the roof—and why higher salaries and better salary transparency won’t, either—can be explained by psychologist Frederick Herzberg’s “motivation-hygiene theory.” Herzberg divided workplace experiences into two groups:

“Hygiene factors” can’t make you happy, but they can make you miserable. Think of your knees. When your knees are in good health, you don’t walk around thinking, “Wow, my knees are feeling phenomenal today! That makes me so happy!” In fact, when your knees have no problems, you don’t even notice them. But go sprain your knee, and, well … in the worst way, you notice! (As we write this, one of us is on crutches from a minor knee injury, so trust us on this.)

The other group is “motivational factors.” These won’t, in their absence, make you miserable, although the lack of them might leave you feeling sort of blah. But when they’re there, they can light you up, in the best way. When these factors are in place in your job, you become highly engaged: you go above and beyond to do your best work and are eager to recommend your organization to others as a great place to work. The bottom line isn’t just that you do your job, it’s that you do your job well, add value to the organization, and find meaning and fulfillment in your everyday working life.

Salaries—along with healthy knees and a lack of biting weasels—are hygiene factors…

Writing in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Leading Edge President & CEO Gali Cooks and Chief Strategy Officer Amy Born explain how biting weasels explain the relationship between salaries and employee engagement.

In Stanford Social Innovation Review, Leading Edge President & CEO Gali Cooks and Chief Strategy Officer Amy Born explain how biting weasels explain the relationship between salaries and employee engagement.

Don’t Salaries Matter? Of work, weasels, and employee engagement in the nonprofit sector

Don’t Salaries Matter? Of Work, Weasels, and Employee Engagement in the Nonprofit Sector

Practical guides and strategies for recruiting, hiring, developing, and retaining top talent.

Talent Management

Article

Writing in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Leading Edge COO Mordy Walfish discusses what it means to have a truly human hiring process.

“It’s hard to admit this, but in the early days of Leading Edge (the nonprofit where I’m COO), our hiring processes were weak. We didn’t really know what we were looking for, and we didn’t have systems that helped us reach clarity. We would put vague job descriptions out into the world and ultimately not hire for the role because we never quite found someone who fit the bill. That was a failure of our systems rather than a reflection of the candidates we reviewed or the state of talent in our sector.”

Mordy explains that two years ago, with the help of Kristen Dore and the team at Voyager Consulting, we completely redesigned recruitment and hiring at Leading Edge.

“Our goals? We wanted to hire the best candidates from a diverse pool, and we wanted candidates to experience our values as they interacted with us. We envisioned a human process that treated applicants as equals, giving them the chance to evaluate a potential mutual fit between the role and themselves. Throwing one’s hat in the ring can take a lot of courage, especially when the work is so entangled with our identities and sense of purpose. For those who did not get a job with us, we hoped to leave them intrigued about working in the nonprofit world. We wanted people to feel better, not worse, about themselves after pursuing a job at Leading Edge.”

The results, Mordy explains, “have been outstanding." And it's not only we who think so; we've received positive feedback from outside leaders and organizations who have seen our job postings, as well as from people who have applied for jobs but were not hired.

Here, drawn from Mordy's article, are six important things we do differently now at Leading Edge:

Highlight skills, not credentials. We work hard to first understand and then communicate in the job posting, what it will take to succeed in the job that is open. That means defining with crystal clarity what the person will do, who they’ll work with, and what skills and traits they’ll need. We avoid asking for credentials like specific academic degrees or years of experience, because those aren’t the things we actually need, and requiring them might lead us to overlook amazing candidates or discourage some from applying. When we know the skills and traits we need, we put them into a rubric and evaluate candidates based on that rubric—not on random feelings or reactions we may have. That keeps us away from phrases like “not a cultural fit,” or “my gut tells me…,” which are ways of staying trapped in bias and vagueness.

