The Return to Work
Nothing is causing more hand-wringing than questions about returning to work. I’ve spoken with many leaders lately, and this is probably the biggest hot button issue I’m hearing about.
Yes, there’s the normal “growth” needs, and mitigating risk is a perennial topic, but the pandemic put talent at the top of the pyramid of worries and it’s not going away. Our most recent sales survey shows sales leadership increasingly worried about retention — the issue is noticeably up on the list of concerns. In addition, the matter of what “back to the office” looks like continues to be top-of-mind on the “stress-o-meter.”
We surveyed US employees to get a sense of where the employee mindset is, and the opening paragraph of the analysis pretty much sums it up:
An Outsell survey of US office employees shows that they want more flexibility in where they work in the future and are concerned about returning to offices despite having missed social contact. Junior employees don’t seem to share the enthusiasm of senior managers for going back.
There is a difference between leadership and the rank and file, and it’s the latter that are happier with flexibility and desire to have it perpetually. Leaders we speak with are concerned about losing “culture and relationship capital” and want folks back in the office. Junior employees feel a bit differently about this.
And why not? This is a generation born and raised on digital, and they’re used to getting things done without face-to-face contact. Ever heard of ghosting? Want to see them “get things done” — check out how they mobilized RobinHood or Climate Rebellion?
This generation knows how to get “stuff” done and to do it by pressing buttons and not much else. Why would they yearn to come back to the office when they’ve pretty much been digital their entire lives? They know how to innovate digitally. Many don’t want to come back to the office at all, and many of the rest want to do so only on occasion, or at least less than before.
I fear for any leadership team mandating that employees return to the office 100%. Flexibilty is the name of the game. In fact, it will be a competitive differentiator and a box to tick when making sure that companies are talent-friendly. Freedom and flexibility are de rigueur now. So is having a company’s purpose be meaningful.
Continue to consult with employees about what they want and need.
Check generational paradigms at the door. Leaders who are Boomers are going to have different paradigms than Millennials or Gen Z. Modernize. COVID-19 forced us to, and we can’t go back.
We also asked respondents to pick the top two factors that might motivate them to return to the office: 62% said “social contact,” just over half opted for “more visibility and involvement,” and just under 40% said “social life outside the office.” When asked about how important it was for them to be in the office for various types of activity — individual work, team meetings, etc. — “social events” received the highest overall score. Employees have clearly missed the social dimension of working in an office.
Make the return to work fun. Use it for what offices do best: social connection. And give folks the freedom and flexibility to make the decisions that work for them, their team members, the company overall, their families, and themselves. If we can’t get to win-win-win, we’ll lose the lemonade that the pandemic’s lemons gave us.