PayPal, USA

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"Durable Teams" Pilot for future ways of working

Following the move to their new San Francisco home, PayPal was seeking to introduce greater flexibility in their workstyles, encouraging a new way of working as part of a larger cultural
transformation.

PayPal engaged Incorp to conduct a pilot study to understand and assess the effectiveness of a new working structure before completing a global roll-out of their new way of working to 5,500 employees. The piloted groups, named “Durable Teams” were based on a “3-in-a-Box” concept, meaning each team consisted of a mix of 8-12 employees, in three primary roles: Product, Designer and Engineer. The learnings from this pilot study would provide insight to help inform the implementation and management of the Durable Team work modality, and determine the workstyle being adopted company-wide.

In response to an increasingly competitive electronic financial transaction sector, PayPal was seeking to accelerate its competitive advantage by attracting and retaining the highest quality of professionals. The Durable Team model and more Agile “Neighbourhood” – based working was a direct affirmation of a distinct focus on people. The intent to shift into a hybrid Agile way of working to support the Durable Team model was to:
1. Create cross-functional teams – more innovation
2. Emphasise teamwork and collaboration
3. Increase workplace satisfaction
4. Create more transparency to increase speed to mark

With the help of Incorp, PayPal re-evaluated its current workplace culture to align with the new, highly adaptable Durable Team working mode. With more emphasis being put on teamwork and collaboration, it was important to promote lateral interactions, as well as maintaining location adjacency going forward.

Outcomes included:
— Addressing three primary components of the workplace experience: People (Culture), Place, and Digital to create an optimal work environment.
— Break silos when it comes to workplace employee experience.
— Facilitating greater collaboration between HR, IT, Real Estate, Facilities to provide a cohesive employee response.
— Identifying design implications and defining new workplace principles to improve future projects.
— Improved cultural integration through the development of new workplace norms and etiquette.
— A more flexible, and adaptable environment with digital standardisation roll-out.