How to encourage employees to return to the office?

Since the pandemic, the way we work, or where we work, has changed. What may have seemed impossible before COVID-19 spread around the world became a reality for many: working from the comfort of your own home.

But things are changing again. According to Forbes,  90% of companies will have returned to office-working in some form over the course of 2024. The reasons given vary. But all revolve around the drive to improve performance and profitability. Whether it’s making effective use of currently unused office space to restoring direct management oversight of staff to delivering improvements to productivity and revenue. But, whatever the reason, many businesses are meeting with resistance from their employees.

This is understandable. Employees grew to love the greater flexibility provided by home working and welcomed the release from often irksome and costly commuting on crowded trains or buses. Many are unpersuaded of the value of returning to the office or consider themselves to be more productive working from home. While even those happy to return have been faced with empty offices and fewer amenities.

But employers are right to believe that losing face time with staff limits opportunities for teamworking and reduces the scope to bounce ideas off each other. Those moments chatting over desktops or gossiping at the water cooler are priceless, as people feed off each other's energy and new ideas crystallise.

Finding balance, rhythm and harmony

So, the question you need to ask yourself is: how do we adapt to the new reality and balance the benefits of a physical office with the benefits of home working? The clue lies in adopting a hybrid approach, reflecting on why you want people back in the office and treating people with respect at all stages of the change process.  

Here’s some tips to help make this process work more effectively.

1.      Ask employees what they want

Don’t send out a blanket email to staff demanding a return to full-time working in a short time frame. You will likely be met with a range of different reactions from those excited to come back to those determined to resist the move at all costs to those who don’t even respond.  And just because some of your employees react positively, doesn’t mean that the feelings are reflected across the team.

Instead, ask them about their preferences, and listen to their concerns, using surveys or one–to–ones to find out what they really think. Now, I see you rolling your eyes and thinking you have no time for this, but can you afford to lose employees given the time and cost of recruitment, induction and training? Try to establish why some find returning to the office difficult. This could be because of poor relationships within the workplace or individual personality traits. These factors can’t be dismissed, as they will affect their performance.

Be honest about the thinking behind the change, including why it is being suggested now. And highlight the benefits of office working, at least part of the week. Recognise that one size doesn’t fit all. Younger workers who entered the workforce as the pandemic unfolded will have different expectations to older workers who may have fond memories of the camaraderie they encountered in the office environment.

2.      Revisit the office culture and working environment

Remember, your workforce may need to rekindle their appreciation of the social connections provided by physically working in the same place. Organise ‘Breakfast Tuesdays’ or ‘Pizza Thursdays’. 

Review staff facilities. Consider installing a games room. Arrange regular team-building activities that underline the benefits of workplace collaboration.

Create new break-out spaces or quiet rooms for those who need time away from the hustle and bustle of a busy, open-plan office (either individually or in small groups). Invest in new office furniture, an office redesign or a new fit-out.

3.      Avoid boxing yourself into a corner

Accept that greater flexibility in working arrangements is probably here to stay. Build some flex into the return-to-office arrangements. If you’ve already started with one or two mandatory days in the office, consider only gradually increasing this to three or four rather than insisting on a full five-day mandatory presence. It could also mean offering flexible start and finish times (around a set of defined core hours), a four-day work week or nine-day fortnight.  

Flexible working rights

By law (the Employment Rights Act 1996), employees have a legal right to request flexible working. ACAS offer very helpful advice on the right, including the requirement for employers to treat each employee request for flexible working on its merits and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each application. If you don’t follow these requests in a reasonable manner, the employee may well have a case to take you to a tribunal.

Acas has recently updated its guidance and published its new statutory Code of Practice on requests for flexible working. Employees now have the right to ask their employer if they can work flexibly from their first day of employment (rather than waiting for 26 weeks) and can make two flexible working requests in any 12-month period (rather than one).

Always bear in mind: the way you deal with flexible working requests will affect how your employees feel about coming to work. This, in turn, will affect not only their productivity but also your reputation as an employer.

People don’t forget how you make them feel

If you’re thinking “this is work and has nothing to do with feelings and emotions” you may want to read on. Because emotions are behind everything we do (including you) and even your employees’ requests for flexible working conditions. Particularly if you suddenly ask everyone to return to the office environment without prior consultation or warning. Their resistance will trigger your feelings which can turn your once pleasant working place into a place where nobody wants to be.

Sadly, very few organisations understand how important it is for employees to feel psychologically safe in the workplace. We may not be fighting tigers or bears for our survival, but our brains are still hard-wired to keep us alive and any threat, physical or psychological, can trigger the survival instinct (fight, flight or freeze). This will have a huge effect on how your staff perform. It is, therefore, in your best interest to ensure you encourage positive emotions even if the stress levels are high. But how?

This is where positive relationships and mutual understanding come into play. Again.

The better the relationship is between you and your employees, and between each of them, the better supported they will feel. This then brings a sense of psychological safety which will, over time, encourage people to work together. Working from home has had a negative impact on many people, particularly those who suffer from social anxiety. In parallel, there is a human tendency to make assumptions about others or what they think. Those assumptions are often negative. And may have been exacerbated by some of the Government messaging that accompanied the pandemic where we were being told, in effect, that other human beings are dangerous (remember two-metre distancing, face covering, vaccinated vs non-vaccinated….). Despite this, if you approach the return to return-to-work process carefully, it’s possible to keep staff on board, fulfilled and happy.

In many of the Effective Communication training workshops we’ve run recently, it’s clear that it’s the human contact many miss. Microsoft Teams meetings are great, and save time and money on travel, but what they lack is the seemingly meaningless personal conversations people have, that create a sense of teamworking. And it’s often the lack of rapport and knowing more about your colleagues at a social level that stops people from asking for help or guidance. We can’t build trust over Teams or Zoom when most people multi-task and don’t listen to what is actually being said. It’s hard to get to know anyone when you have a busy half an hour scheduled for a meeting with little social interaction outside the business needs of the agenda.

Don’t swap short-term discomfort for long-term dysfunction

So, what can you do? If you need help finding the best way to handle a return to the office, or any other big changes in your workplace, we offer consultations, training and individual coaching to help steer you through your journey. These will be tailored to your particular needs and circumstances so that you can continue doing what’s important to you and we can look after the rest.

Drop us a line and we can have an informal conversation about options.

Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

Edit by Chris Guiton