Etsy has long had a culture of experimentation and innovation. Just as we constantly leverage data and insights to make product improvements, we bring this same approach to the employee experience. Our goal is to enable people’s ability to be effective, so that they can advance our mission, create a world-class shopping experience, and better support millions of creative entrepreneurs around the world. Since rolling out our hybrid work modes that allow employees to choose between “flex” schedules, being fully remote, or being fully based in an Etsy office, we have collected feedback, adjusted and adapted our practices to best support employees. Today, I’m excited to share our progress, learnings and next steps.

Flexibility nurtures engagement

We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from Etsy employees to date. More than 80% view our policies on how and where we work favorably.* Beyond what our teams are saying, our flexible model has enabled Etsy to keep recruiting and retain talent across industries as we expand globally. We’ve grown our Etsy workforce by 50% since before the pandemic, and our attrition levels have consistently remained well below both industry benchmarks and our own expectations, even as a “Great Resignation” has dominated the market. Based on this resounding support, we have conviction to move forward with our existing framework, further iterating to find even more opportunities to facilitate employee engagement and success.

Implementing what we’ve learned

We know that creating successful hybrid teams takes support and intention, so we’ve invested in tools and resources to help teams work efficiently and collaboratively across work modes. And it’s proving effective: nearly all employees say they feel productive and the overwhelming majority feel part of a team, including those who are fully remote.*

Building on this positive feedback, we’re introducing our “Hub Strategy” to focus our efforts and resources on a few key office “hubs” in centralized regions that are most utilized by Etsy’s teams. These include our Brooklyn headquarters and our offices in Dublin and Mexico City, each vibrant bastions for Etsy’s employees and culture. Employees in regions without hubs have access to our co-working benefit.

Supported by Etsy’s robust hybrid framework, many who are currently remote have told us they do not plan to return to an office in the near future. As a result, we are closing our offices in Hudson, NY and San Francisco, CA, where employee office utilization has been extremely low. One of our guiding principles is minimizing waste, and operating offices that go predominately unused is in direct opposition to that principle – wasting energy, capital and internal programming efforts. As part of our new Hub Strategy model, Etsy employees based out of those offices will be transitioning to the fully remote work mode. We’ll continue to ensure they are supported, able to work productively, and can effectively collaborate with colleagues, with our offices in Brooklyn HQ as their hub office. Etsy's Brooklyn Office; Amy Anaiz Photography

Facilitating in-person connection

Our hybrid work modes allow our teams to work together from anywhere, while our hubs will enable intentional, strategic in-person connection. Over the past year, we’ve outfitted these offices specifically for collaboration. In our Brooklyn HQ, we’ve added large, configurable and reservable meeting spaces to support work sessions that enable participants - wherever they join from - to feel seen and heard, and dedicated an entire floor to adaptable space for larger groups. While we moved to unassigned seating, we tripled the amount of informal, flexible seating available in common spaces.

We’re already leveraging these spaces to bring employees together, and have created moments for teams distributed around the globe to meet in person in our Brooklyn office. And as we build out our Mexico hub, we’re excited to invite our South America-based employees to meet and celebrate.
Etsy's Brooklyn Office; Amy Anaiz Photography

Looking to the future

Etsy has been on a journey to create a work model that supports a world-class team and enables employees to collaborate, connect and celebrate. We believe that Etsy is at its best when our people have the support they need to be effective, bringing their whole selves to work while thriving outside of Etsy. As we iterate on this framework to bring our vision to life, this will continue to be our north star.

*2022 Etsy Employee Engagement Survey. This is a survey of Etsy employees, and does not include input from subsidiary brand employees.