Posted on 08/15/2023 10:58:01 AM PDT by ShadowAce
After three years of haphazard plans for getting workers back at their desks, the return-to-office movement has entered a phase of remorse.
A whopping 80% of bosses regret their initial return-to-office decisions and say they would have approached their plans differently if they had a better understanding of employees' office attendance, their usage of office amenities and other related factors, according to new research from Envoy.
"Many companies are realizing they could have been a lot more measured in their approach, rather than making big, bold, very controversial decisions based on executives' opinions rather than employee data," Larry Gadea, Envoy's CEO and founder, tells CNBC Make It.
Envoy interviewed more than 1,000 U.S. company executives and workplace managers who work in-person at least one day per week.
Some leaders lamented the challenge of measuring the success of in-office policies, while others said it's been hard to make long-term real estate investments without knowing how employees might feel about being in the office weeks, or even months, from now.
Kathy Kacher, a consultant who advises corporate executives on their return-to-office plans, is surprised the percentage isn't higher.
"Many organizations that attempted to force a return to the office have had to retract or change their plans because of employee pushback, and now, they don't look strong," says Kacher, the president of Career/Life Alliance Services. "A lot of executives have egg on their faces and they're sad about that."
As some business leaders accept hybrid work as a permanent reality, others are backtracking on earlier pledges to let employees work from home on a full or part-time basis.
As of July, 59% of full-time employees are back to being 100% on-site, while 29% are in a hybrid arrangement and 12% are completely remote, according to new data from WFH Research. Offices are still only half full compared to their pre-pandemic occupancy.
Across industries, major corporations including Disney, Starbucks and BlackRock are requiring employees to spend more time at the office, with executives often citing the need for more in-person collaboration.
Zoom is the latest to reverse course, telling employees who live within a 50-mile radius of a Zoom office that they need to come in at least twice a week.
It's an abrupt shift from the company's previous policy, which allowed employees to choose between hybrid, in-person or permanent remote work.
"We believe that a structured hybrid approach — meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams — is most effective for Zoom," a company spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC Make It, adding that the company will "continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently" and "hire the best talent, regardless of location."
The sunk cost of unused office space has been a major factor in companies' decisions to change their RTO approach, says Kacher.
Even six months ago, companies were willing to eat these costs in a tight labor market to recruit and retain talent. But now, "Some companies are getting impatient, and want to recoup these large investments," Kacher explains.
In New York City, office space costs, on average, about $16,000 a year per employee, the New York Times reports.
Yet the constant risk of losing top talent has been enough to make companies reconsider their strict RTO mandates. Research has shown that companies that put pressure on employees to return to the office are more likely to experience turnover issues than those that don't.
Companies that have mandated a strict return to the office three days a week without first seeking employee input are experiencing the most angst, Kacher adds.
"They're the ones struggling with retention and recruitment," she says. "Some of the companies I work with have even scaled back the number of in-office days they're requiring in response to employee backlash."
The companies that are seeing the most success with returning to the office appear to be the ones that are making decisions with their employees, rather than for them.
Take Ernst & Young, for example.
The global accounting and consulting firm weathered some employee criticism for its initial return-to-office announcement in June 2021, when the firm told employees that they would be encouraged to spend 40-60% of their time in the office.
Their plan was put on pause through the end of the year as Covid-19 cases ticked up once again throughout the U.S., so EY leaders used that time to ask employees about their reluctance to come into the office.
Common threads stood out to Frank Giampietro, EY's chief wellbeing officer for the Americas: Employees weren't sure what to do about pet care or child care.
In response, EY announced a fund in February 2022 to reimburse up to $800 per year for commuting, pet care and dependent care costs for each of its 55,000-plus U.S. employees.
The fund, which is ongoing, had an immediate positive impact on employees' in-office attendance, Giampietro adds. Since EY first rolled out this benefit in February 2022, EY has seen a 150% uptick in office attendance across the U.S.
"It didn't take a complete rehaul of our return-to-office policies to make employees happy," he says. "We just needed to listen to our people and understand what, specifically, was problematic for them, and offer resources to address that."
Kacher anticipates that it will take at least another year or two before companies settle into an office routine that employees are content with and bosses don't regret.
