In January of this year, Railinc welcomed our North Carolina employees back to the office two days a week. We strived to maintain a healthy work-life balance for our employees in the transition, and so far, we have seen great success.
Prior to this new working model, some of our employees hadn’t even met their team members in person. We recently checked in with our employees around the company to see how they felt the hybrid work model was working for them.
Employees Love the Flexibility
Lee G., who was promoted and moved teams last year, noted that transitioning from remote to in-person has been helpful for his growth. “It’s been great to have the opportunity to learn from my team members in person rather than 100 percent online,” he said. “Now that everybody is coming in, it’s been nice to meet and get to know new people in the office, especially those who I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to since I don’t work with them on a daily basis.”
“Since we follow a two-day in-office/three-day remote schedule, I get the best of both worlds,” Bharathraj R., Senior Quality Assurance Engineer, said. “It’s easier to walk to my coworkers and get things clarified or fixed when coming in on our office days. Plus, I get to save gas and commute time during my home days. All in all, this new model has been a more efficient use of time.”
Kuhu K., Product Support Specialist, was enthusiastic about the new working model. “The hybrid model gives me the opportunity to focus on my work along with maintaining a great work-life balance,” she said. “The days I am in the office, I focus on training and meetings with various teams which help with better collaboration and work relationships. On the other days, I focus on all my asynchronous tasks to help me stay organized and accomplish my tasks and goals in a timely manner. I’m also able to concentrate on my continuous learning to help me grow. With the hybrid model, I’ve seen an increase in productivity which is immensely satisfying!”
We also caught up with some of our company’s leaders who spoke highly of the hybrid model and how they’ve been able to see the benefits of it through their team members’ relationships with each other.
“As a leader, it has been beneficial to have my team in the office to learn from each other and work together,” Matt W., Manager of Solutions Engineering. “We use our time wisely for our in-office days to schedule meetings and knock out important details so our home days can be spent focusing on what we covered in the office. The hybrid model has been invaluable for our team – both from a learning standpoint and a cross-team collaboration standpoint.”
Mike L., Senior Manager of Cloud Engineering, said the flexibility of the schedule is one of the best parts of the new hybrid model. “It’s great to be there for my family on my remote days and meet new people for the first time on office days. I also think it helps us retain our talent – having my team together two days a week helps them form better working relationships. Being an Agile organization also gives us that extra element of collaboration so the whole team stays in sync even when working remotely.”
Railinc’s Hybrid Model in Review
What makes our hybrid model work? Our office days are back-to-back to allow more flexibility for our employees the rest of the week. We still offer hybrid and fully remote wellness activities like step challenges so employees can get involved while working from home. We even send out a weekly newsletter so they’re never out of the loop on what’s happening around the company.
Since beginning the new hybrid model, team members have enjoyed lunches together, breakfast events, new wellness activities and in-person learning. We’re thrilled to see such great results and look forward to how our team members evolve this year with new opportunities for learning and collaboration.
– Railinc Corporate Communications