It’s Hard Getting Remote Workers Back in the Office. Is Hybrid a Better Approach?

By John Hollon in Sidebars, The Workplace Week That Was on
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GETTING EMPLOYEES BACK in the office is a full-time job.

The debate over return to work policies continues and shows no sign of going away anytime soon. A story this past week from Bloomberg cuts to the heart of the issue:

“Nearly four years after pandemic-induced office shutdowns, the fight over working remotely or showing up in person has become a culture war flashpoint as bosses increasingly summon employees back to the office and workers resist the loss of a popular perk.

Two thirds of the country thinks the subject has become unnecessarily politicized, according to a nationally representative survey conducted for Bloomberg News by the Harris Poll. Some 74% think employees need to stop complaining about having to go back in office. Meanwhile, 57% say companies are out of touch for focusing so heavily on ‘back- to-office’ protocols.”

Is it a surprise to anyone in these mega-partisan times that even something like how, when, and where people work has become “unnecessarily politicized” too?

Everyone seems to have a hot take

As Bloomberg notes, “Remote work has long pitted workers versus management, white versus blue collar, left versus right. Yet these days, when polarization is turbocharged by social media, seemingly everyone has a hot take.”

Yes, everyone DOES seem to have a hot take on remote work, and there were a lot of examples of that in the news this past week. Here are a few that give you a feel for the wide variety of possibilities about work policies:

A critical issue to be addressed

I’M SURE THOSE JUST scratch the surface of all that’s out there on the remote work debate … and, that there is a lot more to come.

The Forbes article points to a Resume Builder survey that found a whopping 90% of companies  — yes, nine out of 10 — plan to implement return-to-office policies by the end of 2024. And almost 30% of those organizations said they “will threaten to fire non-compliant employees.”

That doesn’t sound good, and would create incredible workplace havoc if what is being threatened actually takes place.

As Forbes also points out, this is a critical issue that needs to be addressed in the remote work debate, because:

“The stakes of this tug of war are high, with surveys and studies suggesting that a substantial number of employees would rather quit their jobs than give up the benefits of remote work. In fact, 25% of people are willing to quit or change jobs just to avoid the return to the office.”

Workers quitting altogether rather than returning to the office? That sounds pretty bold, but there is one prominent analyst and pundit in the talent management space who believes that the remote work debate is coming to a close.

A case for embracing a hybrid model

THAT’S BECAUSE SOMEBODY with some pretty good insights —  Josh Bersin — has already weighed in on this in his 15 Predictions for Work, Technology, and HR in 2024. Here’s what he wrote about it this past week in his weekly email as he focused on Prediction #5: Companies will accept and adopt hybrid work models. 

Here’s the logic behind Bersin’s argument:

“Hybrid work will become the norm — not a policy — requiring leaders to design meetings and work schedules that maximize productivity regardless of location.

When we think of hybrid work models as a policy, it becomes a problem that must be controlled and enforced. Flipping that perspective on its head empowers organizations to establish the office as a “collaboration center” that becomes an inviting location to connect with colleagues.

While there are many benefits for both employees and organizations when work location flexibility is accepted, suitable infrastructure must be in place to support workers no matter where they are. Leaders must give thoughtful deliberation to how the organization can:

    • Design in-person meetings and in-office time as useful and worth employees’ commute time.
    • Invest in sophisticated technology that gives conference rooms the feeling of everyone in one place.
    • Create effective communication channels for all needs.
    • Train managers for effective “presence” and availability for employees.
    • Plan in-person, all-team gatherings to solidify collective connection to each other, the company, and its purpose.

Following the radical shift to work-from-home at the height of the pandemic, companies have devoted much energy to establishing long-term policies around who can work from home, how often they can work from home, and how productivity is measured.

In 2024, taking a different approach to hybrid work models and flexibility can positively affect employee engagement and performance.”

It took a global lockdown to wake people up

HERE’S MY TAKE: I have long felt that a hybrid work model gives both employees and their organizations the best of all worlds:

  • Employees don’t have to go back to a daily commute to the office.
  • Managers get some face time with their staffs, and;
  • Company culture gets a boost from everyone being able to converse again in person.

There’s something to be said for all of those things in building a better organization.

In fact, a hybrid schedule is something I lobbied for over a number of years that managers either pooh-poohed as unrealistic, or, responded that anything other than a daily line-of-sight office relationship would ruin the business.

I get no pleasure now from seeing how wrong and short-sighted all of those managers were, because it took a global lockdown and pandemic to get them to finally take remote and hybrid work seriously.

As Forbes describes it:

“It looks like there will continue to be some back and forth on the topic before some sort of compromise is reached.

Some companies are focused on optimizing a hybrid model, where employees split their time between the office and remote work. Others are redesigning their office spaces to make them more appealing and conducive to collaboration when employees are on-site. There is also a growing recognition of the need for better tools and strategies to maintain company culture and connections virtually.

As the situation evolves, open dialogue will be crucial, with employers listening to their employees’ concerns and employees acknowledging their employers’ legitimate worries. Only through mutual understanding and compromise can the tug of war be resolved in a way that benefits both parties and leads to a more resilient and flexible future of work.”

It seems that people know just what to do to resolve the back to work vs remote of hybrid issue.

It also seems like the time for leaders to just sit down with employees and do it.

 

Other trends and insights …

And if you need your weekly fix of AI news … 

ALSO: Gallup gathers a LOT of worker and workplace data, and their latest article on The New Challenge of Engaging Younger Workers, shows that “post-pandemic engagement trends vary widely across age generations, with younger employees feeling the most detached from their work and employers but baby boomers remaining engaged.”

ALSO ALSO: The BBC has their own take on the push to get employees to return to the office in ‘Office culture’ as we know it is dead. Workers have other ideas. As they note: “Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that ‘family’ feeling – but employees want something more tangible.”

Dear Readers: I’ve been writing this wrap-up in one form or another for 20 years — from Workforce.com to TLNT.com to Fuel50 and now here on The Skeptical Guy. Let me know what you think at johnhollon@yahoo.com.

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Published by John Hollon

John Hollon is a longtime editor, journalist, and media executive. He's also an award-winning blogger and columnist, longtime newspaper and magazine editor, and was an adjunct professor of communications at California State University, Fullerton. Most recently he worked as Managing Editor of New Zealand-based HR technology firm Fuel50. He lives with his wife Jill in Southern California, longing to move to Hawaii or Las Vegas, and is looking for his next gig.

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