RTO mandates aren’t for everyone. Here’s what we did instead—and it’s working: Synchrony CEO

Today, as many employers are calling their people back to the office, I’m sometimes asked if I’m having second thoughts. Nope. Moving to a hybrid work model was one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made.

Believe me, my pre-COVID self would be utterly surprised. Before the pandemic, it wouldn’t have occurred to me that a hybrid model should even be considered, let alone could ever be effective. How would we get work done? How would we collaborate? How would we remain effective and efficient? Office life was all I knew.

But once we got everyone set up at home, it was apparent we were pioneering an innovative way of working that was uniquely suited to our business model—and could be permanent.

While some businesses debated which days of the week they wanted their people in the office, we doubled down and listened to our employees. After a company survey revealed more than 85% of our employees wanted some form of work-from-home option, we launched a hybrid work model and now allow our people—including our hourly employees who represent the majority of our workforce—to work from home, in the office, or both. (They do need to live within a reasonable commuting distance to one of our offices and come in occasionally for meetings, training, or culture events.)

More than three years later, this way of working has empowered our company to focus even more intently on building a performance culture. We’re seeing higher employee engagement and greater productivity; we’re meeting commitments to our customers and partners; and we’re driving strong business results. I am convinced that the hybrid work model has been instrumental in making our business model successful.

The employee experience is a big catalyst of that success. This year, Synchrony rose to 5^th on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, up from 51^st place in 2019. In the most recent Great Place To Work employee survey, 95% of our employees say Synchrony is a great place to work and 95% say that the company’s way of working gives them the flexibility they need.

Instead of mandates, here’s what we did:

• Make in-person events matter: We reimagined our offices for purposeful collaboration. For example, at our Stamford, Connecticut headquarters, we created a 29,000-square-foot Culture Center, a flexible space to gather, collaborate, and inspire innovation in a hybrid work environment. We added weekly “Connection Days,” inviting people to come in for brainstorming, innovation, networking, or cultural events (and yes, food trucks!).
• Adopt a coaching culture: Employees want leaders who build trust through listening and guiding, who set clear expectations and empower them to innovate. We replaced outdated annual performance reviews with more frequent manager-employee coaching and trained our leaders to adopt real-time coaching and continuous communication on clear business goals. In fact, 92% of our people say their manager provides constructive feedback to deliver on performance expectations.
• Support career journeys no matter the location: Most of our open roles are no longer limited to physical locations. So, now a job that might have once been seen as only done from corporate headquarters or on the West Coast, can be done in nearly any region we do business. With this flexible approach we saw a 30% increase in job applications just last year and lower employee turnover.
• Measure outcomes vs. time in office: Our leaders communicate clearly and candidly about expectations and hold teams accountable to outcomes in a hybrid environment. By focusing on employees’ measurable results instead of hours logged in the office, we’ve seen stronger productivity and business outcomes.    

I believe our hybrid work model has been so successful because it is built on trust and adaptability, where open and continuous lines of feedback helped us build a very different type of workplace where people want to come in but also have the flexibility to work from home. 

Because we went all in on trusting our employees, they in turn proved they could work in a hybrid model and deliver for our partners, customers, and our business. We also are willing to adapt based on feedback. While we experimented with hybrid training models, we realized that onboarding for new employees is best done in-person.

For those who say that innovation cannot coexist with remote work, I disagree. A member from our innovation team shared with me that “the hybrid model has actually proven to be the best of both worlds. When we used to do a hackathon, we’d maybe have 50 people in this room, and that was your limit. Now, we can engage three, four times as many people in the organization because they’re not within these walls.” 

In the end, our story is proof that when you build a culture of trust and accountability, you can expect a lot from your people, and they will come through for you, driving peak performance. That—and not where they happen to be sitting from day to day—underscores the pivotal role of trust in hybrid work success.

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