Our organization, Partners In Health, has committed to maintaining a flexible option for employees. The majority of our US based staff are in the Boston area where we have an office, but employees are not yet required to return to the office on a regular basis. Instead they are able to choose to go into the office as needed. When everyone first went remote, our OpEx expenses were reduced a bit where we could, i.e. office utilities and printing costs decreased, but we also began offering to help furnish their home offices, particularly for those that couldn't go into the office to pick something up. That required a policy to determine what types of expenses and items were reasonable, like monitors/printers/notebooks/pens/etc., while also asking for justification from the employee for why they needed the higher ticket items.
We've also regularly created surveys to understand what might entice employees to come into the office. People raised ideas around free coffee/snacks, but also subsidized public transit passes or parking. Our office is in downtown Boston so before the pandemic, most employees brought their own coffee/snacks (could store them in shared refrigerators/cabinets) and rode the subway or buses and had to pay for that themselves. It's interesting to me to see a shift in thinking now where some employees are essentially saying, "I'll come into the office if you pay for my transportation costs to get to the office and my coffee/snacks, otherwise I might just work from home all the time." It's not yet clear whether we'll be able to offer those types of benefits across the board or if our leadership feels strongly that being in the office is completely necessary to build culture and community, but it also raises questions around equity if some employees are getting those benefits by going into the office while others are remaining remote full/part time.
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Brendan Eger
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:17
From: Naman Gupta
Subject: OpEx Planning 📈
Hi everyone!
My name is Naman, Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Vena.
With the shift in remote and hybrid work environments over the last few years, I'd like to know how everyone has planned their OpEx with these changes.
- What changes have your organizations made to adapt to this "new normal"?
- How has your finance team planned for the changes in remote or hybrid work?
As a friendly reminder, there's a demo session next week on Friday, March 4, 2022 from 1–2 PM EST where Vena Expert and Solutions Consultant Evan Short will walk through how Vena can help create more accurate forecasts with driver-based calculations for common operating expenses. Be sure to RSVP here!
For additional reading, I'd recommend perusing this blog post.
Thanks all!
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Naman Gupta
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