As corporations like Amazon, JPMorgan, and Walmart implement return-to-office (RTO) mandates, one enterprise is sweetening the deal by giving its workers a $10,000 annual elevate for displaying as much as the workplace extra typically.
Cameo, a startup that enables customers to buy and obtain customized video messages from celebrities, started a brand new RTO coverage this week requiring the 26 workers who work on the firm’s headquarters in Chicago to be within the workplace Monday by Thursday, per CNBC Make It. The coverage, which the corporate first introduced to employees final month, allows workers to obtain a $10,000 yearly elevate along with free parking, a free each day catered lunch, and free entry to an onsite health club.
“We actually felt like we needed to make HQ a perk, not a punishment,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis informed CNBC Make It. “We all know we’re asking extra out of you to surrender the pliability, and we needed to compensate you for it.”
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Cameo has two dozen extra workers based mostly elsewhere within the U.S. and overseas, primarily in New York and Los Angeles. They have been allowed to maintain working remotely however weren’t given a pay elevate.
Galanis, 37, selected to set the annual elevate at $10,000 as a result of the determine would make a “significant” distinction in workers’ lives and hoped it could assist junior workers discover housing close by as an alternative of taking over lengthy commutes.
The Chicago headquarters opened in the summertime of 2024, however Cameo management by no means mandated a strict set of days workers needed to report back to the workplace. Staff based mostly in Chicago beforehand got here to the workplace each time they wanted to, displaying up a median of two to 3 instances per week, in accordance with Galanis.
Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty Pictures
When Cameo knowledgeable its Chicago workers of the four-days-a-week in-office coverage final month, it additionally gave them the choice to maneuver out of Chicago to not have to come back into the workplace in any respect.
Cameo discovered that none of its workers give up or moved away after the announcement. As a substitute, the other occurred. A few of Cameo’s distant employees based mostly in different areas expressed curiosity in shifting to Chicago and profiting from the perks provided to in-office workers.
A HealthEquity research launched earlier this month surveyed greater than 600 full-time workers who shifted from absolutely distant to hybrid or absolutely in-person work. Three out of 4 workers mentioned their RTO experiences have been optimistic, with 74% saying they skilled enhanced collaboration.
The highest motivators for workplace attendance weren’t free lunches or a elevate, it was skilled improvement alternatives (50%) and team-building occasions (47%). The largest impediment to in-person work recognized by the survey was commuting prices (54%).
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Cameo has skilled a tumultuous few years. The pandemic catapulted the startup to unicorn standing, with a valuation of $1 billion by 2021. Gross sales declined by March 2024, erasing 90% of Cameo’s worth.
Galanis informed Time in December that he thinks the momentum has shifted in Cameo’s favor.
“I am actually grateful for our buyers and our group, that they’ve believed in me and allowed us the second shot to construct an organization that we do not suppose has reached close to its potential but,” he said.
