5 steps to crafting a return to office plan employees won't hate

November 14, 2023 1:28 PM

There's no one way to return to the office, says workplace leadership expert Shamis Pitts. But there are some standard steps managers can take that will make the process easier for organizations to implement — and easier for employees to accept.

Pitts, founder of Pitts Leadership Consulting, has been guiding employees through the return-to-office (RTO) transition with the help of what she calls REIGN principles: rapport, equity, intention, greatness and quantifying impact.

"Some people believe we can just return to business as usual, and other folks are just unwilling to do that," she says. "I'm working with clients to think and talk through what they've tried, what they're thinking of trying and what gaps or assumptions they might be making. It's a coaching-type conversation that helps them open up some 'aha' moments about actions they can take."

No matter where a company is in the RTO process, Pitts encourages leaders to think about these steps that can get a policy off on the right foot, or improve the efforts that have been made so far.

Tell employees why you want them back

Employees need to feel like what they are being asked to do has a purpose, says Pitts. Managers who are equipped to communicate the why and how a return-to-office policy is important for their team stand a better chance at bringing people along, and will encounter less friction, she says.

"You have to be able to be concrete about what the ask is and why it matters," she says. "Filling people in along the way is a distraction. A 'because I said so' approach causes a tremendous amount of friction. If there hasn't been intentional investment to build the rapport required to have those conversations, it will be slow going, like pushing a boulder up a steep hill."

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Poorly-communicated RTO plans are where good intentions go to die. Pitts advises leaders at every level to take a good look at how they communicate, taking care to not get overwhelmed with every need of each individual employee, but to also avoid a directive that dismisses their needs. When there are decisions to be made, she advises managers to create a space for conversations with their team members that allows their input to be part of the solution. Without this awareness, there will be missed opportunities to communicate in a way people will understand, and thus a lack of necessary togetherness within the workforce, she says.

"People don't like being told what to do [and] in the absence of information, [they] make stuff up," says Pitts. "If we're not thinking about not only collecting data, but having actual conversations with people around what they care about and what their values are, it really tells you about the culture. It's both a top-down and bottoms-up process when you're empowering your managers to have thoughtful conversations about what their teams need."

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Create a psychologically safe office

Managers should keep in mind the three levels of engagement, says Pitts: Psychological safety, which establishes trust and respect; psychological availability, within which you can connect with things that matter; and psychological meaningfulness, the feeling that what is happening at work — both relationships and output — is important. To help create this space, Pitts says that in addition to communicating well with their team members, managers can provide clear expectations and opportunities for their team to collaborate.

"If these things aren't occurring, we know that somebody's well-being will take a hit and that will likely lead to lower productivity," Pitts says. "If the ultimate goal is for the organization to meet the needs and expectations of customers and clients, we have to ensure that employees are engaged so they'll get to that productivity. It directly impacts an organization's sustainability and profitability."

Don’t use managers as RTO scapegoats

Managers should not be expected to carry the burden of RTO challenges alone, Pitts stresses. Recognizing that they still have their own jobs to do, she reminds both managers and their superiors to create a chain of support as everyone goes through this learning process together.

"Managers need someone else in the organization who can help them think through and talk about what their challenges are," Pitts says. "People will stay and go based on how they engage with their manager, and with this return-to-office, the impact of the shift their managers are feeling is substantial, and they get to have help."

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Test success over time

There is no one right way to execute a return-to-work policy because every organization is different, and success cannot be measured overnight, Pitts says.

"Folks that are figuring it out are rolling stuff out, testing and collecting data, talking to people and then figuring out what's working and what's not working," she says. "Do we have the right people at the table? Whose voice are we not including and whose voices are we over-anchoring on? What are some possibilities if we do it another way? There's so much care and time and work behind the things we want to be easy, and we want to get to the point in our organizations where things are like magic, but that takes time and intention."