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The Future of Work at Mailchimp

When Mailchimp returns to the office, we’ll offer a flexible first framework with four work options for employees: WFH, HomeFlex, OfficeFlex, Office

It’s been over a year since we had to quickly pivot and operate as a 100% remote company during the pandemic. I’m so proud of what our teams have accomplished during this time.

As we look toward the future of work at Mailchimp, we want to create an environment where we’re all able to be our best at work and at home. That starts with becoming a hybrid organization that’s more distributed and flexible, so we can best take care of ourselves, our loved ones, our teams, and our customers.

Which means we won’t be completely remote moving forward, but we also won’t go back to how we operated pre-pandemic. For some of us, that’ll mean coming into an office a couple days a week, while others may prefer to be based at home and drop in for an occasional meeting. And, we’ll still have some team members who will be coming into the office every day. Whatever arrangement our employees choose, we want to ensure that our working model contributes to greater engagement, connection, retention, and performance.

Flexible First Framework

Earlier this year, we rolled out our flexible first framework to all employees to provide clarity on where Mailchimp is going and what the future of work looks like, so our people can plan ahead. Employees have 4 options to consider:

WFH: Employees primarily work from home or are fully remote with occasional office visits throughout the year. Employees who choose this option will be able to book a desk or office at the office location they visit.

HomeFlex: Employees spend up to 2 days per week in the office with regular and planned work from home days. When in the office, employees can book a desk or office at their local office complete with a monitor, keyboard, and all the right hookups. They’ll also have a secure locker to store their belongings.

OfficeFlex: Employees spend 3 or more days per week in the office with regular and planned work from home days. Employees will have a dedicated desk or office that they can make their own.

Office: Employees work from the office of their choosing pretty much all the time, or are fully office-bound with occasional work from home days. Those who choose this plan will also have a dedicated desk or office.

We surveyed our employees to better understand how they wanted to work in the future. They told us that they want to work from anywhere and socialize, on occasion, in an office. The majority of Mailchimp employees want greater flexibility, with 76% of our staff seeing themselves coming into an office at most 2 days a week. As we work our way through the pandemic, we believe that more employees will choose to come into an office more, but flexibility and distributed teams are here to stay.

Becoming a flexible-first distributed company has several benefits — it enables employees to be their best in their role and at home, and it gives us access to broader markets of diverse talent. Adopting a flexible first framework is a big shift for Mailchimp, and we’re committed to getting this change right and rolling it out equitably.

Return to Office

We’re planning a two-phased approach to reopen the office beginning in the fall of 2021, and then in 2022 moving to our new “full capacity” hybrid model. Returning to the office will be on a voluntary basis at least through the end of the year, and may look different across our locations, depending on local vaccination and infection rates. We’re keeping a close eye on the Delta variant and are prepared to push our timeline back if needed. No employees will be required to come back to an office in 2021 except for a handful of positions in Facilities, Office Management, and Technology which are closely tied to operating physical buildings and infrastructure. Later this year, current employees will be able to elect the flexible arrangement that’s best for them going into 2022. This will happen annually moving forward.

Last year, we announced that we’re moving our Atlanta HQ in late 2022 from Ponce City Market down the street to a new development, staying on the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. A thriving, creative HQ is core to our workplace culture, and we’re planning to create a workplace experience that’s truly designed to support our customers, partners, communities, and our new ways of working.

Remote Locations

Prior to the pandemic, Mailchimp was only set up for employees to work remotely from a handful of states. Over the past year, we’ve added several additional states to better serve our current employees and future talent as we grow to meet the needs of our customers.

Mailchimp has offices in Atlanta (2), Brooklyn, Oakland, Vancouver, Santa Monica, and Seattle, and we operate in the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington state.

We’re always considering more states, and are excited to tap into new talent pools to grow our workforce and give our current employees even more options.

Making Hybrid Work Work

As we absorb these changes, we’re committed to remaining agile—learning from what works well and adjusting when something isn’t working for us—and ensuring equity in access to opportunity for all of our people. We know this will require everyone at Mailchimp to build new skills, so that we can engage with the new workplace in ways that make sense for us individually and collectively.

Published July 28, 2021

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