With more and more technology firms coming out with long-term remote options, firms trying to reel workers back to their office desks face serious talent competition.
Multiple surveys in recent weeks show many workers are willing to go with a salary reduction – or even quit – in order to keep working from home. That sentiment worries leaders at some firms where face-to-face interaction is key to workplace culture. Will they be able to get their employees back in the office when the time comes – or will they lose valuable employees to the work-from-home trend?
A lot of money is stake
In the Triangle, several technology players have made significant investments in their campuses – which is one reason many are hoping employees will mount a return whenever the pandemic subsides.
Raleigh-based Bandwidth (Nasdaq: BAND), for example, is in the process of developing a new headquarters – complete with an on-site Montessori school. Pendo has promised to bring hundreds of jobs to downtown Raleigh at its new headquarters. And Cary-based SAS Institute has made decades-worth of investments at its campus, including amenities such as a barber shop and a sushi bar.
While many companies have extended remote work policies amid the resurgence of Covid-19, they intend to bring workers back to the office at some point.
Jerry Sayre, an employment attorney with Fox Rothschild’s Raleigh office, said the number one issue his clients are talking about right now is whether to issue a vaccine mandate for workers, which implies that many companies – even those offering flexibility right now – do have long-term goals of bringing people back to the office.
For some employers, a vaccine mandate is a key tool in the effort to bring workers back. The idea is that by having office workers vaccinated, people will feel safer returning.
“With the FDA approval [of the Pfizer vaccine], I think now there are a number of employers saying the time is right to require vaccinations,” Sayre said.
But employers don’t have to wait for their entire staff to get vaccinated before opening their doors. And employees looking to stay remote have little recourse.
“An employer has the ability to set the terms and conditions of employment and if an employer wants to require everyone to be in-person… employers do have that ability,” Sayre said. “Everything is subject to some limitations and if we’ve got an employee that has a covered disability and requires an accommodation, then that’s something that would have to be explored on a case by case basis. … There’s always going to be exceptions we have to consider, but from a legal standpoint, employers certainly have a fair amount of discretion.”
What most employers don’t want to do, however, is force employees back to the office. They want them to come willingly. And what they really don't want is for their top employees to leave for a competitor offering permanent remote work.
Kimarie Ankenbrand, managing director for JLL’s Raleigh office, said worries about competing with remote companies are escalating among local business leaders. But there are some ways CEOs can mount an in-office comeback, she said.
It starts with communication. CEOs need to communicate why in-person collaboration is integral to their business.
“Before you start mandating people to come back to the office, leadership needs to really communicate the why behind it,” she said. And that means outlining the business case. “You work for a company that’s bigger than yourself.”
Ankenbrand said to get back to the basics. Restate the mission of your company, how it operates and what the expectations are from investors and shareholders.
“People don’t like to hear that, but it’s the stark reality … they expect results,” she said.
She said employee surveys are essential, as people “want to feel heard.”
Flexibility is also key. But even when developing a hybrid-work model, it’s important to set parameters, Ankenbrand said – otherwise you run the risk of having multiple days where no one is in the office “and if people come back because they want to enjoy the in-person collaboration and culture, that doesn’t incentivize them to come back.”
“We’re finding that the companies that have a more structured policy, some definition – and that’s different for every company – it helps create an in-person environment where there’s energy,” she said.
Successful offices post-Covid need to offer amenities people were enjoying from home, Ankenbrand said. People enjoy remote working because they can work from their couches, their back porches, their desks. Companies have to emulate that kind of optionality, she said. People can easily grab a snack at home, so companies should create the same environment in the office.
In some cases, companies may look to a new office space, especially if they don't want employees to feel like "sardines." That could require investing in a different kind of real estate footprint altogether, Ankenbrand said, noting a current preference for mixed-use locations when it comes to tech companies, as employees can walk to somewhere nearby to grab lunch.
But what about the surveys that imply workers will quit if told to come back to the office? Ankenbrand cautions that those surveys represent only a snapshot in time.
“Most people are answering those surveys under the lens of what matters to them,” she said. “What we’re hearing a lot of the time is a lot of me, me, me.”
While employees are important, she said, the C-suite occupants need to balance that with what’s best for the business – a shift to focus on how the workplace culture can do things with a team mindset and for the greater good.
