As Covid-19 restrictions lift in some places, many employers consider what it will take to bring all or part of their staff back to the office. The way workers are brought back to work can profoundly affect employee attitude and satisfaction. Many employees have been working full or part-time remotely, so a return to work is likely to bring a wide array of feelings. By engaging employees in the process, managers will help to soothe negative feelings and reluctance.
But, that’s not the only step. Let’s dive in.
Find Out How Employees View A Return to Work
After more than a year of remote working, your employees are likely to have a broad spectrum of feelings and opinions on returning to work. Some employees have missed social interactions and prefer a separate space to work.
Others will question if a return to “normal” work is necessary or helpful. They have adjusted to working remotely and prefer it over traditional “at work” requirements. These employees have found themselves being more productive without the regular interruptions of an office.
Still, other employees may have fear and express reluctance to return to work because of ongoing Covid-19 developments.
As you prepare to bring the office back to work, be cognoscente of the feelings and opinions of your employees. Send out Surveys to get an idea of how employees feel. Polls can give you an idea of how many of your employees look forward to returning to work versus how many dread it.
Use surveys to find out what obstacles they face. This will help you be more prepared to assist them in overcoming their challenges and working toward solutions that will fulfill the needs of the business and the needs of your employees.
One widespread attitude that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed is how employees view remote work. Before Covid-19, the ability to work from home was considered a luxury. Now, many employees expect it as a benefit going forward. With the employment shortage, employees are demanding more flexibility to work remotely than ever before, and many are changing employers to accommodate that new priority. By encouraging your employees to speak up, you provide them a way to be heard and be engaged in the process. This can help some employees to get on board with a return to work when they would not have without feeling listened to.
Return To Work Will Require More Energy
Most humans are reluctant to change. Perhaps that has to do with Newton’s First Law of Motion. People like to stay in motion, doing the same things they did before. It’s likely that you encountered some reluctance from employees when the pandemic hit and employees started working remotely.
That’s because any change in a routine will require more energy. The mental energy of planning around change and not having an automated habit affects many people. Be aware that coming back to work will be more work and require more prep and effort than working remotely.
Employees will have to plan better to make it to work on time, get ready to work, commute to work, and manage daycare and other arrangements.
Find out from employees what concerns they have around these changes. What employees have moved farther away from an office hub in the last year? Find out which employees have sold a car or given up their primary method of commute. Carpooling and other shared commutes have seen changes or dissolved.
Understanding the impact of time and energy that returning to work will require of your employees allows you to better counsel with them about how to best return.
Remote Work Means Less Flexibility For Many Employees
For many employees, a return to work means a more rigid schedule. Working from home allows parents to log out for 10-15 minutes to run their child somewhere. Employees could do quick errands when they had a slow period. If a family member was sick or needed assistance, employees could help out while working from home.
Now, new arrangements will have to be made. And not all of their previous arrangements will still be available. Childcare, elderly parent care, pet care, and a slew of other arrangements may have to be remade entirely. And, even in areas where employers are opening up, limited numbers are still in place. Your employees may not be able to get care through a previous employer because of social distancing.
And, other employees may have seen drastic changes in their family makeup over the last year. New children, newly single parents, parental care, and other changes will have an unknown impact on employees who haven’t previously navigated balancing office work and these challenges.
Make sure that employees know they are safe to express concerns and voice their challenges. By offering additional support and allowing employees a voice, you can provide the tools and support that your employees most need.
Technology Challenges Upon A Return To Work
Many of your employees have rearranged parts of their personal life and space to accommodate remote work. Some have picked up additional bills to cover better internet, purchased technology to help with remote work, and other expenses. Find out how that has impacted your employees and involve them in solutions that don’t just leave employees with additional bills that came from remote work and the added bills of a commute back to work.
Another consideration is which staff brought home less-mobile technology for remote work. Printers, faxes, desktop computers, and other office equipment may have gone home with employees. Look at whether employees need to bring those items back if they’ve already been replaced, and whether or not employees will continue to have some remote days where that equipment will be needed at home.
Use Ideas as a place for employees to brainstorm solutions to concerns that become apparent through Polls and Surveys.
Employees May Face Sensory Overload
Even employees that have eagerly anticipated a return to work may be surprised to realize they have sensory overload. Working in an office means additional sounds and distractions. These include the hum of equipment, the chatter of colleagues, or the many other distractions of movement, phones, and more.