Create job postings with all the information. Among the other basic details (full-time/part-time, location, skills, etc.), we always specify the salary range in our job postings, which goes a long way toward equity and to ensuring that no one’s time is wasted. We give people much more than the minimum information. We create an extensive FAQs document for every role, and link to it from the job posting. This keeps all applicants informed, democratizes access to information, and mitigates advantages for people who know the organization. Here’s one recent example of an FAQ. It shares information such as day-to-day role activities, what success looks like after one year, a little about the role’s supervisor, and even what might be challenging in the role…

Cast a wide net. To get the most quality and diversity into consideration, we post our opportunities in many places — from LinkedIn, Idealist.org, and the major job aggregators to outlets like CareerHub and the Hire Black Initiative. For each recruitment, we mobilize all staff to spread the word to their networks. At the same time, we don’t want to create an unfair advantage for people we know. So, if someone reaches out to a staff member to chat about a role or ask us to “put in a good word,” we say no. (We do allow staff and other stakeholders to share thoughts about candidates in the final stage.) Even if a staff member knows of a great candidate at the start, we still post the job and consider that person among other candidates. This can both alleviate bias and ensure we find the genuinely best fit for the role.

Bye, bye to cover letters. Many organizations require cover letters and judge applicants based on how well they write them — even if writing letters has nothing to do with the job. Instead of cover letters, we have each candidate submit a video introduction, which lets them show other forms of intelligence and personality and gives us a more multi-dimensional picture of applicants.

Avoid groupthink. We create a hiring committee that represents different perspectives within the organization, in terms of organizational operations and demographics. These team members review each candidate separately — evaluating them on a rubric without knowing what other team members think. Only after each person evaluates candidates separately, do we talk about them together.

Structured interviews. To minimize bias and allow for the best apples-to-apples comparisons of candidates, we keep interview questions consistent for all candidates and evaluate their answers based on our prepared rubrics. Research has shown that structured interviews with evaluation on predetermined criteria are much better predictors of future performance than improvised conversations. Keeping all interviews close together in time (within one or two days) also reduces recency bias.

Writing in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Leading Edge COO Mordy Walfish discusses what it means to have a truly human hiring process, and shares six steps Leading Edge has taken recently to improve.

Humanize Your Hiring Process — Here’s Why and How | Mordy Walfish, Leading Edge

Humanize Your Hiring Process — Here’s Why and How

Many Jewish organizations have been contending with the implications of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade for their staff and those that they serve. Because the ruling leads to abortion bans or significant restrictions in many states, many organizations are considering new policies that ensure that their employees have ongoing access to the full range of reproductive care.

Leading Edge believes that great places to work are ones where the policies match the values of the organization.This resource aims to provide Jewish organizations with guidance to develop and implement benefits that support employee reproductive health, regardless of where in the United States they live.

As leaders across the Jewish nonprofit sector begin developing policies, we have crafted a set of considerations for organizations, especially those that operate or have employees who reside in states where abortion is or likely soon will be prohibited.

Note: Leading Edge does not provide legal advice or counsel. We strongly recommend that you consult with an attorney prior to offering any new benefits to your employees. The law in this area is rapidly evolving.

This list of considerations was created and released on July 1, 2022. As we learn new information, we will update the page. Please help keep this page up to date by sending any information or resources not present below to programs@leadingedge.org.  

Organizational policies should always reflect organizational values. For example, many Jewish organizations are grounded in values of compassion (rachamim) and justice (tzedek). These and other values may compel organizations to ensure that their employees have access to the healthcare they need, including reproductive healthcare. 

Step 2: Set clear intentions and communicate them 

Discuss a shared vision for providing these benefits, the organization’s core values, and budget. 

Determine your plan for engaging key stakeholders (i.e., board members) on your process and policy. 

Communicate organizational values and intentions to employees. Statements and/or policies may take time to thoughtfully develop and finalize, but it can be useful to let your employees know right away that this issue is under consideration for policy development. 

Step 3: Determine your starting point and know your operating landscape 

Assess your current benefits offerings: What do they cover and what will now shift based on the states in which your organization operates? 

Do you want to include spouses and dependents in any updated policies?


Step 4: Connect with your insurance and legal counsel 

Every organization will have a distinct and nuanced context, depending on where you operate and what kind of work you do.  

Bring in your legal counsel ((i.e. employment and/or benefits lawyers), HR team, and, where relevant (especially in smaller organizations), your PEO to weigh your options and provide counsel on your policy. This is especially important as legal considerations are a moving target and change state-by-state. 

Some specific questions to consider with your legal counsel:

What are the legal options available in terms of providing access to reproductive care to staff? 
(Depending on the size of your organization, how your health care benefits are currently structured, and the state(s) in which you operate will impact your options.)

