In August, when Zoom ordered its workers back to the office, shock rippled across the internet. The video conference platform, which has now become nearly synonymous with remote work, seemed to be flying in the face of the very thing they represented. The company now requires employees living within 50mi (80.5km) to work from the office at least twice a week.
Zoom is just one of the latest businesses to issue an office return ultimatum. Amazon sent a warning email to employees they believed were disobeying its three-days-in-the-office rule. Google released a memo giving managers permission to factor unexcused absences from the office into performance reviews. Advertising network Publicis bluntly told US workers that failure to come into the office three times a week could impact salary increases, bonuses and promotion opportunities.
Many workers who’ve gotten used to lenient remote work policies are unhappy amid increasing calls for autumn returns. Some companies are digging in their heels, threatening to punish workers who stay at home. Others, however, are taking less hard line approaches, and many say these gentler tactics are working. Managers are taking note.
Listening to workers
Bosses are, by now, no stranger to employee pushback on office returns. James Arnall, marketing director for employee rewards program Perkbox in London, has struggled to get his team of 15 workers across the UK and Australia back to the office.
In November 2021, after a difficult month for sales, Arnall and the other managers in the company decided to enforce more time in the office – four days a week. “We thought we’d always worked better together in person, across the sales, marketing, customer success and revenue teams, because excitement would build up at the end of the month.”
Companies are finding ways to make offices a better place to be, so employees don’t feel like they’re dragged into sterile spaces (Credit: Getty Images)
Yet “it landed really badly”, he says; workers saw it as a punishment, rather than as the performance booster it was intended to be. The managers were immediately inundated with questions and complaints. Arnall and his fellow bosses scrapped the four day mandate after a month, but they still wanted workers back.
Now, instead of issuing ultimatums, Arnall’s approach is less firm, and more worker led. His team has moved from a tightly monitored three days in the office to a flexible two. “We’ve become more relaxed about policing it, and what I’ve found is the more relaxed we are, the more people adhere to the policy in general,” he says.
Dylan Wickenden, executive director of HR at facilities management firm EMCOR UK, received similar pushback when his company announced a full return to the office in September of 2021. “We said we expected everyone in from this date, but we didn’t mandate it,” he says. Many workers just didn’t show up.
He felt he had two options: enforce the return to the office with disciplinary action or change the policy.
He, too, chose the gentler approach. “We weren’t going to impose penalties,” says Wickenden, so they embraced a more flexible option. Now, workers are required to be in the office “the majority of the time” (perhaps an inspired reframing of three-plus days per week), but working hours can be more asynchronous. “My team just need cover the core hours, from eight ’til five, between us,” he says.
‘The employer gets credit for trying’
Another substitute for threats? Providing perks and spaces that only come with in-person work.
Perkbox, for instance, offers company-wide incentives for employees who come into the office. “We don’t want to be seen as bribing people to come in,” says Arnall, “but there’s a light and friendly way you can incentivise them.” In-office workers automatically receive a number of rewards points, to use in a variety of ways such as a lunch subsidy, money for groceries or even a Netflix subscription.
Other companies are trying to make workplaces more welcoming, to create better environments for workers – or at least soften the blow of mandated returns.
“Some are designating certain spaces in the building for health purposes,” says New York-based management consultant Liz Kislik. This includes areas created so new mothers have a private place to pump, diabetics don’t have to inject at their desks and those who need daily physical therapy have the option to do it at the office.
Others are looking into at-work childcare, such as designated areas where older kids can quietly do their homework, or where “a trusted person who can supervise two or three babies”. Even pets are factoring into the equation – some businesses Kislik works with are exploring “behaviour certification” processes to allow dogs into the office.
While the long-term future of office returns is still uncertain, some employers are focusing on implementing increasingly enticing incentives to pull people back into the workplace in the short-term.
Salesforce, for example, offered to give $10 (£8) to local charities every time an employee came into the office during a two week period in June, giving workers new motivation to return (at least temporarily). While at EMCOR UK, says Wickenden, “for those who were a little bit more resistant to coming back, we’d invite them to meetings on-site with lunch, to remind them what it was like to be with their team”.
The moves management can make to bring workers back – or at least make mandated returns less jarring – “have to be worked out on a one-by-one basis”, says Kislik. But making changes of some kind can make all the difference to workers. “It’s time consuming, but these are the kind of experiments that tell your workforce that you’re thinking about their lives, so even if they don’t work out, the employer gets credit for trying.”
But before these perks can even be considered, it’s essential for managers to understand and communicate the purpose of the office. “If everybody understands why it’s worth coming in, then they’re willing to discuss what would make it easy or tolerable to do so,” says Kislik.
Employees will respond better when they feel they have a purpose to come in, such as for a social event (Credit: Getty Images)
‘A day well spent’
The solution for many managers is to require fewer days, full stop. Getting rid of the dreaded daily commute is generally a good approach for management to temper the bitter taste of office returns.
US-based future-of-work consultant Gleb Tsipursky says this straightforward approach is an effective way to improve office attendance. “Managers should schedule in-office activities into as few days as possible,” he says, “because it’s the commute that their staff hate, not the office.”
With his team, Arnall stacks Wednesdays with meetings and sessions that are difficult to do virtually, plus adds social events at the end of the day, to ensure office days are worth commuting for.
Another of Kislik’s clients only requires their employees to come in when there’s a real reason to, and lets them work shorter, more efficient days when they do. “But they do not require everybody to commute during the normal rush hour,” she says, “so that makes it much more palatable for people to come in.” Instead of travelling in for nine o’clock start, the workday starts at 11, but still ends at the usual time. “If you have six good work hours, you can still get everything done,” she says.
Simply put, if workers are being asked to return to office, they want to feel like they have a say, and that they’re returning to spaces they want to be in. Most importantly, though, they want to feel like they have a reason to be there in the first place.
As managers wrestle with one of the biggest workplace problems right now, Kislik says bosses should be asking an important question as they draw their workers back: “Are we providing value to our teams, so they feel that day in the office is a day well spent? That is crucial.”