This Ontario CEO told her employees they can work from anywhere. Here's how the policy works

Kevin Oulds, left, alongside Erin Bury (Handout by Bury)

As a self-proclaimed extrovert, Erin Bury always intended to have an in-person office culture within her company.

Co-founder and CEO of Toronto estate management agency Willful, Bury and her husband, Kevin Oulds, first opened up an office space in downtown Toronto in February 2020.

“We'd built the company intending to have a very in-person culture, and we were in the space for about six weeks before the first lockdown,” Bury told CTV News Toronto Wednesday.

By summer 2021, vaccines were rolling out to the general public and there appeared to be a break between COVID-19 waves, so Bury once again opened her office up to employees by choice – but no one came, she says.

By that time, many employees had moved farther away from the office, or had adjusted to the routine of working from home.

“People were going in maybe once or twice a month, and so we always joked it was like a $1,000 office visit anytime someone went in because they were actually taking advantage of it,” she said.

Bury says this realization, paired with employee feedback, prompted her and her husband to get rid of the space, take their company of just about 20 employees permanently remote, and implement a ‘Work from Anywhere’ policy.

Willful team members at their first employee retreat, north of Toronto (Handout by Bury)

The policy states employees can work from anywhere, and, as long as they are available from the 'core hours' of 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST, they can put whatever additional hours in they like.

"I was a die-hard, no work-from-home, in-office person before the pandemic, but now I've completely changed my tune," she said.

Amanda Li, an employee at Willful, says she didn’t realize how much the policy change could positively impact her work-life balance until she made the switch.

“It's allowed me to move [to Windsor, Ont.] where the cost of living is lower,” Li told CTV News Toronto said. “And I was recently fortunate enough to buy my own home here.”

Of the policy, Bury says “I don’t care when or where people are working.”

“We just don’t monitor it – as long as people get their stuff done, I actually don’t care if you're working Sunday night versus Monday morning versus from Paris.”

The policy has allowed Bury and Oulds to move to a home in Prince Edward County, Ont. "As a new mom, it also allows me to pop out and breastfeed in between meetings," she said.

To date, she says there’s been no issue with worker productivity.

“I think it's such an antiquated viewpoint that just because people are working from home they're not working hard,” she said. “It tends to be the mistrustful old-school employers who want to spy over your shoulder and make sure that you're actually doing your work.”

Bury says Willful has taken a different approach in which employees are held accountable using a “rigorous” goal-setting framework.

Janet Candido, founder and CEO of Toronto-based human resources consultancy group Candido Consulting, says many companies are opting for a hybrid model right now, where employees work from home some days, and attend in-person others.

“Some people have developed a comfort level working from home, some are afraid of getting sick,” Candido told CTV News Toronto Wednesday. “Some have school-aged children, who can't go in one day because they have the sniffles… or immunocompromised people at home.”

“People are dealing with all sorts of different challenges. It's not that cut and dry.”

But no matter what policy companies choose, Candido says the successful companies tend to be the ones that provide more flexibility and listen to employee feedback.

“I always recommend when companies want to bring employees back to the office to consider the emotional and mental health of the employees,” she said.

Bury acknowledges, while the option for remote work provides a degree of flexibility, employees still crave in-person connections. To combat this, she says her team meets virtually multiple times a week and gathers for a company retreat twice a year.

“We think that in-person connection matters,” she said. “It just doesn't have to be daily or in an office – It can be a couple times a year, punctuated with virtual opportunities to build connections.”

Li says she hopes more companies become open to the idea of work from home.

“I think the flexibility really brings a better work-life balance for individuals and gives them time back in their day to spend with their families or to do things that they love.”

WIllful team members (Handout provided by Bury)