The past year has been spent transitioning to a primarily work-from-home environment in many businesses.
Businesses have put into place a variety of tools and platforms that allow employees to work securely and conveniently from anywhere, such as managed desktop as a service, which recreates the office-based work environment.
Many of these things are here to stay, and it’s likely that a lot of businesses will continue having employees work from home, at least part of the time.
However, what if you want to have your employees come back to the office, even if it’s only sometimes, and they’re resistant?
The following are some things to know about getting employees back to the office during this transitional time.
Should You Really Bring Employees Back?
First, you need to think about whether or not it’s appropriate and advantageous for your particular business to try and bring employees back onsite.
You’re going to have to think about who really needs to be onsite. For example, your sales team may have daily activities that really rely on being face-to-face.
You may also have entire departments that don’t necessarily need to be onsite, and they work pretty easily using tech tools.
It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing, and you might be able to identify the benefits of being more strategic in how you bring employees back or perhaps don’t bring them back.
If you’renot sure where to start as far as deciding whether to bring employees back or who to bring back and when, ask for feedback.
This will give you the chance to gauge how employees feel before you make any decisions, and you can learn more about concerns so that you can then create solutions before they’re actual problems.
Lead with Safety
If you’re only just now thinking about bringing employees back into the workplace in person some or all of the time, you have the advantage of vaccines being widely available.
Beyond that, you do want your employees to feel safe in other ways because the pandemic has taken a mental toll on people that’s going to be hard to recover from. Being sensitive to that is important.
Begin by communicating your health and safety policies before you bring workers back in.
Be systematic when you’re implementing health and safety requirements, and be clear, so there’s no room for ambiguity.
Communicate More Than You Might Even Think Is Necessary
If you think you’re overcommunicating with employees about returning to the office, then that’s a good thing right now. You want your employees to feel both comfortable and motivated, so keep them in the loop about everything that’s going on and what your expectations are going to be.
If there are going to be changes in policies or anything else, let employees know well in advance.
Consider A Reconfiguration of Benefits
Maybe as part of your efforts to get employees not just willing but excited to come into the office, you might evaluate how their benefits needs have changed. There could be ways that you could help benefits be more in line with employees’ current needs.
For example, maybe employees are focused on childcare assistance right now if their children still aren’t in full-time school.
Emphasize the Perks
While it might be difficult for some employees to leave the convenience of working from home and the other benefits that can come with it, you can entice them.
There truly are benefits that come with working in an office, including the opportunity to socialize and enjoy things like office lunches and get-togethers.
Make sure you’re emphasizing the good things that employees are going to get to come back to. They might not have even realized they miss those things yet.
Get Buy-In From Your Leaders
The leaders in your business need to be fully onboard with whatever your plans are to have employees return to working in person.
Think about what their priorities are and work with them as you plan.
Be Gradual
All of us have gone through so many changes in the past year, and they all happened suddenly. Many of them also happened to be pretty negative.
As a business owner or leader, think about what your employees have been through and the resilience they’ve had to show as you make plans.
Be gradual with whatever you’re doing, and along with generally overcommunicating, communicate well in advance to let employees know what’s going to happen and what you expect. Let them transition back into their old lives as slowly as they might need to.
