Key elements to an RTO plan and how to get your employees on board
The headlines are loaded with announcements of employers rolling out return-to-office (RTO) plans. With the continued reporting of employees’ delight with their hybrid work arrangements and the benefits to their home life, it seems there is a bit of misalignment. What leaders want seems to be in direct conflict with what employees want.
Back in 2022 when Mercer conducted the Inside Employees Minds© survey, there was a significant gap in what employees wanted in terms of remote and hybrid work and what employers were providing. In the same survey the following year, collected in July 2023, 78% of employers reported they were satisfied with their company’s flexible work arrangements.
Now, with the recent push to repopulate office spaces, HR professionals are faced with the challenge of navigating between the wants of leadership and those of the employees.
So, what is causing this dilemma?
Why employers want to return-to-office
Recently, SHRM surveyed 1,500 HR professionals about their organization’s efforts to return some or all of their employees to the office. This survey revealed some of the top reasons for returning to the office, including:
- Need for in-person collaboration and teamwork
- Workplace culture and employee engagement considerations
- Leadership preferences
- Desire to restore a sense of normalcy and routine
- Employee productivity concerns
Another significant reason to have your workers return to the office is to increase idea generation. One experiment found that remote teams generated 15%–20% fewer ideas than in-person teams. This makes sense, as in-person interactions take in a whole person — their facial expressions, body language, and eye contact. As you’ve likely experienced, it is much more difficult to collaborate in a group setting on a Zoom call than it is in person.
Pushing for RTO can be beneficial for many workers, especially younger, more inexperienced employees. When working remotely, they miss the important interactions with more experienced workers who can help them learn new skills and advance in their careers. Many of these interactions are unplanned and can’t be replicated in a scheduled remote call.
According to research from SHRM, 47% of young Millennial and Generation Z workers say that when it comes to their career progression, “casual collisions” are more important now than they were in 2019. If you want to build a solid, experienced workforce, you need those in-person, spontaneous learning experiences.
Because you are tasked with implementing the directives of leadership on return to office, it’s best that you clearly understand the reasoning and messaging behind the directives. With that serving as your starting place, you can then move on to determining from the employee perspective.
Your employees’ perspective on return-to-office
It is understandable why so many employees object to returning to the office — they have grown comfortable with their remote or hybrid work arrangements. When considering going back to the office, you may hear objections surrounding some common workplace annoyances, such as:
- Increased commute time and cost
- Less time with family
- Longer day: waking up earlier/getting home later
- Money spent on professional attire
- Pets left home alone
- Not being home with kids
- More money spent eating out for lunch
- Less leisure time because of commutes/work responsibilities
- Less comfortable work environment
In the 2023 version of Mercer’s Inside Employee’s Minds survey, we found that as of July, just as several large employers were making RTO announcements, the majority of employees were still fairly satisfied:
- 81% responded favorably to the statement “I can maintain a reasonable balance between my work and personal life”
- 76% responded that they feel a sense of belonging within their team
- 71% say that they would recommend (their company) as a good place to work to family and friends
The bottom line is that employees have adapted to working from home and fear losing the flexibility they’ve come to know and like. So, how do you ease these concerns and make RTO a positive experience?
Moving toward alignment
If there was ever a time to dig deep on what your employees are feeling, now is the time.
Start by asking your employees what flexibility means to them. What are their concerns about returning to the office? How can you make the in-office experience better?
Elements in a return-to-office plan
As businesses navigate the transition from remote to in-person work, many common elements arise in return-to-office programs. Some of the most popular options include:
- Using clear communication on how and when the transition back to the office will happen
- Providing hybrid work opportunities
- Having flexible work hours that allow an employee to attend to family and personal obligations
- Including additional at-work health and wellness options
- Providing more green space for employees to enjoy themselves while taking a break
- Adding attractive and versatile spaces to encourage collaboration
- Offering “third” spaces like business lounges, libraries, or work cafes to help employees decompress
- Offering more paid time off
- Providing or subsidizing childcare
- Offering bring your pet to the office days
Your workplace strategy will be unique to your business needs. However, you must ask for and use employee feedback to build a successful plan.
One of the best methods to get real-time actionable feedback is the digital focus group. It may sound complicated but it really isn’t. Typically, it’s a virtual meeting, facilitated by a host, that allows for participant anonymity while collecting answers to polling questions through a digital tool. As polling questions are completed, the results are revealed in real time, allowing the host to pivot or ask follow-up questions for clarity. How great is that? Employees can feel comfortable giving honest, real responses without the influence of company politics, but also get the benefit of seeing others’ responses to perhaps ingest a broader point of view. In addition, the real-time capability to dig in deeper on responses provides a huge increase in terms of clarity and efficiency. It’s essentially a two-way conversation with your employees!
Then, armed with direct feedback from your employees, you can determine where your policies align to what your employees are saying and where there are opportunities for improvement.
Ready to see your employees back in the office? Get the insights you need boost your employee listening efforts so you can get your return-to-office strategy right.
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