Micah Remley, Chief Executive Officer at Robin.
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After reinventing their workplaces and employee experiences quickly in the wake of the global pandemic, many businesses are struggling to reestablish their corporate cultures and get people excited about their work. Bruce Daisley, the former VP of Twitter Europe and author of The Joy of Work, recently discussed a growing anti-work ethos, but Daisley may be missing a crucial element in his argument. It's not that people don't want to work—that was disproved when productivity increased when people were forced to work from home amid pandemic lockdowns. Instead, they don't want to go back to the traditional one-sided work model that takes away their flexibility in deciding where and when they perform at their best.
Business leaders and employers are on the same team.
Every C-suite is wrestling with how to build fantastic teams and incredible workplace cultures in a hybrid world. Organizations—especially management teams—lament the loss of happy hours and social functions that used to take place in the office. The pandemic has shown leaders that employees value flexibility over ping pong tables, but that doesn't mean the workforce isn't missing the collaborative aspects of the traditional workplace.
Microsoft's 2022 Work Trend Index recently highlighted a growing perception gap between business leaders and their people. The report found that 80% of workers said they were as productive or more since shifting to remote or hybrid work. In comparison, 54% of business leaders "fear productivity has been negatively impacted since the shift." The data shows that organizations need to stop pitting their policies against employees' preferences and find common ground.
Company-mandated office time is never a good idea because it removes nuance from the decision on whether to work in the office or remotely. The overwhelming sentiment we've heard from workplace leaders is that their people don't want to go through the effort to come into the office—including the costs associated with commuting and childcare—to sit in video meetings all day. There is no defense for asking employees to do that when we know remote work is practical. This doesn't mean executives should roll over and cave to their people's whims. Instead, businesses should build a compelling office experience that supports their workforce's workflows.
Most people want an office experience—just not every day.
Human interaction is a basic human need. Video calls are very utilitarian but don't necessarily provide the connection that many employees need and desire. There is a balance between productivity and fulfillment that businesses must tread when implementing their hybrid work strategy.
I see this balance between in-person and virtual in my own family. My teenage son is very close with his cousins, and they do what many teenagers do—spend hours online playing video games together. This virtual interaction has allowed their relationships to grow, but they are very one-dimensional. When the pandemic started to subside and they were finally able to spend more time together in person, they went outside and did all of the other things teenage boys do together. You could see how quickly their relationship went from one-dimensional to multidimensional. Now, when they get online to play video games, they spend hours talking about the stories and memories they created during their in-person time. These relatively shallow relationships became much deeper and multifaceted when they connected in person. The same is true for building culture in a hybrid workplace; despite the ease and efficacy of online collaboration tools, genuine relationships are built in person.
Most people want in-person experiences at least part of the time, but they want to be in the driver's seat to determine when it happens. The traditional work model was one-sided, with employers dictating the rules and people jamming their personal lives around their careers. Now, workplace leaders must build trust with employees by delivering a consistent experience that empowers them to choose where they want to work.
Eliminate friction around the office experience.
The top priority for workplace leaders is eliminating the office experience's friction. The "going to work" muscle has atrophied for many employees, so removing obstacles is critical to building momentum for people returning to the office. Absolutely no one wants to be forced to commute to work to sit in an empty office on video calls all day long. Businesses must proactively offer an optimal decision-making matrix for success in a hybrid environment. Some specific steps internal teams can take now to set organizations up for success include:
• Start leveraging workplace analytics. At a time of rapid change, the hybrid office is never "set and forget." Workplace analytics will be critical to helping executives identify the steps they need to take to design a successful, scalable strategy that accounts for all types of employee experience—WFH, remote and hybrid. Developing a seamless hybrid work experience requires a deeply integrated back-end tech stack that includes building access, HR systems and reservation systems for meeting spaces, desks and other office equipment. This integration stack can allow IT and facilities teams to learn and adapt with a holistic view of which teams are impacting the offices.
• Maintain flexibility and adaptability. With technological innovation in the workplace evolving rapidly, it's important not to be too prescriptive at this stage. Creating an ongoing employee feedback loop can help businesses refine their hybrid work strategies over time and build trust with employees. An easy way to start establishing this feedback loop includes issuing a company-wide survey to gain a deeper understanding of employees' in-office experience.
While it has changed substantially over the past two years, the office is still a critical communal space for businesses. In-person interactions will become even more valuable in a hybrid work world since they won't happen every day, so having space for employees to gather and collaborate is crucial. Workplace leaders must adapt their office space to create a vibrant and rich experience that empowers their workforce. Employees did right by their employers when they buckled down during the remote work era. They're now asking for that trust to be repaid.
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