As the world grapples with the aftermath of a global pandemic, the traditional office environment is being reevaluated. The question arises: What happens when the allure of remote work overshadows the desire to return to the office?
Core Problems
Employees don’t want to come back more than occasionally
- Having an increasing number of permanently remote employees is complicating
- Workers who do endure the hassle of commuting into the office will regularly find themselves sitting at their desks with headphones on logging into Zoom meetings with their remote colleagues undermining leaders’ justification for any enforced hybrid or full-time in-office schedules
Most companies should stick to a hybrid approach
Research suggests there’s little to no impact on productivity and culture, connection, and innovation improve with in-person time
- With workers who have been hired remotely or have moved out of range of an office, “it’s a tricky issue.”
- One approach is to give them a certain amount of time to relocate to where they can be part of the hybrid schedule
- Another is to grandfather them in and let them remain remote
- This has the downside of the frustration and two-tier system and is likely to decrease their ability to get promoted because of proximity bias
There’s also money.
Companies with a preference that workers be in the office all or most of the time might have to pay more to recruit and retain them given flexible options offered by rival employers
- Katie Burke, chief people officer at HubSpot, believes that providing employees flexibility remains critical even amid reopening
- HubSpot’s strategy includes three Es: enablement, experimentation, empathy
- Enablement involves equipping managers and workers with tools and support for hybrid, such as templates for 1:1 meetings and connectivity suggestions
- Experimentation includes virtual events, so that employees from different teams can get to know each other
- Empathy includes special support for caregivers and employees of color, including training and encouraging managers to talk about their own experiences
