“To be, or not to be, that is the question”

Life after COVID. It seems a lot has changed since the pandemic struck in 2020. Especially in the workplace, when nearly the entirety of the American workforce was sent home. This completely upended the way we did work. Meetings went virtual, home Wi-Fi was tested, and people discovered they could wear pajamas and still be productive.

Here we are in 2023 and many employees are still working from home. But there is a bit of tussle happening in workplaces, as many employers want them back in the office. You may have heard of the “Return to Office” mandates. Now that the pandemic is well in the rearview mirror, many companies are requiring that employees come back into the office to work, or at least in a hybrid capacity, which is being received with mixed responses, to say the least. 

It’s no surprise that “​​About 47% of employees say they would quit their job or begin looking for a new job immediately if their employer mandated a full-time return-to-office policy.” While organizations are trying to play hardball to get employees to come back into the office, it begs the question: “Why?”

Let’s first start with productivity and how it’s been impacted since going remote. According to a Forbes article in April 2023, “Overall, productivity is significantly higher with remote work, as evidenced by a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) which found that businesses relying on remote work, such as IT and finance, saw productivity growth increase from 1.1% between 2010 and 2019 to 3.3% since the start of the pandemic.” 

Entrepreneur.com reported in January 2023 that 71% of people surveyed indicated that their productivity had improved over the past two years, 21% indicated it didn’t change and 8% stated that it had deteriorated. “This came as no surprise,” Dr. Gleb Tsipursky of Entrepreneur shares, “Removing the hours of commute, preparing food at home, and being close to the family are all elements that employees have appreciated. In the words of Allyson Zimmermann, Executive Director at Catalyst, ‘access to remote work increases employee wellbeing, productivity, innovation and inclusion.’”

A return-to-office mandate can’t fully be about productivity, then. What about team collaboration and communication? Another article from Forbes “Remote Work Statistics and Trends in 2023,” states that “53% of remote workers say it’s harder to feel connected to their coworkers. Another challenge associated with remote work is the lack of face-to-face interaction. Surveys of remote workers report finding it harder to feel connected to their coworkers. Yet, 37% feel that remote work neither hurts nor helps with connection to coworkers. This highlights the need for effective communication and team-building strategies in a remote setting.”

Team collaboration and communication have taken a hit due to remote work, but it’s not unanimous across the board that it’s greatly impacted everyone. While it’s true that nothing can replace the impact of face-to-face interactions, many communication tools and project management software, as well as new paradigms and philosophies about what defines work, are allowing teams to adapt and evolve. Maintaining connection also requires intentionality.

Management and employee oversight are other areas that have been affected by the advent of this work-from-home era. Forbes shares that a “loss of power” is a factor in management rejecting a fully remote workforce. Researchers found “that remote work tended to be viewed very badly by managers who thought that their authority and power faded away when their team operated remotely.” 

Another massive factor in the return-to-work mandate is financial. Many companies have been hit hard with the cost of physical office space and empty cubicles. Fortune Magazine reports that “remote work has led to significant drops in lease revenue, occupancy, lease renewal rates, and market rents in the office sector within commercial real estate.”

Could this be a key factor in why organizations are demanding that employees return to the office? Vox has an interesting take. Rani Molla writes, “Despite what you’re hearing from some bosses, things will likely never go back to the way they were. Molla says, however, the “push to return to the office is not that robust. For every high-profile company forcing workers to return to the office, another lets them work where they wish. Companies that have instituted return-to-office policies have backpedaled or failed to enforce them. Even New York City’s mayor, who’s been bullish on the return to the office and who mandated a five-day-a-week return-to-office policy last June, has changed his mind as the city struggles to fill empty jobs.”

How has remote work affected industries that need in-person interaction? “Industries…such as transportation, dining, and hospitality, saw productivity growth decrease from 0.6% between 2010 and 2019 to a decline of 2.6% since the start of the pandemic.”

So, what is the bottom line for your organization? The answer: it depends. Here are some questions to consider when thinking through whether or not to implement a return-to-office mandate for your workforce:

• Can jobs be done remotely?
• Do jobs require face-to-face interaction?
• Is there a current lease coming up for renewal?
• Will requiring employees to return to the office negatively impact morale and retention?
• How could requiring employees to work in the office affect recruiting?
• What philosophies could change within leadership that may be affecting a return-to-office stance?

If a company decides that returning employees to the office is the way forward, there are a variety of options to help incentivize current employees and draw prospective employees. Fisher Phillips recommends offering a number of incentives to help sweeten the in-office work environment:

• Commuting stipend
• Relocation benefits
• Flexible work hours
• Childcare support
• Hybrid work

One thing is clear: things have changed since COVID and they most likely won’t ever go back to the way they were. How companies adapt and evolve will depend on a variety of factors, but will certainly require an honest assessment of business goals and company culture. There is a lot at stake. 

One (potentially unconventional) step that can be taken, is asking employees what they think or would like to be considered. We offer our clients an Employee Climate Survey, to help gather insights about how their ecosystem is doing, where it’s weak, and coming up with an informed plan of action to help support their people and ultimately the company.

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If you would be interested in an Employee Climate Survey, or you’d like assistance with analyzing and assessing your environment to create an effective employee attraction and retention strategy for your company, we’re just a phone call away.

Written By: Marla Monk