What types of civil or criminal liability is the organization opened up to might the organization face and how might this liability be mitigated? 

What are the tax and other legal implications of the different options?

If an organization operates in multiple states, is an overarching policy permissible by law?

What kind of documentation is needed to cover staff expenses? How will it be possible to maintain confidentiality while providing access to coverage? How might HIPAA operate here? 

Step 5: Explore a range of policies for reproductive access including: 

Reproductive Health Care Coverage: Elective v. Non-Elective Abortion Coverage

Coverage for out-of-state travel to obtain an abortion or abortion-related services

Paid time off for employees who get abortions (in addition to other forms of paid sick leave)

Emergency access fund: a pool of funds available to employees who must travel out of state to receive an abortion.

Remote work policy and/or relocation benefits: if the role allows for it, enabling staff to choose where they live and work.

For details and important considerations on all these types of policies, see Pro Repro: A Playbook for Business to Protect Reproductive Health

Step 6: Emphasize confidentiality and privacy for staff 

Like other benefits (e.g., mental health), organizations should take great care to consider confidentiality for staff.  

How will documentation be stored and tracked? 

Is it possible or permissible to consider a third party to disburse benefits? If not, how are HR staff members being trained around best practices to ensure the utmost confidentiality for employees? 

Step 7: Root your policy in equity and inclusivity 

Reflect on who the benefit will be available to.  Are all staff members eligible regardless of contract or salaried status, tenure, etc.? Consider coverage for employees who did not enroll in your organization’s insurance: What, if anything, will be available to them? 

Are employees required to pay out-of-pocket for expenses, or might you consider an upfront stipend so coverage will not be cost-prohibitive? 

Consider the inclusivity of language you use in your policy. (For example, framing the benefit as applying to “women” would signal exclusion of trans people, whereas language like “pregnant employee” is more inclusive.) 

Step 8: Beyond the reproductive care policy 

This moment allows for an opportunity to assess other investments and resources in terms of how they align with your organization’s values. You may want to also consider the following questions:

Where do we host in-person gatherings for our organization?

How flexible can we be to allow for remote work and/or relocation to states that provide abortion access? 

Where do we invest funds as an organization (i.e., to vendors and providers, etc), and how does it align with our organization’s values? 

What other health care benefits and paid leave do we provide? Is it time to update those policies to provide things like enhanced mental health benefits, IVF, paid parental leave, etc.?

We anticipate this list will grow in the coming weeks and will make updates as we receive new resources. We are grateful to organizations from whom we have learned and benefited from their expertise. 

NCJW Abortion and Jewish Values Toolkit 

Pro Repro: A Playbook for Business to Protect Reproductive Health 

Society for Human Resources Management: Navigating Roe v. Wade in the Workplace 

Resource Sharing: Do you have a resource or template you want to share with our community?  Please email us at surveys@leadingedge.org and we’ll add it to a shared drive we will circulate. 

Discuss with our Slack Community: We have a growing community of people practitioners who connect over Slack as part of our “P2C”, the People Pro Collective. If you are a talent or operations professional and interested in joining, please submit your request here. 

Providing Jewish organizations with guidance to develop and implement benefits that support employee reproductive health, regardless of where in the United States they live.

Crafting Your Jewish Organization’s Reproductive Care Policy

In July 2020, as some organizations first considered reopening workspaces that had closed due to COVID-19, Leading Edge released Reopening Our Workspaces: A Playbook. Its focus was on the human side of reopening: how can organizations ensure that people are supported (and feel supported), and that team culture moves forward instead of backwards during a return to the workplace?

As of this writing (June 2021), public health and regulatory conditions are leading to a much wider variety of organizations considering reopening. As these discussions unfold, it is clear that for many organizations, the status quo pre-pandemic is not the goal. Rather, we have heard leaders and talent professionals say that they are trying to answer the question: What model of a workplace should our organization create?

We recognize that some organizations do need to answer this question. Staff at JCCs, Camps, Day schools, and other service providers, need to work in-person to perform their jobs, and therefore these organizations have fewer options. Other organizations that worked remotely even before the start of the pandemic have no plans to shift away from that. 

