Return to Office Series: Chicago

By Waun Hughes 

On May 3, 2022 Enova welcomed back most of our corporate team members to our offices – including the Chicago office, where I work. We have moved to a hybrid environment, with most people working in our offices 3 days a week and some people working remotely permanently, depending on the role. 

Since I am on the Facilities team, I played a big part in building a fun and seamless Return to Office (RTO) for our Chicago team members while also ensuring our teams could work together across all of our locations and remotely. When I first started with Enova in December 2021, we had a voluntary Return To Office (RTO) program. While some team members did take advantage of the voluntary program, we had around 10-25 people in the Chicago office on any given day. When we launched our official Return to Office, around 250 people were in the Chicago office daily. So, we had to think strategically and roll up our sleeves.  

We welcomed the Chicago team back with a week of fun events, happy hours, and learning opportunities to generate excitement. We also optimized the workplace experience by adding in cold brew machines, revamping our snack program and creating a hybrid-friendly environment. 

The journey back to the workplace required us to strategically rethink how the office can accommodate new employee expectations and ways of working. We transformed our team rooms into conference rooms to add more space for meeting and collaborating. With multiple offices across the country, we wanted to make sure meeting spaces were ready to support our hybrid teams. 

It has been pretty exciting seeing people back in the office. I’ve been able to meet so many people across the organization by running into them in the kitchen or the water cooler. Being in office allowed me to learn and build relationships with different teams and people from all teams and of all levels. I look forward to continuing our time together in the office.