Dumb and Dumber
I am not describing the series of comedy films starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, which I profess I have never watched.
I am describing the absolute insanity of CEOs and leaders in countless organisations, demanding that employees return to the office on a prescribed basis.
When I ask these employees why they worked two days in the office this week, they look at me blankly and shrug their shoulders. This is how the conversation goes.
Me: Why did you work from the office today?
Employee: I was told to.
Employee: No.
Me: Why?
Employee: Because, I could have done the same, if not better, working from home and saving myself a 2-hour round commute.
It is pure insanity.
The changes in where, when, and how we work, present challenges across structures, processes, and people, but they also offer the greatest opportunity organisations will be presented with for some time to come.
Organisations that unlock this opportunity, will distinguish themselves as the employer of choice whilst those that do not, will find succumb to the pressure of competition, fail to grow, suffer financial deterioration, and ultimately cease to exist.
Dumb
Dumb is the CEO stating a return to the office is needed to maintain productivity.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a McKinsey study, 58% of executives reported improvements in individual productivity.
An Owl Labs survey in 2022 revealed that 62% of workers feel more productive when working remotely.
Research from the Becker Friedman Institute found that remote employees save about two hours per week in 2021 and 2022. Employees allocated 40% of time savings to work.
A Cisco Global Hybrid Work Study in 2022 of 28,000 full-time employees found that remote work resulted in 60.4% increased productivity.
When CEOs are under increasing pressure to increase productivity – do more with less – their dumbness to the fact that remote work increases productivity defies belief.
Back in May 2022, I wrote an article called “There Are Only Five Reasons to Return To The Office.”
These were:
1. Preference
2. Purpose
3. Participation
4. Productivity
5. Party
Productivity is only one reason to return to the office, if the individual or team decide that they will be more productive.
Some individuals will find it more productive to work out of the office when they are doing focused work, as there are fewer distractions than they have at home.
Some teams will find it more productive to do high-energy brain-storming sessions when co-located so will choose the office as the place of work for that activity.
It is horses for courses. Mandating an employee to work from the office does not result in higher productivity. That is just utter nonsense.
Dumber
The largest study of its kind, conducted by Development Dimension International (DDI), revealed what keeps the CEO up at night.
The Global Leadership Forecast 2023 is the tenth forecast since DDI started the stream of research more than 23 years ago. The study included responses from 1,827 human resource professionals and 13,695 leaders from 1,566 organisations around the world. It spanned 50 countries and 24 major industry sectors.
The top three CEO concerns are:
· Attracting and retaining top talent (59%)
· Developing the next generation of leaders (50%)
· Maintaining an engaged workforce (45%)
Whilst these CEOs ranked talent-related challenges as the ones that keep them up at night, presumably in recognition that people will unequivocally be the driver of their success across all other business and economic challenges, their behaviours are in diametrical opposition to the ranking.
The survey also found that 54% of companies saw their turnover increase by 54%. A key factor influencing retention was options for flexible work. When flexible arrangements were not supported, respondents were 1.3X more likely to indicate an intention to leave their company within the year. The trend was even higher among workers under the age of 35, who were 2.2X more likely to plan to leave companies where flexible work was not supported.
An Owl Labs 2022 survey of over 2,300 full-time U.S. workers found that If the ability to work from home was taken away, two-thirds (66%) of workers would immediately start looking for a job that offered flexibility, and 39% would simply quit.
Flexibility and autonomy
Employees want workplace flexibility which embraces the fact that employees can be productive no matter where or when they perform their work.
According to a McKinsey 2022 study, flexibility in the workplace ranked as one of the top motivators for staying in a role.
Flexibility is NOT enforcing a rigid workplace schedule that dictates the number of days per work an employee must be in the office or the actual days the employee must be in the office each work.
That is a mandate without rhyme or reason.
A true remote model includes both flexibility and autonomy. Employees want flexibility that is driven by their autonomy to choose how best to use it.
Back in 2021, I wrote an article about the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that included a matrix illustrating the need for both flexibility and autonomy.
In that article, I said:
“When there is both high flexibility and high autonomy (top right), employees can work when they want, how they want, and where they want. There will be principles by which the leader, the team, and the team members operate. When the leader and the team decide that a face-to-face co-located meeting is the optimal way to achieve desired outcomes, they will decide where and when that co-location happens that meets the needs of most of the team. It is not dictated – it is a democratic decision, that has the needs of the team and the wider organisation at its core.”
It is not only the likes of Elon Musk demanding employee return to the office or lose their job. I am acutely aware of organisations that are telling employees that if they do not return to the office as mandated, they will be performance-managed out of the organisation.
That is a blatant threat without rhyme or reason.
If you want to attract and retain top talent, you must be an employer of choice. That means you enable employees to fit work around their lives rather than their lives around their work.
It means you recognise that there must be a mix of options that are relevant and meaningful to your employees, whilst also supporting the organisation’s values, culture, and goals.
Dumbermost
The dumbest of all is not involving people in defining the options for flexible working and making them accountable for its success.
Find out from individuals, teams, and their leaders, what flexible options they believe will work best for both them and the organisation.
There must be recognition that individual circumstances, preferences, and needs will change over time, so whatever model is built must be adaptable to change.
No organisation is the same as another, so for many organisations, this can be unchartered territory. Position this as a journey of experimentation, trial and error, whereby the best working model that meets the needs of employee and employer at a given point in time, is determined. Subject it to continual improvement and modification as needed.
Successful change means that you do change with people, not to them.
The dumbermost are those that expect employees to accept the mandated return to the office and embrace it as the right thing to do.
It is NOT the right thing to do.
Despite what the CEO says, remote work does not adversely impact culture, collaboration, productivity, innovation, or connection.
The demand for a return to the office is driven by:
· Money – the cost of office space must be justified by bums on seats
· Productivity paranoia – a lack of trust that remote employees are working
· Ignorance - the belief that it will be easier to go back to how it was before March 2020
· Capability – leaders’ inability to lead and manage remote teams
None of these reasons has substance and is just a refusal to unlearn and relearn.
Summary
If you are serious about surviving, stop being an idiot.
Do not mandate the working arrangement between the office and remote locations. It will not attract and retain the top talent you need for survival, nor will it increase productivity.
If you have not felt the attrition yet, just wait until the economy starts to strengthen, and then watch as the talent walks out the door because you have not provided employees with the flexibility and autonomy to work where they want, when they want, and how they want.
You employed clever people so why not treat them that way?
I’m a grown-up. Treat me like one.