After remote work became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of work has slowly normalized over the past year. But in asking workers to return to the office, it’s useful to understand why they’d be tempted to come back to the office.
According to a May 2022 Owl Labs survey, 44% of companies in the US no longer offer remote work. The remaining 56% either offer a fully remote or hybrid work policy to employees. More than half of companies want employees onsite five days a week, however.
Considering that 74% of employees report being happier while working remotely, there’s a clear disconnect between employees and employers who would like to see them back in the office. A McKinsey study finds that 29% of people would leave their jobs if required to work exclusively onsite.
That presents a problem for employers who have costs tied up in office space and want to create a workplace culture for their teams. Do you force employees to hang up their pajamas and come back to work, risking frustration and potential talent loss? Do you give employees the option to return to the office and risk creating divisions internally?
For employers looking to get workers to return to the office, your answer lies with people who want to work onsite.
Why do workers want to return to the office?
While McKinsey has found that employees want more flexibility and offsite work options, they also surveyed employees who wanted more onsite workdays. Their survey of 20,000 people from 18 companies yielded the following reasons, in order of importance, from workers:
- Socializing with colleagues
- Better collaboration
- Being more visible to leadership
- Feeling more connected to company culture
- Get exposed to informal learning opportunities
- Separate work from personal life
- Have a better workspace
- Feel more in tune with what’s happening in the business
Notice a theme in those answers? The things workers want more than anything else are exactly what they can’t get at home: More person-to-person connection.
How to encourage workers to come back in
Like any major organizational policy shift, you can’t make a drastic change overnight and compel your employees to “just be fine with it”. To get people back in the office, you have to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach. There are many benefits to working onsite for employees, just as there are for employers, and you have to coax your team into seeing that.
1. Promote your organization’s culture
Your organizational culture is one of the most important things that differentiates you from competitors. People are what make your culture great.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Experience per Square FootTM (XSF) global survey found that just 56% of employees feel connected to their colleagues, and only 55% report feeling a sense of well-being. Addressing that gap may be as easy as setting up employee off-sites, dinners, parties, and other events that allow remote employees to meet in person and get to know one another on a personal level. As employees get to know one another better, they’ll be more inclined to return to the office.
Everybody is looking for a sense of community and belonging in their lives. That comes from building a shared sense of identity, with the simplest common ground being that employees work together at the same company. Work on building that identity outside of work before easing employees back into onsite work.
2. Stay flexible
Your employees’ health and well-being should always be paramount. Nearly 80% of employees expect some kind of remote work option, according to the XSF survey.
While few employees are eager to return to the office every day, most are at least open to it — provided there is flexibility.
In today’s fast-paced world, there just isn’t enough time in the day for individuals to manage their jobs, social lives, and responsibilities to themselves and their families without flirting with burnout.
It’s not laziness to want to work from home, it’s a cost-benefit analysis on the part of the employee as to how detrimental a commute and eight hours every day at a desk can be to his or her mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
That said, work doesn’t have to be a constant stressor. As we noted in the previous section, a place of work should be a community and give employees a sense of belonging. Research shows that connections with others improve peoples’ sense of well-being, even for introverts.
Encourage employees to prioritize their own well-being both with a flexible work policy. And by letting them know you’re fine with them taking time for coffee runs with other employees, a longer lunch, and attending to non-work responsibilities like doctor appointments and picking up the kids from school.
Additionally, organizations can support employee well-being by investing in the office itself. Improving building amenities can make employees prefer being in the office to working from home.
Provide quality workstations, ensure that lighting and temperature conditions are good, and keep a stocked kitchen for lunch. And yes, despite being the ultimate symbol of organizations putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds, a ping-pong table is a nice amenity when you have the rest of your house in order.
3. Provide in-person growth opportunities
Demanding employees be present for weekly touchbases or check-ins that could be done over Zoom or even email is just bad business. Employees shouldn’t need to be present for absolutely anything, but a good way to make them want to be in the office is by offering extra incentives to those who do come in.
No, we’re not saying pay onsite employees more, but make extras available to those who work onsite, like bonus career training, mentoring sessions, or meetings with leadership.
Work on breaking down silos by allowing team members to lead workshops on their expertise or pursue projects that aren’t necessarily a top priority for the organization.
Even hosting guest speakers onsite can be a good way to encourage people to come into the office.
This can also just be smart for an organization. You want more skilled employees, right? Give employees the opportunity to invest in themselves, and you could check two boxes with one stroke.
4. Don’t do it all overnight
We’ve stated it throughout this piece, but it deserves its own section. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and a remote work policy shouldn’t be overturned in a single night. Or week. Or even month.
Start by offering onsite work, encourage employees to come in by fostering a sense of community, and give employees plenty of warning when you plan to switch to a hybrid model. Give employees options for how they get to work before telling them how they have to.
If you don’t want your culture to suffer, you’ll be transparent, patient, and respectful of your employees’ wants and needs as you return to onsite work.
Remember, employees don’t prefer remote work just because they want to work in their pajamas or telecommute from Costa Rica. They have lives and responsibilities beyond work that are often more important to them. Work isn’t everything to the vast majority of people — and certainly not a bigger priority than family or health.
Most people would rather work remotely than in an office. That’s a fact of life that won’t ever change. But there’s still a fundamental human instinct to feel part of a community, which is exactly why some people prefer to work in an office.
There’s still a fundamental human instinct to feel part of a community
Employers who want their employees back would be wise to make their culture and community feel too good to miss out on rather than force employees to accept it as is. Following these steps will help you incentivize working onsite rather than compel it, allowing your employees to come back of their own accord – and keep them there for longer.
