Best Return to Office Plan: A Team-Led Approach

Surveys show that anywhere from two-thirds to three-quarters of all employers intend to have a hybrid workforce after the pandemic as part of their return to office plan. Employees would come in one to three days weekly to work on collaborative tasks with their teams. The rest of the time, they would work on their own tasks remotely. Many of these employers also intend to permit employees to work fully remotely if the employees want to and can demonstrate a high level of productivity.

That hybrid-first with remote options approach offers the best fit for the desires of the majority of employees who worked remotely during the pandemic. That’s according to large-scale, independent surveys (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) asking employees how they want to work after the pandemic. Data on productivity (1, 2) also showed that employees are happier when working remotely.

Retaining your employees and boosting productivity makes a hybrid model with some remote options an example of wise decision-making. But how do you transition to this model as you return to the office?

Get Buy-In By Seeking Staff Input on the Return to Office Plan

You can use best practices as shared by the 61 leaders I advised on how to develop and implement a strategic return to office plan as the pandemic winds down.

First, conduct an anonymous survey of your currently-remote staff on their preferences for remote work.

While you may choose to ask a variety of questions, be sure to find out about their desire for frequency of work in the office. Here’s a good way to phrase it:

After the pandemic has passed, which of these would be your preferred working style?

• A) Fully remote, coming in once a quarter for team-building retreat
• B) 1 day a week in the office, the rest at home
• C) 2 days a week in the office
• D) 3 days a week in the office
• E) 4 days a week in the office
• F) Full-time in the office

Team-Led Choices for the Return to Office

The best practice is for the leadership to provide broad but flexible guidelines for the whole company. Then, let teams of rank-and-file employees determine what works best for them.

Empower each team leader to determine, in consultation with other team leaders and their team members, how each team should function. The choice should be driven by the goals and collaborative capacities of each team rather than the personal preferences of the team leader. The top leadership should encourage team leaders to permit, wherever possible, team members who desire to do so to work remotely.

Addressing Return to Office Resistance

Many lower-level supervisors feel a personal discomfort with work from home. They feel a loss of control if they can’t see their staff and are eager to get back to their previous mode of supervising.

They’re falling for the anchoring bias. This mental blindspot causes us to feel anchored to our initial experiences.

Likewise, they feel a strong drive to return to the pre-pandemic world. They suffer from the status quo bias, a drive to return to what they perceive as the correct way of doing things. They refuse to accept the reality that we need to adapt to survive and thrive in the post-pandemic society.

Justifying In-Office Work

Communicating to lower-level supervisors about problems in their mental patterns will be the first step to addressing them. A second step is having them justify any time their team needs to be in the office.

That justification should stem from the kind of activities done by the team. Team members should be free to do their independent tasks wherever they want. By contrast, many – not all – collaborative tasks are best done in-person.

Team leaders should evaluate the proportion of individual versus collaborative tasks done by their teams. They should also gauge the productivity levels of team members who want to be fully remote. If capable enough, these employees should be allowed to work remotely and only come to the office once a quarter for a team-building retreat.

There should be a valid reason if the team leader desires more than three days in the office per week. Such reasons exist but are rare. Generally speaking, no more than 5% of your staff should be forced to be in the office full-time.

Conclusion

As companies gear up for a mostly-hybrid workforce with fully-remote options, leaders need to carry out best practices during the shift so they can seize competitive advantage in the return to office post-pandemic transition.