Why EVERY Employee Should Be Required To Work From An Office For The Next 6 Months
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If you’re a Chief Human Resources or Chief People Officer, then you can request to join a brand new community I put together called Future Of Work Leaders which focuses on the future of work and employee experience. Join leaders from Tractor Supply, Johnson & Johnson, Lego, Dow, Northrop Grumman and many others. We come together virtually each month and once a year in-person to tackle big themes that go beyond traditional HR.
Yes, you read that correctly. Every single employee should be required to work in the office five days a week for at least the next six months. This doesn’t mean you need to adhere strictly to a 9–5 schedule, but you do need to be present every… single… day.
This suggestion may sound harsh, and it might even spark some anger, but it is a necessary step.
Before the global shift to remote work, flexible work options were slowly becoming more common across organizations worldwide. Even if you were expected to be in the office daily, there usually was some flexibility regarding hours, and personal time off was accommodated.
However, after an extended period of working from home, maintaining a cohesive culture, aligning on vision, focusing on strategic business objectives, and shifting from productivity to innovation became challenging. We’ve experienced a sense of isolation, a lack of human interaction, and a disconnect that feels like something out of a dystopian novel.
Our well-aligned teams and businesses became as disjointed as a box of puzzle pieces shaken vigorously. Attempts to reassemble these pieces virtually were insufficient. Although we managed with the appearance of productivity and the ability to work from home, our work environment has remained fragmented.
I argue that we need the next six months to reset, realign, rejuvenate, reimagine, reinvigorate, and redefine our workspaces. We need to lay out the puzzle pieces again to see the picture we’re trying to complete. After this period, we should reintroduce more flexible working options as needed.
This article will explore research supporting this approach and delve into why it’s beneficial for employees to spend the next six months working from the office. Both leaders and employees should see the value in this — it’s in your best interest for career growth, development, alignment, and future-proofing your role at the company.
Let’s dive into some compelling research:
- A study by Microsoft in their Work Trend Index highlighted a significant decline in company culture with remote work, noting that 60% of workers felt less connected to their teams.
- APA’s Work and Well-being Survey revealed that 48% of remote workers reported feeling isolated.
- Companies like Google have reversed their stance on remote work, recognizing the struggle to maintain their culture remotely.
- Harvard Business Review reported that face-to-face interactions in the office increase communication patterns by 10%, fostering creativity.
- Gallup’s report indicates that only 40% of remote employees fully understand their company’s mission.
- Research from the Academy of Management Journal shows that teams working face-to-face exhibit higher trust levels, boosting overall performance.
- The University of Chicago notes that productivity can drop by up to 35% when working remotely due to home-based distractions.
- Prodoscore Research observed a 5% increase in productivity when employees work in an office, thanks to the accountability and structure it provides.
Why should organizations mandate office work for the next six months?
Rebuilding culture and values
It seems to me that many employees around the world have forgotten why they are a part of their respective organizations. The core values that make your company unique have been lost. Instead, we have been so focused on our tasks and on being productive that we forgot why it is we are doing what we are doing. The casual interactions, impromptu meetings, the “feeling” or “vibe” of the company, the shared purpose and feeling of belonging have been lost. We forget that the physical office isn’t just a place of work but a symbol of what your company stands for and represents. Bringing employees back for 6 months will remind everyone why they are working at your company and during these 6 months leaders need to spend extra time and attention focusing on these values. This immersion is also crucial for newer employees who joined your company over the past few years with a remote onboarding process.
Leadership training and development
Leaders today are struggling. In a previous post I highlighted some research that is in my new book on the 13 behaviors of effective leaders. At the bottom of the list were the human behaviors like showing a willingness to be vulnerable, inquiring about someone else’s well-being, and admitting to mistakes or failures. In general these are things lots of leaders struggle with but it also turns out that teaching someone to be a human leaders isn’t that effective. We can all agree that when it comes to leadership training and development which includes things like communication, executive presence, decision making, emotional intelligence, coaching and mentoring others, and the like, there is no substitute for doing this in-person. I stand by the belief that you cannot train effective leaders in a virtual world, especially when these leaders will oftentimes be required to lead in the physical world.
Bringing back hard work
In another post I wrote I shared how the hard work mentality has disappeared in many organizations around the world. Marc Randolph who I have interviewed for my podcast once told me that one of his rules for success is to do 10% more than what is asked. Today, it feels like we want to do 20% less than what is asked while at the same time demanding 10% more than what we are getting. Employees need to remember what it’s like to work hard, to dare I say…commute! To sometimes get in early, leave late, and to focus on how you present yourself to your peers. A little bit of sacrifice, struggle, and challenge is never a bad thing. We have gotten too comfortable working at home in our pajamas.
Reigniting innovation
The big argument from a lot of people has been “look, we can still be productive at home we don’t need offices!” We forget that the goal of any business or any individual for that matter isn’t simply to be productive. We shouldn’t confuse motion with progress. Productivity means keeping your head above water, getting things done on your to-do list and being able to maintain the status quo. But what about going above and beyond? We shouldn’t just want productivity, we should want growth, innovation, new ideas to complex problems, and unlocking new opportunities. Bringing people back to together for 6 months will allow employees to more effectively collaborate, brainstorm, develop a vision for the future, and communicate with one another.
Earlier, I mentioned that employees should want this as well, why?
Because if you have aspirations to grow in your organization you should want that visibility in front of your peers, you should want that higher level of leadership training that can only be achieved in-person, you should want to demonstrate that you are valuable member of the team, you should want to build those relationships, you should want to demonstrate your executive presence, and you should want everyone to know who you are and what you can do. It’s in your best interest to show your face over the next 6 months.
Again, this is a temporary measure to focus on resetting, realigning, rejuvenating, reimagining, reinvigorating, and redefining. After that 6 month period is over, flexible work programs (not necessarily fully remote) should be reinstated.