This article is geared toward organizations that were asking employees to come into a workplace most or all working days, but then shifted to remote work when the pandemic began. Without supplanting Reopening Our Workspaces, which covers many other aspects of reopening, this article addresses more deeply the issues and models at play around what a workplace can be.

As you decide whether to ask your people to return to your workplace, to continue working remotely, or to move to a hybrid model, here are some questions to help frame your decision-making process. 

In creating workspace policies, should you set one policy for all employees (everyone has the same expectations/requirements/options available to them)? 

Or, do you set different policies for different roles/teams/departments (employees have different work location requirements based on predetermined factors)? 

If implementing different policies, how will you ensure fairness and equity?

What has been gained from shifting to remote work? What are the benefits?

What has been lost from a lack of in-person work? What are the drawbacks?

Does what you have gained outweigh or offset what you might have lost?

Has the shift to remote work had a noticeable impact on outcomes or on quality of work?

Can the organization continue to fulfill its mission with everyone working remotely?

Has there been a decrease in innovation or creativity? 

How has the organizational culture been impacted by the shift to remote work?

What would help build a stronger organizational culture moving forward? 

Are people feeling overwhelmed or burned out? 

If so, what type of work model will best address this?

Are people able to connect and communicate sufficiently while working remotely?

Does your workplace meet new safety standards? 

Do people feel safe about the idea of being back in the workplace?

Do people feel safe commuting to and from the workplace?

If you were to ask all employees to come in, even for one day, how would your staff react?

Is your space shared with other companies/organizations?

If so, will employees feel safe sharing common spaces, lobbies, elevators, etc. with others? 

Are there employees who may need special accommodations or conditions in order to feel safe?

Do you (or did you) rent, lease, or own an office space? 

Do you need a space for in-person meetings with external stakeholders?

Is there a flexible space to use when needed to hold in-person meetings (e.g. hourly space rental, office of another organization, etc.)? 

Which model—in-person, hybrid, or remote—best suits the various types of work requirements? 

Are there organizational processes, programs, or activities that need to happen in-person?

What type of work do most of your employees do on a daily basis? 

Does the work require consistent collaboration, or is it mostly individual work?

Do certain roles, functions, or departments require more face-to-face interaction than others?

Do certain roles, functions, or departments require more collaboration than others?

Is there a desire to return to in-person work or to remain remote? (One way to gather feedback from your team about this is through a Pulse Survey). 

Will returning to the workplace help establish boundaries and routines that your people want?

What do the leaders prefer and what do the rest of the employees prefer? 

How can you balance the needs of all your stakeholders (leadership, funders, staff)?

How many employees have caregiving duties and/or needs?

What is the impact of caregiving responsibilities on potential commutes to the workplace?

Are employees able to connect to the internet as needed at home? 

Are they able to set up an appropriate space to work at home?

What are the financial implications of returning to a workplace?  

What are the financial implications of remaining remote or moving to a hybrid work model?

What supplies/equipment (technology, chairs, desks, etc.) are needed to accommodate employees who return to the workplace? 

What supplies/equipment are needed to accommodate employees working remotely?

Think by department. If some departments require more in-person collaboration in order to accomplish their work effectively, consider asking only employees in those departments to return to the office a few days a week. Other employees who can complete their work individually without in-person meetings can continue to work remotely if they prefer.

Consider time zones. If several team members live in different time zones, asking them to come to the workplace may not be reasonable or fair. In these situations, think about setting a few time slots each week where Zooms or video conferences can happen. 

Fairness and perception. One issue with organizations that have both in-person and remote employees is that one group may feel like “second-class citizens” based on their location status. This can cut in either or both directions. Fully in-person workers may resent that remote workers are able to work from anywhere. Remote workers may be perceived—or may fear being perceived—as working less hard or as being less dedicated. Rightly or wrongly, remote employees may also worry about unconscious biases in which leaders and managers prefer in-person workers for promotions or raises. Logistical moves such as ensuring that remote employees come into the workplace one day a week (or one week per quarter) can help mitigate these dynamics. But fair and transparent policies, communicated well, are the most important factor in preventing and mitigating harmful dynamics. Staff will be less likely to feel undervalued or mistreated if they understand the rules or circumstances driving the differences between who works remotely and who works in person.

