Return to the Office Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Business leaders invested in the idea of returning to the office need to find practical and actionable answers to the following questions to complete this transition successfully.

You may want to know how to plan the entire process. Then how to communicate this request efficiently so it doesn’t backfire in higher turnover rates. And most importantly you need to know what incentives will attract your employees to work from the office often. 

The workplace has changed irreversibly over the past two years, bringing changing employees’ needs. This is why the entire return to the office process can be challenging and time-consuming. If you want to overcome these challenges and apply the work model that best suits your employees’ needs and your business goals, keep reading. 

Here you’ll find ways to create welcoming and motivating work environments that may boost your team collaboration and employee productivity.

You can learn more about reinventing your hybrid work policies, using advanced technology like employees monitoring software, project management platforms, and wayfinding apps, and adjusting benefits to better fit your employees’ changing needs.

Understanding Different Work Models

The hybrid work model has proven to be the most effective and desirable among employees, providing a happy middle between the office-based and work-from-home. Offering a hybrid model to your employees instead of insisting on working from the office full time may motivate them to visit the office and socialize with colleagues frequently. 

But how to decide when and who will work from the office? This choice has become easier since you can opt for 3 workplace models depending on your goals and leadership style.

• Choice-based model is perfect if you want to let employees choose when they want to come and work from the office. This option offers increased flexibility, leaving workers to decide when office-based work makes them more productive and when they want to work remotely.

• The schedule-based model represents a carefully devised weekly, monthly, or even quarterly plan of days when you expect your employees to work from the office. You may use this model in an onboarding process when you want your new employees to create meaningful relationships with their co-workers by meeting and working in person.

• Purpose-based model is ideal when you want to boost cross-team communication and collaboration while working on critical tasks and projects.

This model also helps you determine which employees can work fully remotely. Or the roles that require full-time work from the office.

A better understanding of different hybrid work models will help you choose and apply the office work schedule that best reflects your employees’ needs and your boosting interpersonal interactions and collaboration. 

Deploy Technological Solutions to Boost Collaboration and Productivity

You need to rely on advanced tools and apps to create a fully functional and productive workplace. Whether it’s remote or hybrid. Many businesses have reached out for project management platforms and staff monitoring to keep track of their projects and employee productivity when they switched to working fully remotely. 

You can keep using these effective apps when your employees return to the office. Even though you may think that your employee will work harder in the office under your watchful eye, you can always turn to real-time data monitoring to check how their performance fluctuates during the day or compare their productivity levels on their office days with performance data from their remote days.

These valuable insights will help you determine when your workers may benefit from going to the office and what tasks demand increased focus and are more effectively completed when employees work remotely.

Workplace Benefits Need to Reflect Changing Employee Needs

If you want to attract more employees to start working from the office in the post-covid era, you need to cater to their needs when it comes to benefits. The serious health and existential crises the entire world has gone through over the past two years incited employees worldwide to question their values and put their well-being and work/life balance into the limelight. 

So occasional free lunch and happy hour may not be sufficient incentives for employees seeking a psychologically safe workplace where they can openly share their ideas and suggestions and thrive personally and professionally. 

To create work environments that check all these boxes, try to offer lounges where employees can decompress and reenergize. Create spaces for brainstorming where they can exchange ideas and work on innovations with their colleagues. Also, make your offices pet-friendly and offer healthy food stations or spaces for exercise within the premises.