On the 24th floor of a downtown Seattle skyscraper, Remitly is feeling out the so-called future of work. And they’re using a lot of couches to get there.
“People had gotten really used to working at home,” said Heather Rogers, Remitly’s manager of workplace experience and facilities. “And there are a lot of things about that that people liked, and one of them is their couch, and the ability to move throughout the day from a couch to a counter to a desk.”
During a tour of the company’s office this week, GeekWire got a look at how the financial services company imagines people will sit, stand, gather and communicate at work.
Tech companies of all sizes are rethinking office layouts for a new era of work that balances the perks of working from home with the desire to foster collaboration and culture.
Remitly first moved into its corporate office space at 1111 Third Ave. in 2017. Before the pandemic hit, it had two floors that resembled most tech workplaces: individual desks, a collection of conference rooms, and a big communal kitchen area.
The company, which went public in 2021, still keeps its original office layout on those floors. But it decided to take over more than 10,000 square feet on the 24th floor to better understand how in-person collaboration looks and feels in a bid to help people and teams once again work together and across the company.
“We wanted to experiment with this space and just try something completely different,” said Rene Yoakum, Remitly’s chief customer and people officer. “We designed it to really be much more about collaboration and team space. No one has their permanent desks there. It’s all about like bringing teams together.”
A survey last year found that 61% of workplace leaders said they have added or reconfigured their space to enable hybrid and fully in-office teams. The report, from workplace management company Envoy, noted that adding more collaboration and social spaces were the most common changes.
Another survey, from real estate company JLL, found 73% of respondents have planned or are planning to make all office space open and collaborative, with no dedicated desk spaces.
In addition to the couches, Remitly’s new floor features high-backed rolling chairs with laptop stands, stand-up tables, a reimagined “welcome and engagement” area and reception desk to greet visitors and job candidates, a bank of lockers for workers from other offices, a dozen conference rooms, extensive audio-visual connectivity for virtual meetings, and phone booths for private calls.
With sweeping views of Elliott Bay, the office takes advantage of one aspect of working in a skyscraper that used to make companies and workers want to be in downtown Seattle. But pretty views aren’t enough on their own anymore as the city’s urban core has struggled to get workers to come back from the comforts of home.
Fewer than half of downtown Seattle workers have returned to the office, one of the slowest rates of return in the U.S. Meanwhile, office vacancies rose to 14% in downtown Seattle last year, nearing a highpoint not seen since the financial crisis of 2009.
Remitly is committed to its home city and it’s banking on people’s desire to be together, at least some of the time.
Across open spaces and dedicated meeting rooms, Rogers said she focused on creating lots of different options for people to sit and work and options that are for both groups and individuals.
Design touches also play off of Remitly’s mission, with images of beautiful places and faces from around the world intended to infuse those cultures into the workspace.
Founded in 2011, Remitly’s mobile technology lets people send and receive money across borders, including immigrants in the U.S. and U.K. who support families back home in countries such as the Philippines, India, El Salvador, and others. The service eliminates forms, codes, and agents typically associated with the international money transfer process. Remitly reported revenue of $191 million last year, up 41% year-over-year.
Despite the effort to create the new headquarters space, Remitly, which employs more than 2,500 people worldwide and more than 450 in Seattle, has not instituted a hard-and-fast return-to-office policy for corporate workers. Some can still choose to be fully distributed, but must visit an office four times a year. Office-based workers are being asked to come in one day a week, and most are coming in two or three days a week.
Yoakum stressed that in-person does matter at Remitly.
“It matters to our culture,” she said. “It matters to being able to deliver against our vision and stay committed to our customers and I also think there are certain kinds of problem solving that are just better in person. The nuances of communication really do matter.”
But she didn’t agree with the mandate issued by Amazon earlier this year when it told corporate and tech workers they’ll be wanted back in the office at least three days a week.
“People expect to be treated like adults,” she said. “We believe in flexibility and the benefits of flexibility that we’ve all learned to adapt to.”
Worker safety also matters and has impacted the return to downtown for some companies and employees.
Remitly is located on Third Avenue near a stretch of downtown that has had its share of issues over the last few years with increased crime and open drug use. Yoakum said employees are concerned at times, especially during the shorter winter days, and that’s affected some commuting by transit.
“I feel like it’s better,” Yoakum said. “I’m certainly happy with the new city administration and the direction that things are going and I feel like there’s more energy coming into the city. It’s just taking longer than any of us hoped.”
With about 55% of its U.S. employees distributed, Remitly may never see a full office again, even with the steps it’s taking to improve the in-person model.
But the company is hitting on some points highlighted in a Microsoft survey last fall on what’s not working with hybrid work.
The survey found that connecting with colleagues is a key motivation for working in person — 84% of employees would be motivated to come in by the promise of socializing with co-workers, while 85% would be motivated by rebuilding team bonds. Employees also reported that they would go to the office more frequently if they knew their direct team members would be there (73%) or if their work friends were there (74%).
Standing in a large space in Remitly’s office, designed for a bigger team taking part in a day-long collaboration, Rogers, the facilities manager, recalled a particularly busy recent day.
“I looked in this room and it was full of people,” she said. “And they’re all talking and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re using it. Just how we wanted them to!'”
Editor’s note: A previous reference to Zillow Group’s policy on remote and in-office work was removed from the article.
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