"Some organizations are still in denial that people aren't coming back to the office, and some have moved into the acceptance phase, where they're ready to think more creatively or differently," she says. "But it'll take time for all of us to get there together."
My job cannot be done by AI either.
Requires site survey and each job is just as customized as an interior remodel.
No AI
All these discussions we have about people working from home and not wanting to go back to the office , Etc , it all depends how your job is structured. It all depends what sort of work you’re doing.
Some people sit at a desk all day and key numbers into a spreadsheet.
Some people are on the phone most of the day talking to people.
Some people work off site visiting clients and rarely spent time in the office even before covid.
Some people work collaboratively in teams of people, and and couldn’t do what they do if they were all working at their own home.
Some Freepers have said they won’t take a job where they have to go to the office. Apparently they have unique or in demand job skills that they can dictate to the employer where they will work.
“Wait until “stay at home work” is replaced by AI.”
AI is overrated as a replacement for creating written material. It is not overrated as a means for recognizing our faces in crowds.
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and cracked glass lungs (Stage 2 COPD). I have POTS episodes pretty regularly.
Fauci’s bioweapon was a doozy.
Many companies are just wishing they didn’t have these long term leases hanging around their necks so they could let their employees work at home and save money.
I will have to look that one up, as I’ve never heard of it.
I hope treatment helps you out.
There never should have been a shutdown.
Some refuse to grasp that the market works both ways....that employees can choose too. I suspect jealousy.
An associate of mine in my industry was fired from his executive position back in 2020 — because he refused to follow his company’s work-from-home edict. The guy would show up at his office every day — no mask, no nothing — as if everything was normal. I suspect he was also pressuring his staff to do the same (hence the firing).
It turned out to be a huge mistake for the company … because now he works for one of their biggest clients — who is now a FORMER client, since he cut them out of all his new employer’s business.
Especially over the last few years as Baby Boomers have retired in droves. It was tough as a Gen Xer with the massive Baby Boomer overhang. There was always a massive cohort who were always going to have 10-15 years more experience than we did. We could never catch up with that...but now that they're getting thinned out by retirement, suddenly things are so much easier.
There aren't a whole lot of millenials behind us who have been slogging along like we did racking up years and years of the kind of experience companies and banks want. So.....meet my terms or I'll just work for your competitors instead. I know you cannot easily find people who have the degrees and the decades of experience you want for this job."
This is a wonderful role reversal from the Great Recession when I was the one taking it in the shorts. I love the free market now.
LOL! Yes, I’ve used their own virtue signaling Gaia worship against them too. “wouldn’t it be better for the environment if we worked from home? Think of all those fossil fuels not used by having to commute into an office”. Save da Erf!
My daughter worked for a well known Christian publisher as an editor.
They wanted her to return to the office. She found another job that is full time remote. Worked for a year before actually meeting her boss.
LFH, Loaf From Home.
If these “employees” just quit I doubt the difference would bee noticed much at all.
A pox on them.
I've been in WFH mode since 2002 exclusive of July 2009->Jan 2010, July 4, 2010->Sept 15, 2014. The non-WFH timeframe was in closed spaces in San Diego where being physically in the facility was required. The San Diego based work required paying $750/month to rent a room, commuting expenses, higher food costs and being 925 miles from home from months on end. It also imposed CA state income tax that is higher than Idaho state income tax. To whit, my boss gave me a raise that I enjoyed for exactly 1 paycheck. 2 weeks later, the company moved to income tax based on geographic location when the work was performed. The increase tax rate in CA vs ID consumed all of my raise and a bit more. Yup, it would be a huge pay cut.
I too waa harrased for the same thing
If I was inside sales they would have has a point but, The nature of my work was custom a and there is no way dor our work to be done but by a physical site survey
It's the customers who pay the salaries. The company and the employees may change.
Companies who accessed better talent who are working remotely have more to offer their customers.
With Microsoft OneDrive / SharePoint and the Azure Cloud Servers, you don't have to send and receive files anymore. Others can use them right in the Cloud location you posted them.
What an ignorant and judgemental statement. There is no "back to the office" for people who work several states away. Our remote workers are much better than our locals.
Yep, and the version controls make collaboration and verification even easier
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