Today we make it official, Foursquare is a fully flexible workplace (forever…really).
A memo from Gary Little, Foursquare’s President and CEO.
As has been our philosophy since I took over in January of last year, we will continue to support a flexible first working model. To be explicit, our approach allows you to work from home, from one of our offices or in any combination that best serves you and your team in delivering great results for our customers and stakeholders.
So what do we mean by “flexible workplace” you may be asking yourself. First, we truly mean flexible. One thing you will note throughout this email (and subsequent communications), is that our approach will be light on policy. Policy requires governance, governance requires monitoring, and so on. We are in the business of building world class teams and believe a flexible approach is the single most important step we can take to build-on and increase our talent density as a company. World class teams deliver results and do not need to be told how and where to do so. In short, we trust you and believe that you are best positioned to make choices to maximize your impact here at Foursquare.
We have learned a tremendous amount in 2+ years of operating as a remote organization.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have witnessed the ability of the modern organization to adapt to, and thrive in, a non-traditional 9-to-5 office centric working model. We also know, thanks to our survey data (your enthusiastic participation is appreciated!), that you yearn for connection, for collaboration and forming deeper relationships with your colleagues around the world. That is why we will continue to invest in our offices and in-person experiences globally. The aim of these investments is to provide for high-impact and highly intentional in-person interaction across the company. We want to create and invest in the full employee experience and will continue to devote significant resources to doing so.
To summarize (and reiterate):
- We are a fully flexible company that allows you to work from any location we have an office without required approval. Remote employment remains subject to our current approval process
- We will invest in great office spaces to drive connection, collaboration and serve as a place to get great work done for our customers
- Where you work (between home and your local office) is up to you and your team. We expect you to make your own decisions with the best interests of your customers and colleagues in mind
In return, I only ask for two things from all of you: invest in each other and how we work together to continually improve our delivery in a flexible environment. As we scale, our ability to achieve our ambitious plans require coordinated and intentional effort from every corner of the company. Secondly, hold one another accountable. As we embrace a higher degree of working freedom, we cannot lose sight of the challenges we are seeking to solve. Let’s hold each other to the highest standards for ourselves, our customers and our investors.
As we enter a new phase of the pandemic, I am excited about the permanent changes to our philosophy of building a great organization. As a leadership team, we are enthused to see the continued growth and innovation that we believe this approach will breathe into existence. Let’s go invent the future.
- Gary Little, President & CEO
