How the Future Works

Step 1: Stand for Something: Agree on Purpose and Principles

Helena Gottschling had been working at the same organization for more than three decades when they decided to make the fundamental shift toward flexible work. Gottschling is the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), an institution with a long history dating back to 1864. It has more than 86,000 employees worldwide serving an excess of 16 million clients.

It was feedback from employees that first caused RBC to consider this shift. During the pandemic, when so many people were working remotely, they did a series of surveys, focus groups, and town halls across the globe, out of which came a clear message: The vast majority of their employees appreciated the personal benefits of flexible work. That dovetailed with the main business purpose for RBC, which was to gain a competitive advantage in the battle for talent. “We're in a very competitive marketplace for talent,” Gottschling says. “If done right, we believe flexibility could be a true differentiator.”

Flexible work options, while available, were not widely used across RBC before the pandemic, so what they were contemplating was a real sea change for the company. One of their first steps was to create what they called their “enterprise principles.” This was particularly important because of the global diversity of the company: RBC is a complex organization with multiple lines of business spanning 36 countries. They needed principles to ...