Should companies force employees to return to the office?
Over the summer with the COVID-19 pandemic settling down, there are talks between executives and managers on whether employees should be forced to return to the office or could have the option to work from home permanently.
Listen to your employees
It is infuriating when companies do not listen to the needs of their employees. When the employees say they want better benefits, higher salaries, managers refuse until enough employees leaves. Then the managers complains that it is hard to find good employees.
I believe employees care about the business’s success and their own success. In the past, business’s were loyal to employees and as a result so were employees. Yet now that many business’s view employees as a cost rather than a loyal brand supporter. Business’s are letting good employees go, and as a result, good potential candidates are choosing not to work for those businesses. This is disrupting many business’s culture and growth strategy, and forcing large scale changes.
Digital transformation
Digital transformation (the transformation of non-digital processes to digital processes) has accelerated since the beginning of COVID to accommodate work-from-home employees. As a result, the desire to return to the office is a decision of unwillingness to change to newly created precedence. Manager’s that micro-manage, abuse employees, and love creating inter-relationship conflict, have less power.
Many people living in rural areas of Canada and the USA have limited or no access to 10MB per Second internet. Resulting in a divide in who can obtain the benefits of the digital transformation of the workplace.
What are the benefits of working in-person?
Able to smell and touch colleagues, spend more time around the coffee pot chatting with employees and not on the computer working.
What should be the benefits of working in-person?
The time it takes to travel to and from the office should be paid for by the employer; ergonomic chairs, standing desks, and 2 4K monitors should be provided at each hybrid station, noise cancelling barriers should exist between each team space, micro-conference rooms, are all tools that should be provided by the employer.
Conclusion
Businesses do not want to invest in the health, wellness, nor success of their employee, until a hemorrhagic impact, at which point, it’s too late to repair. From my experience working at large-enterprises, businesses want to focus on keeping their costs low and generate the same type of revenue they have for the past 30 years.
Times are changing, so will you adapt or will the business…
