Future of Work 
In Part 1 of our interview series with Canadian Unicorns about the future of work, Matt Carlson sat down with Clio’s Kimberly Whyman to discuss the company’s remote work transition and the exciting new vision for their team.
Like most companies, Clio’s workplace has been dramatically transformed by the pandemic. Once a primarily on-site work environment spread across 4 global offices, Clio’s nearly 700 member team has been working completely remote for the past year and a half.
Throughout that period, the cloud-based legal software platform has swiftly adapted by embracing new technologies and practices in order to keep its exceptional service, product, and culture intact. Well known for its pioneering spirit and business acumen, Clio is once again charting a bold new course by completely reshaping itself into a remote-first workplace.
Matt Carlson: What was your pre-Covid policy for working away from the office?
Kimberly Whyman: Our pre-Covid practice was very similar to many companies, with the majority of our team members reporting 5 days each week, in 1 of our 4 global offices. Within the office, everyone had a pre-assigned desk within a specific department area. That said, Clio has always had a small number of people who worked remotely full time and who would come into our offices as little as once or twice a year.
MC: Interesting, so what did people do in pre-Covid times to qualify for permanent or mostly remote roles? Were there specific rules or guidelines based on an employee’s role?
KW: It was generally determined on a case-by-case basis. Prior to Covid we had made special accommodations for certain employees, but this was the exception rather than the rule.
MC: Tell us about your post-Covid return to work strategy (timing to return; whether you’re hybrid, remote, digital first, etc.).
KW: Since Covid, we’ve completely embraced a new world of working that’s really more inclusive, flexible, and comprehensive of employee and organizational needs.
We call this new model ‘Distributed by Design’. Approximately 20% of our employees would prefer to continue working in a fully remote setting after our offices reopen, while around 40% would like to return on a hybrid basis. Going forward, our workforce will be completely remote and our team will be supported by our physical offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Dublin.
For our timing to return, initially we had hoped September 2021 would be an appropriate date to begin welcoming our ‘Clions’ back to the office. Due to fluctuating circumstances in public health and regulations, we moved this target to January 2022.
MC: What was your process for developing this strategy, and how did you understand what’s important to your team?
KW: We’ve invested in best-in-class tools, technology and culture initiatives to ensure our team members are able to do their best work, regardless of location. Going forward, all meetings will be held via Zoom — regardless if employees are remote or physically in the office. This digital-first approach is much more inclusive and creates a level playing field. No longer will remote employees feel like they can’t speak up or are missing stuff in the room.
We’re very committed to continuously analyzing our progress and checking in with our team members to make sure we’re still on target.
Kimberly Whyman, Workplace Experience Manager at Clio
MC: When your employees provided their post-Covid work preferences, what trends did you notice? What surprised you?
KW: One of the key insights for Clio was our employees’ desire to really maintain the flexibility to manage their personal commitments alongside their workload — something that many of us grew accustomed to during the pandemic. As a result, many of our team members have indicated they would like to return to work in a hybrid working model, where they have the flexibility to work from home or enter the office depending on their schedules.
MC: How do you plan to build culture in this new hybrid environment? What tools will you employ to support a virtual workplace that you didn’t before?
KW: Maintaining meaningful connections with our other team members was critical while working from home during Covid and will remain a key component of this new strategy.
During the pandemic and all the isolation happening, we onboarded a few tools to keep us connected. Slack and the Donut App add-on are a few big ones. We’ve leaned on both to initiate ad-hoc coffee chats across our teams. These chats have a very organic feel, just like in-person water cooler encounters, and have been great at helping to keep us connected.
MC: What is your company’s position on in-person work/collaboration, and how are you planning to connect employees in-person going forward?
KW: We definitely support it and are planning our spaces to facilitate easy collaboration and connection between our team members. For example, we’re replacing a lot of our work stations with collaboration spaces where team members can pop in to connect with their colleagues even if they’re not directly working with them.
MC: Have you, or will you, change your physical workplace to address your new work styles?
KW: Yes. We enhanced our space operations programming and how we operate our spaces. We’re going to have huddle zones and collaboration zones installed to reduce workstations and increase overall floor space. Our pre-assigned desks will be completely gone.
We also identified the types of programs and processes that would continue to provide the world class experience for our team. From there, we created workplace programs to suit this new strategy; this included revitalizing our workplace design and construction guidelines. It also included things like adapting our safety, food, beverage programming to suit post-Covid considerations.
We understand we’re not going to get this 100% right, the first time. So we’re remaining very agile and flexible in order to implement changes that will make things even better.
Kimberly Whyman
MC: When you implement your strategy, do you have any contingencies if things don’t go as planned? This could also include analytics or tech to track your progress.
KW: That’s a great question. Due to the rapid hiring we did during the pandemic, some of our locations are actually close to or even a bit past capacity.
With each team member having flexibility to work in their preferred format, we wanted to support the notion that the workplace is anywhere you are and where you’re working, while keeping an eye on capacity for those who are coming into the office.
To address this, we brought on a brand new tool called Space IQ which is going to serve as our desk booking system. This will help us manage capacity limits so that employees know to work from home if there are no desks available.
MC: If you look forward to fall 2023, how will things change with respect to in-office and at-home work? Do you think employee preferences will change from what is requested today?
KW: If I had to make a bold prediction, I think we will still be working in a Distributed by Design operating model. We’ll also probably see fluctuations in office populations during that time — perhaps on a regional or even seasonal basis. As we embark on this new strategy, we’re very committed to continuously analyzing our progress and checking in with our team members to make sure we’re still on target.
We understand we’re not going to get this 100% right, the first time. So we’re remaining very agile and flexible in order to implement changes that will make things even better.
About Clio
Clio is on a mission to transform the legal experience for all and establish an enduring 100-year old company that will serve the legal industry well into the future. To help realize those goals, Clio is looking for high-performers to add to its team of almost 700 strong. Visit clio.com/careers to learn more about open roles.
About Kimberly Whyman, Workplace Experience Manager
Kimberly has been designing and managing workspaces and workplace programs for over 20 years. With an innovative spirit and stylish eye, she continues to push the limits of what a workplace can be and has created truly exceptional spaces. She continues to drive the evolution of the workplace through active thought leadership, cutting edge facility management practices, and a passion to create an extraordinary space for everyone to work.
