7 Positive Steps to Get Your People Back in the Office

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Downtown Chicago, where I work, is a lot busier than it was a year ago. But it’s still a lot less busy than it was in 2019. Many leaders want their employees back in the office, but a lot of employees are resisting the change. A recent survey from Microsoft (Empowering Your Workforce in Economic Uncertainty) provided useful data to help leaders influence people to come back in.

1. Don’t emphasize productivity. 85% of leaders question whether their employees are as productive when they work from home. But 87% of employees say they’re just as productive—or more so. So this rationale isn’t going to convince most people. At the same time, leaders do need to measure productivity. Until everyone is back in the office (which may be never), leaders need to develop new metrics that emphasize outcomes rather than activity. That “Big Brother” approach of measuring keystrokes is just creepy, and it doesn’t build employee loyalty or motivation.
2. Do emphasize opportunities for connection. 84% of the survey respondents said they would be motivated to come in to work more frequently for opportunities to enhance their connections with co-workers. “It turns out that in-person connections with the person that you work with are the biggest draw,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Modern Work at Microsoft. “They’re bigger than tacos.”
3. Don’t demand that workers come to the office for a certain percentage of the workweek. Many people find that burdensome and arbitrary.
4. Do create specific times of the week when workers have the opportunity to be together, and strongly urge people to come in at those times.
5. Do acknowledge that coming in to work requires sacrifice. Commuting, getting dressed up, arranging child care, not being able to throw in that load of laundry—it all takes energy and coordination, and it’s often not easy. Strong, perceptive leaders show that they understand that.
6. Do emphasize the benefit to the team. Some savvy leaders are using sports analogies, suggesting that what’s good for the team sometimes requires personal inconvenience. The upside is that what’s good for the team is generally good for the individuals on that team.
7. Do emphasize opportunities to learn and grow. 76% of the survey respondents said they would stay at their company longer if they had more development and learning opportunities. While it is possible to provide online learning experiences, in-person experiences are generally richer and more impactful.

As a recession looms and many companies are considering layoffs, leaders may have more leverage to insist that their employees come back to the workplace. But do you really want your people to be there because they feel threatened and insecure about their jobs? How much more effective it will be if they come back because they get it—why working together in the office is better for them as individuals, as a team, and as a company.