Your employees haven’t had to engage with each other for a year on the same level that will be required. This will especially require more effort from introverted employees as they relearn the skills and have to consistently reengage with team members.
Navigating these challenges may mean offering more private spaces where employees can go if they need to focus. It may mean greater sound barriers and noise-absorbing materials. As you involve employees in the process of navigating this challenge, you may be surprised at how simple and doable some of the solutions will be.
Adjusting The Team Cohesion
Your team has been remote part or full-time for a year. Team dynamics have changed. Some team members found themselves better able to speak up over conferences and one-on-one phone calls but may retreat into a quieter space. Others were more reluctant to speak up when they didn’t have the face-to-face interaction and queue to read.
Helping your team to adjust to an “at work” environment will be impactful in keeping the team functioning and engaged. Consider the actions you can take to help your team adjust. Perhaps greater flexibility in office arrangements and micro teams could be made. Team Members may have ideas on changes they want to see happen in the office setup to facilitate team cohesion.
Addressing Employee Fears
A return to the office may bring feelings of great fear and anxiety for many of your employees. This could be related to the social stress of working back in an office environment. It could also be related to Covid-related fears.
You will want to communicate and address concerns. There are many decisions to make. Will you bring your full staff back or rotate on and off days? Will you need to spread your staff out among more locations and greater office space to accommodate social distancing? How will you handle employees who have greater health risks and are still very concerned about the spread of Covid, especially since the vaccination may not be 100% effective?
There are other decisions to be made. Will you require vaccination of all your employees? If you do, are you prepared to replace the employees you may lose who refuse to be vaccinated? Are you prepared to navigate the fear that some employees may have around getting the vaccination? How will you monitor vaccinations and HIPPA requirements of privacy?
Many of these issues may require professional and legal advice. Allow your employees to voice their concerns and fears. Be mindful of the possible implications on all sides of the decisions you make.
Ways to Involve Employees In A Return to Work
There are many ways to provide additional support and resources for employees as they prepare to return to work.
- Give Employees A Voice. Request employee feedback through surveys, polls, and town hall meetings (held remotely). Write down concerns voiced in the meetings. Ask employees for solutions to their concerns. Find out how they would solve them.
- Give As Much Autonomy As Possible. Employees who have autonomy are better engaged and more likely to transition easier. Involve employees in the decision-making process regarding a return to work instead of handing down decisions from the top-down.
- Provide Flexible Schedules. Even if flexible schedules aren’t on the horizon for a long-term solution, consider providing greater flexibility during a transitional phase. This can greatly ease the stress felt by employees who find that it takes longer to commute and juggle other tasks than they remember.
- Early or Late Starts and finishes. Unlike a flexible schedule, allowing employees to come in a little earlier or later and finish earlier or later than normal will help to ease the stress of returning to the office. You could allow up to a certain amount of flexibility like an hour or 90 minutes.
- Part-Time Remote Work. Allowing employees to return to the office on a part-time basis could solve many of the challenges employees face. This might look like the entire office returning on the same days of the week, or it might look like an A/B type schedule where half the staff returns on any given day.
- Involve Employees In Transitional Committees. Create and involve employees in committees that can help to head up and address employees’ concerns around major topics. Allow employees to volunteer for the committees. You might consider committees on the technology of returning to work, the office arrangements, addressing family concerns, and other committees that can gather employee concerns and brainstorm solutions.
- Consider Additional Outside Resources. Outside resources can include mental health resources, on-location childcare, transportation passes, or meal services. Understanding what’s valuable to your employees will guide you to make the most cost-impactful decisions on resources.
- Smaller Office Hubs. Some employers have decided to move from a larger, central office to smaller hubs located around their footprint. This helps with social distancing and provides a hub closer to employee’s homes.
- Use Thanks Announcements to increase transparency behind the change and into the process and steps of transition.
- Celebrate Wins. Recognize employees for their added effort and preparation to return to work. Celebrate those employees who provide additional support and recognize those brave enough, to be honest about their concerns. Recognize that production will lower during the transition and make an effort to celebrate and recognize all the little wins.
Conclusion
Giving employees a voice and involving them in decisions and in the process will increase employee buy-in and engagement as your company returns to work. Autonomy, even in smaller decisions, makes a profound impact on employee attitudes and efforts.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.