Paramount Skydance has asked most of its employees to return to the office five days a week, and now it’s asking them how in-person work is going.
David Ellison’s company asked employees to grade its RTO efforts by filling out a quick survey asking for feedback on “what’s working well and where we can improve to better support you.”
“We want to know where there are challenges so we can contact you directly if needed to understand how to address your concerns,” Paramount told employees in the RTO survey, which was viewed by Business Insider.
In the survey, Paramount asked employees about 12 aspects of the return-to-office process, from parking availability to bathroom cleanliness. Staffers could indicate whether they were highly satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied, or strongly dissatisfied with each part of the RTO push, or note if it wasn’t applicable to them. There was a comment box after each section.
Here were the topics:
- Parking availability
- Using my badge to enter gates and/or buildings and floors
- Proximity of my assigned seat to the rest of my team
- Workstation/desk setup and tech equipment
- WiFi and VPN access and reliability
- Bathrooms (accessibility & cleanliness)
- Food options at my location
- Availability of collaboration/meetings spaces
- Availability of quiet spaces
- Tech setup in meeting spaces
- Easy to book meeting rooms
- How ready is your office to support your needs?
Paramount said in an email on Friday that it would randomly award 10 survey respondents with 100 “Paramount Celebrates” points that can be used on Amazon or merchandise from the “Paramount Swag Store.” The company told staffers that their survey responses weren’t anonymous, so they could be pooled by office location and shared with Paramount’s RTO task force.
Four Paramount staffers told Business Insider they felt their company’s in-person push from two days to five days had gone smoothly so far. Three New York-based employees complimented the free snacks, which included protein bars and Oreos.
“They’ve made an effort to be supportive of everyone returning, offering snacks and a distributed workforce of ‘ambassadors’ who help out with different office requests on each floor,” one New York-based staffer said. This person said that although five days a week in person was still a drawback for them, they felt the new in-office routine was “reasonable.”
A second New York-based employee said that Paramount had been making a “good effort to improve things around the office.” This staffer said it’s “nice to finally have my own desk every day and not fight for a spot.” Before the RTO mandate, some Paramount employees didn’t have assigned seats.
Despite the influx of employees, a Paramount manager said that the New York office hadn’t felt too crowded. This person added that many meetings still took place over calls because their team is mostly bicoastal.
Have a tip or thoughts on Paramount’s RTO process? Contact this reporter via email at jfaris@businessinsider.com or Signal at @jamesfaris.01. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
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