Five Ingredients for a Graceful Return to Office

Return to Office (RTO) policies and enforcement have been raging in America's workplaces ever since COVID. While it's true there is are efficiencies to be gleaned from having more employees in the office at the same time, it's also possible to erode employee trust, raise the cost of labor and bring sour attitudes to the office you were trying to enhance in the first place. A successful RTO policy isn't all that hard, but it requires more reasoning, more leadership, and more overall compassion and flexibility than most employers are willing to invest.

INGREDIENT ONE: You need a proper WHY.

Yes, this is in the spirit of Simon Sinek's book, "Start with Why". The first rule of a proper WHY has nothing to do with performance or money. More production, more profit, more of anything that is an end in itself is meaningless to employees or anyone looking for a motive to get out of bed, dress for work and slog through traffic before even starting your work day. The most meaningful WHY usually involves something to do with people, especially lives touched or compassion rendered. As an example, Simon Sinek recounts the story of the two workers. One says, "I'm building a wall...it pays the bills." The second says, "I love my job. I'm building a cathedral!"

Your WHY for coming on-site doesn't have to incorporate the full meaning of the Company, but it needs to have enough meaning to engender the intrinsic motivation needed to get through the tough times. There are lots of professions where coming in to work seems a foregone conclusion. Firemen, police, hospital and medical staff, military, and countless other key roles require working in-person, and nobody argues that. Their WHYs are part of their mission and are clearly understood. Likewise, you need to provide a well understood reason for coming in that includes at least a modicum of nobility. And remember, "We have no choice!" is lame and only works in the movies — sort of.

INGREDIENT TWO: Lead by example.

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? If you want to get employees to do something, then leadership has to do it first, right? Well...let's take a step back. Leading by example does not mean coming in to work the first day and then leaving the employees alone after that — yes, you have valid reasons for being out, running the business, checking on clients, etc. — but the employees don't always get that. To them, it feels hypocritical. OR...you might have decided during a budget crunch to hire all your senior people from out of state, all of which have to report in remotely. Guess what? Their positions as remote seniors block equitable enforcement of your RTO policy! And don't forget about vacation days! Senior leadership may work a lot harder, but they often take more time off as well. How can you square that with the employees whom you leave behind, tending the shop. To the contrary, a good coach, mentor, boss, or leader should be able to lead the team in attendance for most of the year.

True RTO enforcement requires someone be there in the office to meet the employees. Not just anyone will do. It has to be the person they report directly to or their closest associate that can hold employees accountable. By "accountable", you have to track attendance, and the employees have to know you're tracking it and reporting it up the line, and they need to have access to those reports to judge their own performance. Just tracking and reporting is usually motivating enough, so you shouldn't need heavy consequences unless attendance becomes a problem.

INGREDIENT THREE: Use compassion.

Don't forget what a game changer remote work was for most employees, especially those who had never experienced it before. They proved they could do their work perfectly fine without ever coming into the office, and while you as an employer may have got the short stick in certain areas (e.g. collaboration, connection, and all that expensive office space), it's hard for the employees to justify giving up their freedom for the pain of commuting and working in your controlled environment. For many jobs, working remotely really is more productive, if lacking in other areas. And when they look around at all their friends working remotely and all your competitors offering remote work, they might feel they are entitled to it.

You need to listen to the concerns of your employees, even if their concerns are unspoken and difficult to wheedle out of them. Take the time to listen to them first, and you might just find it easier to get them to listen to you. But If you try to force attendance without first listening to employee concerns and doing your best to provide solutions, you'll just alienate your workforce, and that makes for a universally unpleasant work environment.

INGREDIENT FOUR: Modulate.

We often think of RTO as binary, like a light switch that is all off or all on. That perspective has no room for negotiation and just leads to contention. Rather, find a way to present RTO as a dial, something you can modulate a little at a time, as you are able, without causing anything to break.

There are lots of ways to modulate attendance requirements, and not all of them require selecting days of the week. Consider requiring a quarterly balance, a minimum days that can be accumulated at the employee's convenience. If quarterly is too much, try monthly or even weekly. Consider establishing "core hours", which is the minimum schedule of hours you want people to come in, when everyone would be most likely to overlap. Or flip the paradigm on its head and give everyone an allowance of remote days to be used according to whatever rules you want to allow.

Make coming in worthwhile by actually doing the things you wanted them in the office for. Hold meaningful group workshops and all-hands meetings. Keep them well-planned and stick to your agenda. Set aside days for group events, like luncheons, brownbags, lightning talks, study groups, or after-hours that can make being on-site more enjoyable and memorable.

INGREDIENT FIVE: Celebrate!

Even if your RTO efforts are a complete success, and your on-site attendance surpasses all expectations (which is not very likely), you need to capitalize on a key opportunity for positive feedback that will help prevent you from losing whatever momentum you have gained thus far. Remember all that tracking and reporting you did in Requirement Two? It might have motivated the your staff, but they will come to resent it if nothing good comes from it at some point.

You need to give employees something in return, and no, I'm not talking about giving bonuses, parties or other forms of bribery, although you can think about that too. I'm talking about the sincerest form of recognition, or even better, actually saying thank you. Saying thanks is the most important gift you can bestow on an employee, and it's not easy to do it right — more on this in a future article.

CONCLUSION

Real progress with personnel has to start by thinking of eachother as people, colleagues, and friends. Employees are not a commodity. They are not easily replaceable — not really. And they are most definitely NOT your adversaries, despite any misunderstandings. Treat them like human beings, care about them, and work for their benefit, and before long you will find it much easier to make progress pulling together as a Company.

~ Tom/*