Rolling Out a Global Return-To-Office Program

A Quant trading firm turned to TDS to standardize their Return-To-Office process across 45 global offices.

Executive Overview 

Our long-term client, a Quantitative Trading firm with more than 22,000 employees and offices in 45 countries had an aggressive “Return to Office” (RTO) program that needed to be executed in 90 days. Additionally, they were planning to aggressively hire more staff and required all office locations to be able to handle these new resources. 

The Challenge   

Quantitative Trading professionals have specific technology needs relative to their desktop set-ups: multiple large format monitors, access to market data displays, proximity to fellow team members, etc. Getting the new layout of the offices correct, developing “run-books” to schedule and execute all these activities, and having the man-power to move existing workstations, set up new locations and maximize every available square inch were all critical items in assuring a successful RTO program.  

The Solution 

The TDS team worked closely with our client’s technology, human resources, and facilities personnel to develop a pilot RTO program for their main office in New York City. This pilot program would serve as the backbone for the broader rollout to the other office – giving local employees a runbook with objectives, timelines, and requirements to successfully achieve their local RTO program. 

Our team surveyed the NY office and worked to match the new reconfigured layout to the various roles that the returning professionals played. We also worked to re-imagine unused or underutilized space to retrofit these locations for the planned new hires. This included converting conference rooms into classroom style layouts for better personnel density. 

The next step was to develop move waves to ensure we were executing an efficient program with the available TDS and client personnel. Many of these move waves needed to occur after hours and on during weekends as the office did have traders working on site most workdays.  

Working with building personnel, we were also able to schedule deliveries of new IT and office equipment to prep the areas for the new personnel. This activity also needed to occur off hours as installation activities can often be noisy and disruptive to on-site employees.  

As the main RTO activities were ramping up in NYC, our program called for splitting the on-site teams in “specialist” groups to have each group focus on one activity. This method allowed daily milestones to be met more effectively and with less personnel hours. 

The Results 

The NYC RTO program was successfully completed on time and on budget, despite delays in supply chain materials for the new workstations. The TDS team is now managing day-to-day change requests post RTO, ensuring the established workflow is being followed and documented in proper change management fashion. The new employees are being onboarded and TDS manages those requests to ensure the user experience is seamless and follows our client’s best-practices.  

We have now been working for branch offices to take them through the logistics for their own RTO program, and expect to be participating in and leading a number of those programs throughout the next few months.