With the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, the world shut down. However, organizations were facing losses because work came to a standstill. To combat this issue, employers imposed work-from-home policies where employees could work within the boundaries of their homes. The problem began when vaccines were introduced, and people returned to their everyday lives. The difficulty now was and still is to bring them back to the Office.
Although it has almost been a year to everyday life, people are still rusty and prefer to find ways to carry work from their comfortable homes. In this blog, we will discuss six ways to bring employees back to the Office to work in full swing. Work-from-office is still considered a challenge by 42% of employees who are ready to quit their jobs for no work-from-home policies.
How do you Encourage the Employee to get back to the Office?
Even though remote work keeps work performance the same or increases by 27%, working from the Office also has benefits. As an employer, you get to decide if you want to bring back the employee to the Office or not. After you have decided you want to call back the employees, you will have to encourage them. 58% of workers would still like to work remotely post-pandemic.
It is essential first to analyze the issues employees face in working-from-the Office. Is it the culture, environment, or something else? To answer these questions, we advise you to seek help from an organizational development professional. The expert will not only analyze all the data but will quickly get to the strings of the problem and give you customized solutions. Once you identify the employee motivators, you will find it easy to entice the employees to work from the Office. You need to rely on actual data and a professional to encourage employees, followed by intelligent ways to motivate the employees. There are many ways to boost your employees that we will discuss next.
Ways to Encourage Employees to Work from the Office
There is no one perfect solution that will help you encourage all employees. It is no secret that work-from-home has many benefits. These benefits include feeling secure at home, being around your family, flexible timings, etc. After giving your employees so much comfort, encouraging them for work-from-office will be a task. Here we mention some ways that can solve your problem.
1. Casual Dressing
After being in pajamas all day, you cannot expect your employees to be ready for formal dressing again. When it comes to working, very few early birds in your workforce are too motivated to be presentable each day. To avoid basic grunting, you should allow casual clothes like a collared t-shirt and jeans. Comfortable dressing is better than formal dressing. Let us not forget that as college students also, we were all in professional settings, yet the clothing did not matter.
2. Hybrid Working
During the pandemic, you had no option but to let your employees work from their home offices. Your work was not suffering to great extents, and when left with no choice, you gave in. Imagine, what if your employees protest that they do not want to come to the Office? Worst scenario, right? So let us not go that far and suggest you hybrid working. You can schedule some days for your employees to work from the Office, and on other days they can work at their convenience in their homes. This way, your employees will be satisfied and deliver quality from home. If you drag them to Office against their will, they will focus on completing their work hours, resulting in compromised and delayed work.
3. Flexible Timings
Flexible timings can be real-time boosters to encourage your workers to work from the Office. Being able to attend to personal commitments and simultaneously deliver the work on time is a luxury your employees will not give up so easily. So what do you do? If work-from-office is essential for your business, you can provide flexible timings.
This policy allows employees to come whenever they want, finish their work hours, and perform their duties. When you keep it up to the employees when they want to go and leave, there are higher chances your employees would like to start their day as quickly as possible to get dome and return to their personal lives. Moreover, if your employees are friends, they would want to come and leave simultaneously, which will further increase your boosted productivity. It is up to you to arrange flexible working schedules because every organization has different needs and resources.
4. Nap Pods
If you can, you should arrange nap pods in your work settings so employees can take a break. Google has nap pods that allow employees to relax, refresh, and increase productivity by 34%. Moreover, you can also provide free massage sessions or food once a week for your employees to experience differences in their tedious office schedules. Work-from-office comes at a cost, so either you pay it or see the employees pay it at the expense of poor quality work.
5. Transportation
Many organizations provide transportation to their employees when working from the Office, but a majority of organizations do not do so. Investing in transport to the Office takes a lot of effort and money. Be a wise employer and provide this service to your employees. It can be challenging to ask your employees to travel, so It is better if you provide transportation for a smaller fee. This will also help combat the miseries caused by high inflation rates and fuel prices worldwide. But if you plan to charge sufficiently, you should still provide transportation because not all your employees can drive, and carpooling can prevent further global warming that could work as your CSR activity.
6. Create the need to Work from the Office
First and foremost, it is necessary that your employees feel the need to work-from-office. Ensure a safe workplace with a clean environment and a positive work culture. With so much positivity and friendly colleagues, the employees may develop the need for affiliation and constant communication. They cannot communicate smoothly when working from their home, so they would want to get back soon. Once you can create the need, half of your work will already be done.
Benefits of Encouraging Employees to Work from the Office
Offices have many benefits for the employees, but these often go unnoticed. Here we discuss the benefits of work-from-office policies.
1. Employee well-being
42% of employees who returned to the office post-pandemic admitted that they suffered mentally at home, in isolation. While work-from-office may sound boring, it improves employees’ mental health when working around people. This not only satisfies the employees but also helps them to perform better.
2. Better Communication
When working alone at home, your employees cannot have smooth communication. They will have to send several emails and wait for a long time until they receive an answer. Offices allow employees to quickly call their desired extensions or walk down the corridor to get their queries addressed. Time and energy can both be saved this way.
3. Separate Personal and Professional Lives
Home offices do not provide any privacy. Chances are you can hear babies crying during a meeting with your employees. With disturbance, it is difficult to separate professional and personal lives, so offices fill the gap and allow employees to focus on work and give proper time to their families. When working from home, employers sometimes assign different tasks to employees, even on weekends, which adds to employee burnout.
How to Inspire Employees to Return to the Office
Your leadership skills can be one of the biggest inspirations for your employees. How you treat your employees and encourage them to return to the Office is a possible solution for employees to make their minds to join the Office. You can unveil the benefits of work-from-office that they are unable to see. Moreover, you can act as a role model, so your employees look up to you and try to become like you. Your words as a good leader can be mighty in motivating your employees.
Final Words
How do you encourage and motivate employees to work from the Office? This blog addresses all your questions in much detail. As an employer, it is essential that you first analyze what motivators matter to your employees. These could be flexible timings or no transportation requirements, etc. Once you identify the needed change, you should create policies that satisfy your employees. If possible, you should allow work-from-home, but if not, make your workplace bearable. Get employees excited to return to the Office by providing free food, massages, or nap pods. Employees love to experience change, especially when they receive direct benefits.
Furthermore, you should create employee needs to return to the Office. Do not pull them but let them come of their own free will. Guide them regarding the work-from-office benefits such as positive work culture, clean environment, and proper communication.