Potential culture divide. Except on very small teams, team cultures are plural to some extent; individual departments/teams will inevitably develop subcultures. Adopting a hybrid work model may introduce another element of plurality into the workplace culture: remote culture vs. in-person culture. This split may affect not only different employees’ interpersonal dynamics, but also the dynamics between the same employees interacting digitally vs. face-to-face, as people often behave differently in a group chat or in emails than they do in person. This need not be seen as necessarily negative. Some extent of cultural division is inevitable in a hybrid workplace, but leaders and managers who are aware of this tendency can guide both types of team culture in supportive directions, while recognizing that they are bound to differ.

Equity issues. Not everyone has a home situation conducive to remote work. Those with roommates and/or those who lack an adequate workspace at home may be at a disadvantage and may not be able to be as productive or engaged while working remotely. At the same time, those with health issues or various pre-existing conditions may be anxious about COVID-19 even after they and all (or most) of their coworkers are vaccinated, and may not be comfortable being in the workplace. To address this concern, consider having one-on-one conversation with team members that might require certain accommodations. Consider providing stipends for employees to work remotely from a co-working space or funding for employees to set up a more comfortable workspace in their homes (if you haven’t done this already).

Ask your team. If you feel that you don’t have a good sense of what your staff is thinking or feeling about possibly coming back to the workplace—or even if you do have a good sense but want to check in a structured way— consider using a Pulse Survey to gather feedback.

Reboarding. If you do plan to bring all or some of your staff back to the workplace, either full-time or part-time, consider whether a reboarding process might be worthwhile. Use the return to the office as a chance to reinforce organizational philosophies, values, or norms, or as an opportunity to reset the organizational culture and start off strong. 

Communicate, communicate, communicate. During your decision-making process as well as after it, maintaining clear, sensitive, and ongoing two-way communication with employees is vital. Communicate what you know, what you don't yet know, and when you expect to know what you don't know. Sometimes it helps to plainly state what's unknown because your staff are likely wondering about it. For ten principles of excellent communications around reopening, see pages 21–22 of Reopening Our Workspaces: A Playbook.

Be clear about timeframes. What CEOs and leaders determine is best for now does not have to be a permanent decision. Employees want answers and certainty around where they can live and what will be expected of them. And yet, a decision made now does not need to be the way things will be for the long-term. Some organizations may choose to return to the workplace in phases, or may shift from one model to another over time to see which one works best. Best to be clear about these timeframes and when you will review these decisions. 

Vaccines. There are a variety of legal and medical issues complicating what organizations can and cannot do around vaccines. We encourage you to check with a legal professional before taking action. More information on vaccines can be found in the "Additional Resources" section below. 

When determining how your organization will move forward regarding remote work versus in-person work, it is not necessarily an either/or decision; there are a variety of approaches that fit somewhere in between a fully remote organization and the traditional in-person 9-to-5 model. All options are not right for every organization, depending on the answers to the questions above as well as an organization’s size, type, and needs. However, they may provide an appropriate or sufficient compromise. We have summarized some of these options below.

Regional hubs. If employees are more spread out across the country than they were pre-pandemic, consider having multiple in-person workplaces in different locations. This allows staff the freedom to continue living in the same place while also providing them with a space to connect with coworkers who are nearby or to work somewhere other than their home. 

Satellite offices. Similar to having regional hubs, you might consider having one main office for some (or most) of your staff, with an additional satellite office (or multiple satellite offices) in other locations. Organizations might use the main office for weekly or monthly all-staff meetings, but employees can commute to a more convenient satellite office on other work days.

4-and-1. If you believe in the importance of having everybody together in the workplace but want to provide some flexibility, consider a 4-and-1 model in which employees come into the office Monday–Thursday and are encouraged to work from home or remotely on Friday. The CEO of Netflix, who said in a September 2020 interview that not being able to connect in-person has been a “pure negative” for the company, anticipates that many companies will shift to a four-day-office and one-day-remote schedule eventually. An analogous 3-and-2 variation (3 days in the office and 2 remote) could also fit some organizations’ needs.

One week every quarter. If your people prefer remote work, and you do not want to rush into asking employees to return to the workplace regularly, it may still be worth having everyone meet face-to-face at some point. Consider having a week out of every quarter where all employees are asked to come into the workplace. This can help to maintain strong relationships among your staff and provide crucial time to brainstorm new ideas or discuss important strategies for upcoming projects or programs. These weeks should be set in advance so that employees who live elsewhere can plan travel or caregiving needs. 

