As an agency, we pride ourselves on taking a people-first approach to our culture. But what does that look and feel like in practice? We let empathy and compassion drive our decision-making. That’s why over the years we have fostered a flexible work experience to better meet every team member’s unique needs.
At Walker Sands, we see you as a person and understand that your job with us is only one facet of who you are. You shouldn’t have to choose between living your life and doing your job. Although we have always prioritized flexibility, we’ve been much more intentional about nurturing a flexible work environment over the past few years. Here’s how we did it.
Flexible PTO
As we began to create a more flexible work culture, we recognized that a limited PTO policy forced employees to be selective about attending major life events like weddings or birthday celebrations. You shouldn’t have to choose between planned days off and time off for unexpected events, like the sudden need to care for a family member. It’s not in Walker Sands’ DNA to restrict those decisions for you. So in 2018, we implemented a flexible PTO policy, allowing our people to take the time they need, when they need it.
Flexible PTO extends beyond simply allowing you to manage commitments and passions in your personal lives. This policy was created with inclusion in mind. Not everyone celebrates the same holidays or participates in the same cultural events and we want our employees to be able to do so in order to live a more fulfilling life.
Flexible Schedules
Sometimes we need to motivate ourselves by going on a walk at lunch. Or maybe we need to pick our dogs up from doggie day care. Or drop our kids off at school. We get it. Our goal is to figure out how to fit work into our team members’ lives in a way that makes sense.
Flexible scheduling is built on trust and transparency. We are clear in our expectations so you can make decisions about how your work gets done. Although we expect our team members to be available to clients during typical business hours, we also know it’s not realistic to expect you to sit at your computer for eight hours a day, every work day of the year.
Hybrid Work Environment
At the end of the day, we want to help you find the work scenario that enables you to do the best work of your career, whether in the office or at home. Thanks to our existing emphasis on flexibility, some of our employees already worked remotely before the pandemic, so we had tools in place to ensure team members could successfully work from when COVID-19 changed everything. That made the transition to remote work easier and laid the groundwork for the future of work at our agency.
Looking ahead, we’re planning for a hybrid work culture in which employees have greater control over their preferred work environment. For many team members, this will mean a combination of in-office and remote work. For others, it could potentially mean a transition to fully remote work — and we’re open to having those conversations.
New hires often ask me, “What is the secret sauce to creating an inclusive and flexible culture?” My answer is always the same: We listen. We spend time listening to our employees and creating policies that meet their needs — enabling us to double down on our agency’s commitment to a flexible culture so we can enjoy happier work and personal lives. If you are interested in joining our team check out our open positions here.
