What's the Work-Life Balance Like at Openly?

Share your principle for sustainable pace — and the signal that proves it works for your team?

When reading this question, my mind immediately goes to the tale of the tortoise and the hare. On my team, we aim for the perfect middle ground: merging the hare’s speed with the tortoise’s steadiness. Sustainable pace is about balancing energy, time and capacity. We recognize that operating at redline leads to burnout, while feeling under-utilized leads to lack of purpose. We want our team to be engaged and find genuine fulfillment in their work.

To maintain this balance, we have Open(ly) conversations about workload and capacity. We recognize that our team members have meaningful lives beyond work and believe balance is essential to long-term success. Through clear communication, mutual respect and a culture of Open(ly)ness, we help one another stay connected, supported and aligned.

The results speak for themselves. Strong employee engagement, productivity, retention and morale are evidence that Openly sets a high bar for workplace culture. This approach is helping us reach our goals at a sustainable pace. It’s an ongoing process though. If these indicators ever shift, we’ll take a step back, reassess, and adjust our workflow to keep our team healthy.

Which policy or norm makes flexible working arrangements succeed — and how do you measure its impact?

When our founders set out to build a great company, their goal was to hire the best people, no matter where they lived. They wanted to make sure employees would have a nice balance to work and family. Regardless of how you define your family, if they’re important to you, that’s what matters. That mindset is a big part of why Openly started as a 100 percent remote company and has remained that way.

Making remote work actually work takes a bit of effort. Our IT team plays a big role in helping employees stay connected and productive, and we provide stipends for internet, phone and home office setups so people have what they need to do their jobs effectively. We also prioritize connection through tools like Zoom, regular manager one-on-ones, and open communication to ensure people feel supported and aligned with their teams.

We keep an eye on how we’re doing through surveys, feedback, retention and business goals, but the real highlight is hearing from the team. Knowing that someone didn’t have to miss an important life event because of their work schedule is what we consider a win. So far, we’ve found that being flexible doesn’t just make a happier team – it makes a more productive one, too.

Which wellness resource do people actually use — and what improvement have you seen on your team?

When I first joined Openly, our wellness resources were fairly limited. Since then, we’ve worked to grow that list into something that actually reflects how our team lives and what they need to feel supported. Today, we offer resources like paid well-being and volunteer days, a preventative care campaign, 100 percent short-term disability coverage, and webinars on everything from chair yoga to retirement planning.

While it’s great to see strong engagement across these resources, the favorites tend to be the ones that offer the most flexibility and personal choice. Paid well-being days help employees manage the curveballs life inevitably throws at them, while our preventative care campaign serves as a helpful reminder to stay on top of annual check-ups and proactive health needs.

Our “Be Well program,” an enhanced lifestyle spending account, is probably the most personal. It offers employees a way to fund self-care that is unique to them, like camping, surfing, an art class, meditation app or even elder care or pet sitters. As Openly has grown, it’s been rewarding to see our support for employees grow across so many dimensions as well. 

And the impact? Recharged and focused employees, ready to tackle the day.