Since lockdown ended and we all started to try to get back to normal the conversation around home working versus hybrid or full-time return to the office has been constant. And recently more people have been asking me my opinion – especially about how to communicate the company’s needs versus the employee’s needs.
One of the main issues seems to be that employees are not seeing the need to return to the office at all. They argue that they can do their job from home, they did it in lockdown and therefore they can do it now too.
How do companies feel about this?
I am hearing that this is affecting the culture and the relationships in the company. Without the casual conversations at the coffee machine and in the corridor, there is not the same feel in the company. And it is also affecting the work being done, especially the standard of work. People are not learning from their peers through the overheard conversations or the casual questions in the office. This is not affecting scheduled training and development but the ad-hoc continuous learning is definitely being affected.
How do we reconcile the two views though?
Lots of companies are now insisting on hybrid working which at least brings people back into the office. Managers can then have face-to-face conversations with their staff. But the team themselves all chose different days to come in. And that causes meetings to be held on Teams, and employees therefore don’t see the point of coming into the office! It becomes a cycle!
I was recently speaking to the Commercial Director of a large charity who is struggling with these issues. She would like her staff to be back at work for at least three days a week, but is being met with resistance as they are unable to see the benefit, they like the convenience and cost benefit of working at home. We discussed how she is communicating her requirement to have them back in the office and she realised that she was not offering any clear and compelling reason for the employees to come into the office. We discussed what that could be and I suggested that she no longer has any team or larger company meetings online, that she always holds these on the days that everyone is in the office. Then they become as much a social occasion as a meeting. She has to ensure that they are not death by PowerPoint meetings(!) but interactive, in the way you cannot do with an online meeting. This, of course, necessitates all staff coming in on the same days, but now she has a real, valid reason for insisting on this.
This made me wonder if we need to change our expectations of the time in the office? And communicate that? Perhaps the time in the office is not going to be as visibly productive as the time at home, because we do chat to each other, we do go to meetings a few minutes early to get a coffee and catch up with our colleagues. And perhaps we start to talk about the value of that to our teams.
We can of course TELL our staff that we have to them in the office, either full time as some large companies are doing, or for a number of days a week which appears to be more common. But to ensure that we have happy staff, who want to work for us, and are not at risk of leaving, we need to communicate the WHY to them. Why will it be beneficial to the company and to them? Just saying because we said so is not enough!
So maybe, before you communicate with your teams, think about the WHY, why do you need them back in the office? It may be, like the charity, that they will build relationships and benefit from seeing their colleagues. It may be that it is about them building their future careers, learning from their peers and mentors, to continue the informal learning. It may be about their communication skills. Many people have suffered through lockdown with their communication skills, and some of our younger employees have never had the opportunity to learn good communication. How can you present that to them as a great reason to want to come into the office?
And maybe you need to lead the way, be in the office and be available yourself on the days you want them in! It’s no good bringing them in only for them to see you working at home.
And once you communicate the why, hopefully it will be easier to change the working patterns and directly impact your company culture.
Jacqui Hanbury is the Managing Director of The Pathway Communication Company Limited and is a specialist in helping you find the thing that is stopping your business from achieving as much as it could be. Follow her on LinkedIn to find out more.
The Pathway Communication Company Ltd provides a personalised plan to help you and your business move forward. We might help you set goals, a strategy, a communication plan, facilitate a meeting, be a coach or mentor. Whatever it takes. Find out more at: www.pathwaycc.co.uk