It’s been almost four years since the COVID-19 pandemic sent home many employees and managers across the United States and the world. Companies were forced to rethink everything, from the possibility of remote work as a temporary solution to keep the proverbial lights on to the reality that working from home permanently might be their new normal. 

Companies that were able to adapt during those stressful times learned how to make the best of the situation, incorporating various practices to keep people connected and working together in a new arrangement. Some companies had already considered going fully remote or allowing for a hybrid approach; other managers noticed their teams were more productive without the distractions of coworkers and their daily commute. 

Now, more companies are bringing their employees back in-house full-time. The return-to-office efforts are sometimes met with relief and appreciation; other teams find resistance and hesitation from employees who have adapted to their new working arrangements. A recent survey found that 65% of employees enjoy and would like to keep their remote work arrangements, while 33% of those asked said they enjoy a hybrid setting, and only 2% of employees want to come back to the office full-time. 

If you’re looking to bring your employees back to the office full-time this year, or if you’ve already started making that transition, prepare to have some pushback. Employees might complain about the change, saying they’ve been better able to work independently and more efficiently at home and not understanding why you want to bring them back. 

As a manager, how do you navigate this tricky path? How do you get employees excited to return to the office if they’ve become comfortable and productive at home? 

It’s all about engagement and understanding. Here are some tips. 

• Flexibility is important. Managers need to keep options open and support hybrid work arrangements to help employees get comfortable with returning to the office full-time. Whatever agreements are in place now should remain, with an eventual and gradual shift to encourage more in-office time. This will help retain current employees and attract new applicants and strong candidates who believe the future of work will not be confined to a single location. 

• When changes are happening, increase and improve communication. Clear communication will be paramount as you prepare to make changes to where people are working. Your employees might be surprised to learn they’ll no longer be able to work from home full- or part-time and will have questions about levels of trust and whether their feedback is valued. Be prepared to explain, early and often, why this transition is happening and why it’s important. If you have any metrics at all to back up and support the transition from hybrid or remote to in-office, share those as evidence that your company will benefit from returning to the office full-time. Ensure the timeline for any adjustment is clearly stated and reiterated at intervals before things start to go into effect. Prepare to have many conversations with your team about the transition, including your expectations for them and a timeline for completion. 

• When in doubt, incentivize.  People respond to rewards and encouragement. Make it a game if you’re having difficulty getting your team on board with returning to the office. Find ways to reward people willing to be the first to return or those who have some hesitation but are trying to readjust. Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool! It can also help encourage people to come back to the office, which leads to another suggestion…

• Make the office a place people want to be. It’s hard to compete with the ability to work in pajamas or sweats or the ability to take a dog for a quick walk during the lunch break. That doesn’t mean the office can’t be enticing in other ways. Talk to your team about what they like about working at home, but also ask what they miss about being in the office with their colleagues. Are there any changes you could make based on their feedback? Maybe an effort to celebrate birthdays, individually or monthly, might help re-engage people with the idea of coming back into the office; incorporating some seemingly endless national “holidays” might also make work feel a little more like fun. For example, January is National Skating Month — maybe the opportunity to have fun with colleagues after work at a skating rink could help make things a little more enticing. January 24 is Belly Laugh Day: Who can tell the best joke? Give them a prize! 
• Encourage collaboration. People who have worked from home, either before, during, or after the pandemic, might not have felt the same level of collaboration and teamwork as they did when everyone worked in the same space. Remind your team that collaboration is much easier when people can see each other just by standing up or walking a short distance. Collaboration is an important part of work; it’s a valuable skill for navigating relationships and boosting productivity. Take steps to encourage collaboration, from having open-door policies to designated spaces for teams to work together to brainstorm creative solutions to problems. Find projects that need people from different teams to work together to help people get to know their colleagues again. 

Working from home, full-time or part-time, can be nice and might help some people feel more productive. On the other hand, it can also feel isolating at times and frustrating if a team member doesn’t have the kind of communication they expect with their colleagues. Returning to the office might be a challenging path to navigate, but allowing that transition to happen over time and making the office a fun, warm, inviting, and exciting place to work can go a long way to bring people back. 

If you want to add to your team, look no further than Able Associates. We’ll start by getting to know your company and what qualifies you as a great candidate, and then we’ll do everything we can to find talented candidates who meet your requirements. When you’re ready to hire, call Able Associates and let us do the heavy lifting!