One day together every week. Similar to the option described above, this model allows employees the flexibility to work remotely four out of the five days of the week. On one day, all employees will be asked to come into the office for meetings, discussion, updates, etc. For some organizations, this solution can offer the best of both worlds in terms of providing employees with the freedom to set their own schedules the majority of the time while also having some in-person time each week. 

50-50. In this model, half of the staff is expected to come into the office on certain days and work remotely the other days. The other half of the staff is generally on the opposite schedule, meaning that they work at the office when the other half is remote. For example, you might have half of your departments come to the office on Monday and Wednesday, and the other half come in on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday could be an everyone-works-remotely day or a flex day where employees can choose to come to the workplace if they would like. These options often work well for organizations that want to save a bit of money on office real estate, or those that are simply unable to supply enough space for everyone. It could be a useful solution if people feel safer being able to maintain a degree of physical distance when together in person. 

Hoteling. Already a growing trend in office management even before the pandemic, hoteling is a system of shared office space that eliminates assigned seats or assigned desks. Typically, employees reserve a seat or a desk online on a daily or weekly basis, with availability changing depending on which employees are traveling or working remotely at that time. The advantage of hoteling is that it allows the company or organization to cut costs by not needing to have an assigned space for every employee. The downside is that employees cannot create their own personalized workspace with their items, photos, etc. because they likely will be working in a different room each day or each week. 

Semi-flexible. If employees want to be at the workplace only some of the time, and you want to provide flexibility for them to determine what works best for them, consider requiring employees to spend at least two or at least three days per week in the office, but without deciding which days. That way, people whose schedules change from week-to-week can plan as they go and still be trusted to get their work done. Google announced they will be testing a new policy where employees will be required to spend at least three days in the office for “collaboration days”, but can work remotely the other two days, if they prefer. Microsoft has a similar new policy allowing employees to work remotely up to half of their required hours. 

Completely flexible. Many companies and organizations are shifting to a model in which they will still maintain a centralized workplace, but employees have the freedom to choose when, how often, and for how long they are at the office. Some companies, such as Ford, have instituted systems that require employees to have conversations with their managers to set a schedule for how much time they need to spend in the office. 

Reopening Our Workspaces: A Playbook. Leading Edge

The Hybrid & Remote Work Playbook. LifeLabs Learning

“Dealbook: How to Navigate the Postpandemic Office.” The New York Times

The Nonprofit Return to the Workplace Advisory. NYLPI

“When Employers Can Require COVID-19 Vaccinations.” Allen Smith, SHRM 

“Can I Ask My Employees If They Have Been Vaccinated?” SmithAmundsen

“Explaining HIPAA: No, it doesn’t ban questions about your vaccination status.” Allyson Chiu, The Washington Post 

“Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People.“ CDC Vaccination Guidance

“Work From Home Has the Power to Advance Equality—or Set It Back.” Rebecca Greenfield, Bloomberg News

“Hybrid Work Is the New Remote Work.” Christoph Hilberath, Julie Kilmann, Deborah Lovich, Thalia Tzanetti, Allison Bailey, Stefanie Beck, Elizabeth Kaufman, Bharat Khandelwal, Felix Schuler, and Kristi Woolsey, Boston Consulting Group

“28 Surprising Working From Home Statistics.” Maddie Shepherd, Fundera

“WFH Doesn’t Have to Dilute Your Corporate Culture.” Pamela Hinds and Brian Elliott, Harvard Business Review

“What Is Your Organization’s Long-Term Remote Work Strategy?” Erin E. Makarius, Barbara Z. Larson, and Susan R. Vroman,  Harvard Business Review

As vaccination rates rise and restrictions abate, leaders face new decisions and challenges about where and how we work together.

Office, remote, or hybrid? One policy for all, or different policies per department? Leaders face new decisions and challenges about where and how we work together.

Office, Hybrid, and More: Models for the New Workplace

We have gathered the following resources with those needs in mind.

This document outlines some basic tips for maximizing remote work and maintaining well-being while working from home. While many of us who have been working remotely for almost a year have figured out how to be productive, some reminders might be helpful. 

