How is your RTO (Return to Office) plan working?

The world is tired of Covid by now and with mask mandates being lifted (or put back again) and people pretending Covid is over, some companies are anxious to get their employees back to the office. We’ve all seen it, the return to office plan being marketed to employees as a choice option, only for employees to find out that they need special SVP approval to request for a fully remote arrangement. The loss of company culture and collaboration opportunities with a fully remote workforce is argument for having employees return to the office. Some companies are prescriptively outlining 2-3 days a week to be in the office. What we know is that there is a growing divide between what employees want and what employers want, also known as “The Great Rebellion”.

So how is your RTO (Return to Office) plan working out for you?

My friend Alice goes to work 2 days a week. On Saturday, when we caught up, she expressed to me frustration that the traffic has really picked up in the suburbs and she spent over an hour driving to work stuck in traffic, only to end up at work sitting all day in a conference room attending zoom meetings all day. She only saw 3 people in the office that day. With gas prices $5-7 per gallon, employees are asking themselves, “are the personal sacrifices worth it for me to be in-person today?” The daily trade-offs are real and for working parents, navigating insecure childcare options are still a reality.

Often there is a disconnect between what management want versus what employee’s want and if you want your company to succeed at figuring this out, this gap needs to be bridged as a whole. When I say as a whole, all employees must land with a sustainable option that works for them.

Here are some things to think about for leaders who are battling the Great Rebellion:

Respect diversity – one size no longer fits all. Companies that get too prescriptive on either mandating several days a week in the office or a “remote first for all” company, are at risk of alienating others that may thrive with the other working style. Some people have reported greater productivity, increased focus and increased energy from working remotely. While others miss being in the office and gain energy from having others around them. If we think of working styles as a form of diversity, we will understand that one size does not fit all. If we want people to truly thrive at what they do, why not allow them to have the optimal environment for them to perform? For minorities, lower microaggressions have also been reported with remote working. I can attest to this firsthand. I am 5 ft 1/2 inch (not quite made it to 5′ 1″), I used to have to intentionally overcome my smallness as an Asian petite woman. I would get consistent feedback that I needed to work on my “executive presence” and my “gravitas”. Oddly, as a remote worker, all of that has gone away and instead, I get comments that “I have great video presence” and that I speak “clearly and articulately in meetings”. I finally feel seen for who I am.

Be fair – fairness is a big-ticket item. If you don’t get this right, you can really disengage your employees. Are remote workers treated as second class citizens compared to those who are in the office more often? Is there proximity bias on who gets promoted, who gets assigned the high-profile projects, gets hired, or seen as high potentials etc.? I do find that when I speak to leaders, views and beliefs around remote working can be as polarizing as being a Democrat vs. a Republican. Some leaders truly believe in remote working while others think all employees must be in the office. Employees will have their radars up for signs of fairness and what leader preferences are and this can have an impact on retention and engagement. Unless there is a mindset change, there will not be an even playing field. Leaders should hold up a mirror and confront their biases. Furthermore, to objectively examine what is actually happening by reviewing the data around promotions, salaries, hiring and attrition related to remote working.

Focus on the quality of your interactions – as a leader, don’t assume you can’t build strong relationships with your team remotely. A senior leader recently confessed to me that he was very nervous about being a remote leader. His team was across the US, and he has been traveling to see them at least once a month in order to build relationships. I challenged him to think beyond face-to-face interactions to build relationships. It is not about being physically present that enables one to build relationships, it is the quality of your conversations that matter. How many people do you know better online rather than F2F? Furthermore, in the global economy we live in today, we often have to build relationships with coworkers or clients living in different countries, this cannot be ignored. You have to be intentional on how to build relationships remotely. As an HR BP, I supported a senior executive who gave me feedback that made me adjust how I interact with others remotely. He said that “Rachel should learn to find the moments online to connect” rather than “waiting for that scheduled zoom meeting”. He was essentially saying, I should be able to just drop by and say hi, but remotely, similar to how I might run into him at the hallway when we were all in the office. I later learned the skill to casually check in with him through slack, text, or through 5 min phone calls. Skillfully finding those small moments. The odd thing is, sometimes one is more willing to open up remotely than they would in real-life, opening the door to building a deeper relationship than you would otherwise.

Think of it as a lever for engagement and retention – I have been a hybrid worker for 9 years pre-Covid. I was in the office 2 days a week and people called me a “virtual worker”. Back then, no one understood that there is a difference between being fully remote and being hybrid. My leaders supported me only because they trusted me to perform, and I was an exception. I had to earn the right to work remotely. Through the years, I have received external job offers that were more lucrative with greater titles, but to find the same arrangement I had was nearly impossible. Headhunters would say “I can’t match your arrangement”. Knowing this, I remained a loyal employee and at times thanklessly worked 2 jobs when we were short-staffed. Looking back, I would still have made the same decision. The ability to work remotely and be there for my daughter when her speech therapist visited our home 2-3 times a week was priceless. The time I gained back from not having to commute and spend it with my family was priceless. It was clear that what the company got in return for allowing me to work remotely 3 days a week was my engagement and loyalty.

Rather than mandating, what if we gave employees choice? And not lip service choice where special approvals are needed to be remote. Why not give people what they really want and in return get a truly loyal and engaged employee? I recently caught up with an old co-worker and she was over the moon because her request to be remote has just been approved. This will enable her and her husband to live in the beach house they’ve custom build through the years and would enable her to live her dream life. Because of this approval, she has decided to stay with her current employer. Why not give your employees the key to unlock both their personal and professional dreams?

Still need help figuring it out? Have an executive coach by your side. Contact us at www.leadershipwow.com for a free discovery session.