The pandemic changed office work forever as companies globally adjusted to many employees working from home. However, many businesses are now looking to get workers back in offices sooner rather than later. If you want to get employees back to the office, you should look at these tips on enticing them to return.
Introduce New Benefits
Working from home provides many benefits and conveniences that employees have grown accustomed to and enjoy. So if you want to make the office more attractive in their eyes, you’ll have to offer something more than the same old stuff. Many prefer working from home because they have kids, elderly family members, or pets to take care of. Therefore, offering stipends for childcare, caregivers, and pet care solves many problems remote workers have with returning to the office.
There are other benefits and perks many offices have used to attract employees to return, including:
- Office picnics
- Free lunch and snacks
- Stress-relieving activities like games and virtual reality
- Better parking spots or parking stipends
- More social events
Change or Expand the Office
It’s a new era of office work, and your office should reflect that. One way to entice employees back to the office and make returning more appealing is to give them something new and different to return to.
If only a fraction of the employees are returning, having all the same rows of desks half-empty won’t make for a very appealing work environment. So change the space and layout. Many offices are adding things like workshops or setting up container offices that make them seem completely different from the last time employees worked there.
Emphasize the Social Value of the Office
No worker wants to commute to the office to do the same thing they can do at home, such as participating in video meetings or answering emails. While there’s surely a financial value to having employees in one place, emphasize the social value for the company and the workers in returning to the office.
Underscore that people are better at collaborating and brainstorming in the same room and that employees are generally happier when they regularly see coworkers and friends in person. Many workers agree and are more interested in the social value of working in the office rather than the financial value to the company.
Make It Flexible
People have been able to adapt and become comfortable working from home over the past few years, and making it mandatory to return to the office immediately can be jarring and upsetting to them. Many say they’d start looking for another job if their companies forced them to return, so it’s better to ease the transition by making it flexible regarding who has to come in, how often, and at what hours.
Many workers want to return to the office, but not every day. Hybrid work that allows employees to come in on certain days is very popular among remote workers, so make in-office work flexible and approachable instead of simply mandatory and uncompromising.
