Want to RTO? Here’s how to do it successfully

The British health and beauty retailer Boots recently became the latest large organization to mandate a strict return to the office (RTO) policy.

This announcement elicited significant backlash from employees and the wider public as it signaled the end of hybrid working patterns for its staff.

This trend of strict RTO mandates is not a ripple, but a wave.

According to a September 2023 survey by Gartner, in the last 12 months, 63% of employers increased the number of days employees are required to be in the office.

They cited beliefs that RTO mandates will improve employee collaboration and productivity.

While organizations are being pressured to improve cash flow and garner the best performance from their employees, this push towards full-time in-person work may inadvertently prioritize leaders’ anxieties over long-term results for the business.

After long periods of remote and hybrid work, employees now have a sharper awareness of what they want to ‘spend’ to work on-site, from both a monetary and personal perspective.

With inflation driving up costs, employees are struggling to afford the cost of work.

For example, Gartner found that the cost of showing up to the office just one day per week amounts to more than $3,500 USD annually for the average employee.

Now that employees have experienced successful alternative ways of working, the costs of on-site work feel more difficult to justify.

Although organizations face difficult decisions, implementing a five-day-per-week RTO policy will not solve their challenges.

The idea that being physically present necessarily improves collaboration and productivity is based on outdated assumptions, and research has shown that hybrid working models offer better returns on employee performance – employees can spend less time commuting, have space and quiet to focus, and can juggle caretaking responsibilities more easily.

However, as more organizations implement similar policies this year, business and HR leaders must understand that they are unlikely to make a compelling case to employees for full-time RTO simply by mandating it.

Tackling cost of commuting issues

Supporting employees in weathering the cost of living crisis will be critical for business leaders this year, and the most progressive organizations will look to address it head-on, with HR leaders playing a pivotal role.

Firstly, organizations must clearly communicate the reason behind requirements for working on-site.

Employees must be engaged in the policymaking process and feel that they have an input on changes to their working conditions.

Secondly, leaders should motivate employees to return to the office by maximizing its true value to their work, rather than mandating it.

Although giving employees the opportunity to shape their teams’ own work arrangements is critical to securing their buy-in, right now this is not happening.

According to a Gartner survey from June 2023 of over 3,400 employees, only 40% of employees whose organizations have implemented an RTO mandate say employee feedback was considered in designing it.

Leaders can also reduce the total cost of RTO policies for employees by offering new benefits.

For example, remote work has reduced the financial burden for many employees with caregiving responsibilities; in particular, women continue to manage most of the caregiving responsibilities at home.

Organizations that want to bring employees back to the office and retain their workforce should look to defray these costs by investing in comprehensive caregiver benefits that cover the costs of elder care, childcare, respite care, and even pet care services.

Additionally, an RTO policy may force some employees to relocate geographically to maintain residence within commuting distance of an office, and most countries are facing rising housing costs; some organizations are offering housing subsidies, such as down payments or closing-cost assistance, for employees looking to buy homes closer to the office.

Empowering managers in the hybrid era

Another important consideration for HR and business leaders is equipping managers to guide and support their teams.

To make hybrid policies fit for purpose, organizations must empower managers, who are most employees’ primary contact day-to-day – yet few are doing so.

Gartner data shows that even though 81% of HR leaders say managers are tasked with enforcing RTO policies for their direct reports, only 33% say managers have received additional training on addressing challenges that come with new RTO mandates.

Overseeing a team is particularly difficult in hybrid work environments. Compared to other employees, managers have experienced the largest change in their day-to-day work with the shift to hybrid and remote work — and likely the most anxiety.

The lack of direct visibility in a remote environment decreased confidence in their ability to monitor their direct reports’ productivity and performance, often leading to micromanagement and meeting-heavy collaboration approaches that exacerbate employee fatigue.

Because of this, it is vital to equip managers with the skills, tools and support to effectively manage their teams that are working in both remote and in-person settings.

HR plays a pivotal role in establishing consistent standards and providing managerial guidance, particularly to facilitate constructive dialogues within teams that will deepen an understanding of the optimal work setup and foster productivity and performance.

How to design a successful RTO policy

Throughout 2023, remote work preferences have remained unchanged, despite many organizations making a greater push towards mandated RTO. And research has shown that these mandates, whether actual or suspected, influence candidates’ decision to leave their job.

According to a Gartner survey conducted in January 2024 of nearly 3,000 job candidates, one in three who were asked to return to a physical workspace said that it influenced their decision to leave their job.

Plus one in four who suspected they would be asked to return to office said the same.

However, leaders should be aware that many employees do want some aspect of in-person work – preferences for fully on-site or fully remote work have dropped since 2021, and employees largely favor hybrid working patterns.

Mandating on-site requirements can carry very steep costs for talent attraction and retention, especially for high-performers, women and millennials – three groups who greatly value flexibility.

These costs often far outweigh the moderate benefits to employee engagement and effort.

In response, organizations should expect two key workforce challenges.

Firstly, they are likely to see pushback from current employees, many of whom have adapted to flexible work and experienced enhanced productivity, inclusivity, and work-life balance as a result.

Secondly, organizations must prepare for the potential negative impact of these policies on their ability to attract top talent.

Once leaders have understood the challenges they will face, they can evaluate how best to implement a successful RTO policy.

The best practices HR leaders should consider when seeking to formalize in-office requirements are:

• Motivate employees to return to the office instead of instituting a mandate. Employees are motivated by the need to feel capable, autonomous and connected. Designing your office space, norms and usage policies to appeal to these feelings will motivate employees to work from the office without resorting to a mandate.
• Consider policies that require or recommend on-site attendance per year, not per week. Gartner research has found that organizations mandating a minimum number of in-office days per week did not significantly improve performance, but those mandating a minimum number of in-person days per year did.
• Give employees the opportunity to shape, adapt or customize the policy. Employees who were able to shape their teams’ hybrid work arrangements demonstrated higher engagement and discretionary effort.
• Make employees feel heard. Employees who felt like their needs were considered in their hybrid work arrangement demonstrated higher engagement, performance and intent to stay at the organization.
• Provide a clear reason behind requirements for working on-site. Companies that communicated their RTO policies with a clear reason for working on-site saw positive impacts on engagement, discretionary effort and retention.

In conclusion, without allowing employees some level of flexibility, organizations will not find success by requiring employees to return to the office.

Some business and HR leaders are implementing full-time RTO mandates in response to other pressures, including company performance and financial constraints.

But a mandate only serves to push existing employees and potential candidates away – and stifle performance in the process.

If organizations do want to implement an RTO policy, they must consider the pitfalls and pushback they will inevitably experience and understand that a successful policy will still include hybrid working practices at its core.