How to Avoid the Return-to-Office Blowup
Laura Gramling, President, EnSpark Consulting
Companies like Google, JPMorgan Chase and everyone else are debating how to institute the right back to office policies. Senior leaders worry about innovation and productivity. Managers worry about getting the work done and corporate culture. Workers worry about life balance and devoting unnecessary hours to commuting just to make their bosses feel more comfortable.
Finding the right balance quickly is difficult, and the solutions will vary in different situations. The way that a company approaches this problem may set the tone for how key organizational issues are approached in the future.
TL;DR Leaders have the ultimate responsibility in developing and implementing the new return-to-the-office policies. When they solicit input from workers and managers and incorporate their ideas, the final policies are met with less resistance and more favorability. They will generate adaptations that are positive for both the organization and employee, as opposed to a drag-out fight over compromises that create deeper levels of mistrust and weariness between leaders and their employees.
When approaching the back-to-office issue and developing the right policy quickly, it’s about achieving alignment of values between senior leaders, managers, and workers. That may seem squishy, but it’s absolutely crucial to performance on multiple dimensions.
Achieving alignment of values around back-to-office requires a systematic process.
The first step is to collect data from across the organization through a combination of one-on-one interviews, focus groups and surveys.
The second step is to map the data into corporate values—i.e. innovation, collaboration, accountability. It may turn out that achieving clarity of corporate values is essential before setting a back-to-office policy.
The third step is to bring together a cross-section of the organization for facilitated discussions and breakouts. This process may elicit underlying issues that can be addressed by senior leaders. For example, expressing an organizational commitment to diversity, equity and inclusivity.
The fourth step is crafting the policy by recommitting or developing a set of organizational values that connect how we work to what matters. The new policy should clearly incorporate and credit the ideas generated in the facilitated dialogues from the data collection steps.
The final step is developing a communications plan for rolling out the new policy that ensures everyone knows what’s expected, what resources are available, and how to provide feedback on what’s working and what can be improved. A commitment to a flexible approach to implementation will demonstrate leaders are listening and are building in capacity adaptability.
How does this work in practice?
Imagine Company A decides that workers need to be in the office three days per week. Prior to developing their policy, the leaders lay out a six-month “whole-of-the-organization” approach, following the principles described above. To start, the leaders convene a cross-department team, guided by experienced facilitators, to develop a collective view and understanding of the values and experiences of different employees have on how work gets done.
With the support of the facilitators, the team maps the benefits and drawbacks of the current remote/in-office work hybrid onto a multi-dimensional scale that looks at values and outcomes such as productivity, accountability, trust and worker satisfaction.
With these insights in hand, the leaders convene a series of facilitated dialogues with a cross-section of the organization to explore how to improve the alignment between organizational values and how work is done. These sessions generate possible solutions, approaches and resources needed to build effective workplaces that are productive, innovative, collaborative and bring out the best in every employee.
Company A’s leaders will have the responsibility for crafting and implementing the new policy. Their success in implementation is aided by developing a comprehensive communications plan for rolling out the new policy. The early communications should include how the policy was developed with specific mentions of worker and manager input and highlight feedback loops for flexibility and adaptability.
Final Note
It’s previously stated in this piece that, “the way that a company approaches this problem may set the tone for how key organizational issues are approached in the future.” New organizational priorities and challenges will always loom on the horizon. Using this type of rapid, whole-of-the-organization approach to solving those challenges and aligning on priorities is a muscle every company needs to be proficient in.