Forget weekly visits to the office — Toptal CEO Taso Du Val says real hybrid work happens once a quarter.
The remote CEO, who runs a global hiring company with roughly 700 employees, told Business Insider that companies are misinterpreting the concept of hybrid work by mandating a certain number of in-office days a week. Instead, he said, leaders should reserve in-person collaboration for larger-scale decision-making.
"When people think hybrid, they often think about it in terms of weekly or daily cadences, instead of yearly, right? Hybrid needs to be thought of as yearly," Du Val said.
Du Val's comments come as a number of major companies have brought employees back to the office more frequently — and threatened to punish those who don't comply.
He said he thinks penalties, like restricting promotions or equity, are "unnecessary punitive measures," but acknowledged that some businesses didn't thrive under a remote structure during the pandemic. He said that since some companies were rushed into it, they didn't adopt the proper policies, infrastructure, procedures needed for it to work effectively.
Du Val said remote work can serve as a major cost saver and talent advantage for companies — but it needs to be enacted effectively.
80/20
Du Val said the ideal work structure is an "80/20 mix," which he describes as working remotely 80% of the time and meeting in-person the other 20%. At Toptal, that translates into quarterly team and managerial off-sites that span over a roughly three-day period. The CEO said executives at the company also have an annual in-person gathering.
Du Val said the off-sites are "super productive" and turn otherwise-stale team meetings into highly energized group collaborations. The reason the off-sites work so well, though, is that they're reserved for collaborative meetings — the kind of work that employees aren't engaging in multiple days a week.
"Usually, I'm not brainstorming ideas all day," Du Val said.
On a typical day, Du Val said he may do some marketing work followed by a legal review — and doing those sorts of tasks alongside coworkers wouldn't help anyone. Du Val said there's never a need to have in-person meetings unless "something really extraordinary" is being discussed.
When in-person work matters
The CEO said there are exceptions to the 80/20 rule, especially in certain industries. For example, he said, hotels and restaurants need to respond to events in real time, so an in-person staff meeting at the beginning of a shift may be necessary.
He said that at companies where some people need to be in person full time, having the rest of the employees work remotely can create a cultural clash.
Du Val said in-person work may also be necessary in times of a company transition.
During such a transition, "there's so much information passing that being in-person just has to happen for the first six months or 12 months," Du Val said. After that, the team could return to a hybrid structure.
In most corporate work environments, though, such as law firms or Big Tech companies, ideas are carried out in long cycles of execution, and group in-person brainstorms don't need to take place constantly, Du Val said.
"There are very specific points in time to give people energy in this very unique way," Du Val said.
