Planning your return to office? We’ve taken the insights from our work with hundreds of top employers in the country and combined it with some insightful studies to give you 3 important considerations when returning your return to work.
1) Communication:
According to a recent Lifeworks mental health index, 25% of workers are still ‘unclear’ about their employers’ plan for return to work. This not only has an impact on employees’ mental health, but it also reduces their ability to plan accordingly (think child or pet care, access to vehicles or transit etc).
If your organization is still working on a return-to-work plan, commit to a date when the plan will be shared with employees. Once your plan is complete, find a way to communicate it to all employees that allows them to ask questions in a format in which they feel comfortable.
The cited Lifeworks mental health index also found that employees in organizations who have already communicated a clear return to work strategy reported less mental health stress. As they say, communication is key – it’s a cliché for a reason!
2) Employee Interactions:
Most employees haven’t seen their colleagues outside of a video call for over a year. Although these video calls have played an important role in keeping people connected, they are no substitute for in-person interaction. According to a Microsoft study, one of the largest impacts on people during the COVID period was on employees’ organizational connectivity, the foundation of social capital.
“Simply put, companies became more siloed than they were pre-pandemic. And while interactions with close networks are still frequent, we’re seeing that now — one year in — even these close team interactions have started to diminish.”
-Nancy Baym, Jonathan Larson, and Ronnie Martin, Microsoft
In your return-to-work plan ensure you also plan for informal moments and occasions that will help rebuild and strengthen relationships between colleagues. This is especially important for those that don’t necessarily work in the same department. Most employees agree that they have stayed close with their immediate colleagues but that relationships outside of their department or seniority have been heavily impacted.
3) Office set up and services:
For many employees returning to work comes with some challenges and downsides such as a commute and less flexibility. Help employees get excited about the return to work with fun and impactful changes to the office space. One way to do this is to make ergonomic upgrades. After a year of working on a dining room table, an adjustable desk and comfortable office chair can go a long way!
Secondly, it’s also important to note that our personal boundary spaces have changed during this past year. This change may not be permanent, but it is something to be aware of when mapping out office spaces. Allowing for more spaces between desks, fewer chairs at boardroom tables, and adding additional break areas all allow for people to ease back into the normal office routine more comfortably.
Lastly, add some fun to the office! This could include more informal break spaces and upgraded amenities. In our EVS Vancouver office, we decided to add some colours to our walls, upgrade desks and chairs as well as build an improved Nespresso Professional coffee and nunshen tea lounge area. Seeing employees taking coffee breaks together has been a highlight of our return to office experience.
Are you back in the office? What have you learned? Would you have changed your approach? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!