“It’s not you, it’s me. I’ve changed. With the best will in the world, I just can’t return full-time to the office. Free breakfasts and a new chill-out room won’t change my mind. I’ve got a puppy to walk, kids to pick up from school and an unmissable exercise class at 3 pm on a Tuesday. And my productivity has soared since I started working from home. I’m so sorry…”
Sound familiar? Have your employees ignored your attempts to get them back to the office? Have they even gone elsewhere to avoid doing so? If so, dear colleague, you are not alone.
According to a recent article in the Daily Mail, there’s been a backlash from workers whose employers have insisted that they return to the office either full or part-time. A third of 1,000 surveyed leaders said they had seen resistance from employees, and that they’re increasingly concerned about the ability to legally mandate a return to the workplace.
Clearly, it’s important to make coming back to the office an engaging, motivating and safe experience for employees. HR Morning has published six strategies to help smooth the transition:
- Create a workplace value proposition highlighting the culture, benefits and positive interactions employees have on-site. Document how employees will connect professionally and personally, collaborate effectively, boost creativity, and build their company culture.
- Take time to learn from remote working experiences. You want to make employees feel appreciated when they get back. So have one-on-one conversations to examine what employees most/least liked about working remotely, what they look forward to again now they’re back in the office, and areas for potential improvement for on-site work.
- Underline the efficiency benefits of teams working together on-site. Employees will be engaged if they know they can accomplish all their tasks at work and then be free to refocus on their personal lives at the end of the business day.
- Offer timely up-skilling and training opportunities. Work with leaders in your company across groups – especially within IT – to identify new useful tools and skills, and develop on-site training programmes accordingly.
- Make mental and physical well-being resources readily available. The easier it is for employees to explore and access massages, yoga classes, counselling and the like on-site, the more likely they will want to show up physically.
- Continue with compassion. Many companies have raised their compassion and empathy game over the last two years. Continue to show your employees the same consideration to nurture employee satisfaction, motivation and retention.
Whether your business is following a remote, on-site or hybrid model, ABL, your trusted recruitment partner, wishes you every success. And please get in touch with all your recruitment challenges. We are the UK’s leading multilingual recruitment experts and we’re here to help!
