Which support do your employees need in the new normal?

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When you are returning to the office it is important to consider your approach and what support your employees may need.

Health and safety should be a key factor in preparing for your return to work, and in line with this, it is also important to consider the circumstances of your employees.

As you prepare for this big change, leaders should be asking: how do employees feel about a return to work, do they expect changes in the way work gets done, and how can we make this transition successful?

Here are three key areas you need to consider as you transition back into the office.

Sentiment of professionals in the market

It is easy to assume what your team wants to see moving forward and how they feel about a potential return to the office. However, what one person feels, or needs can be completely the opposite for another, which is why it is important to ask. Pulse surveys and regular one-to-one catch-ups with your employees about how they are feeling, what they want, and what they need to thrive is so crucial in a changing business world.

In a PageGroup survey of professionals in the market, when asked how they felt about returning to their usual workplace, almost 50% identified as slightly excited or excited about and looking forward to returning to work. However, around 8% of people identified they are feeling a little nervous.

We also asked how professionals felt about the prospect of resuming their daily commute, returning to their personal workspace in the office, and socialising with colleagues. Overwhelmingly, responses were largely positive and notably, more than half of respondents said they are looking forward to socialising with their colleagues.

Adapting to changing expectations

Although many of your employees may want to return to the office, businesses need to recognise how the world of work and the expectations for flexibility will have shifted as a result of the pandemic.

It is important to understand what your people want and need, and how they believe working arrangements could be better managed. This does not stop with the work from home debate, but also policies, procedures and processes for the way work gets done and output is measured/delivered.

For example, More than 60% of the workforce would like to have the possibility to work remotely full time. That being said, even if they had the choice, many employees would still come to the office for the most part of the working week. Only 5% would choose to work remotely for 4 days or more. Given the choice, the majority (73%) would choose to work from home 1 or 2 days per week.

A review of your current dynamic working policies may need to take place and a higher level of flexibility to better allow employees to shape their working weeks could be one solution.

These changes do also require thought into the following areas:

How to interact with remote and office-based staff
Integrating work remotely and in the office
How to set the tone for culture for a hybrid workforce
Facilitating flexibility and collaboration
Ensuring processes are most efficient

Continued success and productivity

Your people’s wellbeing and happiness at work are fundamental to a successful and collaborative working environment. The decisions you make in regards to whether your people will return to the office, continue to work from home, or a more flexible working arrangement will be adopted, need to consider the flow-on effects and how the business world around you is evolving.

The success of your decisions can, of course, be measured by looking at staff turn over and the bottom line, but earlier indicators include people-focused measurements such as:

Productivity
Motivation
Job satisfaction
Work relationships
Work-life balance
Wellbeing

When surveyed on how changes to working arrangements during the pandemic impacted these areas of their work, the majority of professionals noted no changes. However, notably, a large group also noted increases in their productivity (44%), motivation (21%), and work satisfaction (25%).

When returning to work and determining the best approach to manage teams both in the office and operating remotely, employers must consider the following questions:

How do you continue to ensure ideas are generated and discussed?
How will you attract talent from different pools with more flexibility?
Can you facilitate home working in the longer term and on a larger scale?
What can be done to protect employee wellbeing and ensure burn out does not become an issue?
How do you keep employees engaged over a sustained period?

The return to work must be planned and communicated effectively with your people. Utilising their feedback on the experience of working from home can help reshape your policies. Collaboration between employee and employer will be key in redefining the world of work moving forward.