Data-Led RTO Decisions – Policy-as-Code in 10 Minutes

Managers don't need another dashboard; they need a clear decision. In 10 minutes, Chris shows how commute APIs, badge access and pulse sentiment feed a policy-as-code service that answers who should be on-site and when – with privacy guard-rails and an auditable override path. See the three-signal blend, governance, and shifts in utilisation, risk proxies and time-to-decision, plus how the pattern generalises beyond RTO.

• The three-signal stack: commute thresholding, badge utilisation, pulse sentiment; normalisation and alignment.
• Policy-as-code and governance: decision tree, eligibility, exceptions, override roles, audit logging.
• Privacy guard-rails: scope, aggregation, consent boundaries; what is explicitly out of bounds.
• Outcome snapshot: utilisation stability, super-commuter risk down, shorter time-to-decision.
• Adoption telemetry: usage, completion without hand-off, escalation/override rates; leadership uptake.

• Define the decision moment and select no more than three signals to support it.
• Encode policy-as-code with an override path and audit trail acceptable to Legal.
• Set privacy guard-rails that avoid monitoring narratives while maintaining utility.
• Instrument adoption telemetry and one business metric to evidence value within weeks.
• Apply the same pattern beyond RTO, such as travel approvals or shift mix.

Christopher Cerasoli

Senior Associate Director People Analytics · Boehringer Ingelheim

Hybrid work decisions carry cost, culture and risk implications: empty floorspace, overloaded commutes, uneven enforcement and political noise. Leaders need consistent, privacy-safe calls made quickly, with evidence and an audit trail that stands up to Legal and Comms – and no shadow monitoring. A decision service answers that.