SHRM: How to Engage Remote Employees During the Coronavirus Pandemic

A second list of quick tips for remote work from the Society for Human Resource Management. If you’re looking for ways to keep your people motivated and engaged while they’re working remotely, this list provides some basic ideas. 

These inspirations offer ways for leaders, HR professionals, or “people people” to support their employees while they continue to work remotely. The list may spark some ideas of ways to take action at your organization. 

This guide may help you plan and implement better virtual meetings and includes information on how to plan a meeting agenda, check-in at the start of meetings, and finish strong so employees know who is responsible for what pieces of a project. The guide includes some templates for inspiration, too. 

SHRM: Measuring Employee Engagement During a Crisis

If you’re thinking about how to get a better sense of how your people are doing, this article reviews options for understanding how employees are handling the changing work environment, including surveys, focus groups, internal social media platforms, and interviews. It also shares some important advice for avoiding common pitfalls.

Harvard Business Review: How to do Performance Reviews — Remotely

This resource is particularly useful in listing Do’s and Don'ts of performance evaluations during the pandemic and includes case studies with examples of how managers handle different situations with employees. 

SHRM: Amending Your Performance Review Template for the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article provides performance review templates for employees with a variety of responsibilities and competencies, including ideas to measure adaptability and flexibility, creativity and innovation, and change management. It also offers suggestions for raising expectations in ways that promote employee growth.

The Management Center: Onboarding during COVID-19

This resource provides examples of how to prepare for new hires before they start at the organization, as well as tips for helping them feel part of the group once they start. It also provides ideas for setting up a good manager-staff relationship and for setting up the new hire for success, including goal-setting and ongoing feedback. There’s also a checklist available to download.

LifeLabs Learning: The Ultimate Remote Work Guide

In this guide, LifeLabs Learning outlines some of the common mistakes of remote work, like miscommunication, procrastination or distractions, overwork and burnout, invisibility and under-communication, and loneliness.

Leading Edge: Reopening Our Workspaces Playbook

This playbook can serve as a guide for organizations considering returning to the workplace. It includes information to help you decide when to open and tips for communicating these decisions with staff. It includes questions to consider when deciding to reopen, components of a healthy organizational culture, and checklists of important steps to take before, during, and after reopening your workspace.

Harvard Business Review: 5 Ways to Bring Women Back Into the Post-Pandemic Workforce

In this article, HBR offers suggestions to offer women support if they have experienced furloughs or job loss during the pandemic. Some ideas include offering a 12+ month leave of absence for women with caregiving responsibilities, scaling return-to-work programs, or training women in new skills to help with reentry into the workforce.

Harvard Business Review: What to Do If Your Team Doesn’t Want to Go Back to the Office

This resource offers ideas and tips for balancing the needs of both senior leaders and employees. These tips include having conversations with leaders to determine what their main concerns are, and if those concerns are about all employees or a few employees working from home. Other suggestions include allowing employees to choose where they work, new habits to help normalize remote work, and matching the communication rhythm of senior leaders to keep them at ease even if staff choose to continue working from home.

LifeLabs Learning: 5 Ways to make return to work brain-friendly

This is a quick, easy-to-read sheet with fast and easy tips that can make returning to the workplace feel safer for staff. It offers some how-to’s which are useful as they are, or they could be used for inspiration to create your own reopening plan.

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Leading Edge is happy to help organizations think about their reopening strategies regarding organizational culture. However, we are not health experts, so we advise you to review federal, state, and local guidelines for information about vaccines and reopening your workspace safely. 

Center for Disease Control (CDC) on COVID-19

SHRM: Does a Strong Workplace Culture Require In-Person Work?

In this interview, Natalie Baumgartner of Achievers talks about ways to create connections with employees even if they’re working remotely. The top priorities include ongoing feedback, recognition, empathetic leadership, and a sense of belonging at an organization.

Harvard Business Review: 9 Trends that Will Shape Work in 2021 and Beyond

As remote and hybrid work arrangements continue, organizations still need guidance on how to manage workers remotely and encourage employee engagement.

As the pandemic and remote work arrangements continue into 2021, organizations still need guidance on how to encourage employee engagement, manage workers remotely, and look toward the future of work after the pandemic.