Nasuni as a Hybrid Workplace

Back in September, when a Wall Street Journal article announced the unexpected return of the cubicle, the story surprised a few people. For those of us who work in Human Resources, though, this was just the latest in a string of surprising and sometimes contradictory data points. One thing we do know: The workplace is changing. According to Gartner, two-thirds of organizations are opting for a hybrid work model.

Typically, when we cover this topic at Nasuni, we write about how our technology supports remote and hybrid workers in large organizations. We have our new Nasuni Access Anywhere technology running on our laptops, so we’re able to work securely and efficiently whether we’re at home, in a coffee shop, on the road or in the office. But in this piece, I’m not going to focus on the technology side of enabling hybrid work – I’ll leave that to my colleagues. We’re running a large and growing global organization ourselves, so I thought I’d share what we’re doing internally to adapt to this new world of work.

First of all, as an organization, we’ve decided we need to be flexible. At the start of the pandemic, when everyone worked from home, we heard a range of feedback. Some of our employees were both happier and more productive. Others missed the buzz and energy of the office. A decent percentage found themselves caught in between: they enjoyed working from home but missed the unplanned interactions that sparked creativity or helped them think through a difficult problem.

So where did we end up as an organization? Today, we’re asking employees to be in the office three days a week, but we’re flexible and sensitive to the needs of different individuals and groups. Our engineers have a different work cadence from our sales team, for example. In human resources, we tend to be more present in the office, and you’ll often bump into our executive leaders in the halls on any given day.

While we have many workspaces for individuals to be productive, we have also invested in reorganizing the space to accommodate more huddle rooms for teams to connect and brainstorm. Our honeycomb-style desk layouts allow people to get work done and interact with colleagues.

We also try to create inviting spaces, so that our offices are more of a draw than your backyard shed or basement workspace. That includes food, drinks, amenities, and a few arcade games, but I’ll admit that location is a huge factor, too. Our headquarters in Boston’s Seaport District has an infectious energy. The neighborhood is vibrant and bustling, so even stepping out for coffee or lunch makes you feel like you’re a part of something exciting.  And if commuting into the city is difficult, we also have equally compelling office space in Marlborough. Many of our employees choose to work and collaborate from there, and our Boston-area employees may spend a day or two each week in each location. If one of our colleagues is traveling through Ireland or London, we have office space there as well to accommodate their needs!

And while we have these four beautiful offices to offer our employees, we also have Nasuni talent resident in other locations around the world. To make everyone feel part of the team, we’re developing programs that foster a feeling of community across the globe. Employees are sharing their passions outside of work and building fantastic groups that really tie people together across the world.  As an example, recently a group of our folks in Germany delivered supplies and care packages to Ukraine where a number of our teammates live (our hearts are with them every day!)

The truth is that operating a global organization in this new world of hybrid work takes experimentation, flexibility, and creativity. More than anything, my team is doing our best to listen to employees, whether they’re in the office full time or entirely remote. Yes, we’ve built an incredible technology platform here at Nasuni, but I’d argue that we’ve put together an even better team of people, and we’re going to do everything we can to equip them with the resources they need to be as happy and productive as possible.

Oh, and by the way, we’re hiring.