How to Motivate Employees When They Return to Work
Even though you may have spent a lot of time organizing a safe reopening of the workplace, some employees could be hesitant to do so. While some workers could be accustomed to the comfort of working from home because they have done so for the past several months, others might feel more productive when they do so.
However, some employees could still be worried about their health even when they have substituted better lifestyle management techniques for their commute time, such as getting an extra hour of sleep or exercising.
It is difficult to require employees to report to work five days a week in such a circumstance. However, if we consider the other side of the coin, your business might not be able to support the costs of an office building that is essentially empty most days of the week.
Additionally, your company could no longer have the vibrant corporate culture that served as your competitive advantage. Additionally, as new hires join your company, they might not feel totally integrated. Additionally, it may be difficult for the organization's senior management to enthusiastically present the "next big idea" to the staff. Additionally, it could be difficult to discover the level of general employee dissatisfaction before someone snaps.
So, what can you do to motivate the employees of your company to come back to work? You don't need to coerce your workers into coming to work just because you want them to. Instead, you would prefer to convince your staff to come to work because they want to, and in order to do so, you must motivate them. Here's how to motivate staff members as they return to work.
Offer Flexibility and a Mixed-Mode of Operations
Although a growing number of workers want to work from home, many others are at ease with a hybrid working arrangement. According to studies, the majority of employees feel at ease spending at least three days a week working in an office.
Few employees (around 12%) wish to work from home full-time, yet the majority of employees enjoy going to the office. However, they also anticipate greater flexibility because a flexible work schedule that doesn't need employees to show up to work every day of the week improves the working environment for all parties involved. After all, spending hours each day commuting just to arrive at an office that isn't always filled isn't always a wonderful experience for employees.
Offering a hybrid working arrangement is thus one of the finest methods to motivate employees as they resume their jobs. It's time to establish remote working guidelines and procedures if your company doesn't already have any. The nature of the job and the commute time to work will both have a significant impact on your organization's hybrid or remote working strategy.
You can define expectations for both employees and employers about what is and isn't permitted when working remotely with a remote or hybrid working policy. It will also assist in establishing policies on who must be informed when an employee works from home and whether or not they require a reserved workspace when they want to visit the office.
However, you should also expect teams to work together and hold frequent in-person meetings. Dropbox has established virtual working standards that allow employees to work remotely as their normal workplace environment.
When you provide a variety of workspace experiences for your employees, they find the concept of commuting to work more appealing because it's something they don't have to do every day.
Discover New Ways to Meet Up in Person
One of the most intriguing new discoveries is that most employees can find working from home to be enjoyable. They do, however, miss a certain component of their jobs. Their employment has nothing to do with it. Instead, it focuses on the interpersonal aspects of office employment. According to research, interaction with coworkers is what employees miss most about working in an office setting.
Every employee has the opportunity for casual encounters in the break room or at the coffee maker because practically all employees arrive at the workplace each day. Now that most individuals still work from home and companies have flexible hours, it's time for your organization to start coming up with new ideas to encourage face-to-face interactions.
Encourage employees to participate in volunteer initiatives in their community as a way to foster more interpersonal connections outside of the workplace. Currently, some organizations pay their employees for their part-time volunteer work. Similar to this, you can motivate your staff to take part in team-building exercises where the participants can see and measure the results of their work. A food drive at work is one example of a team-building activity that may have a real impact and provide employees a chance to connect with one another while also providing them a greater sense of purpose and meaning. Employees are more likely to keep coming to work when they have more chances to catch up with their coworkers.
Provide appropriate training opportunities and mentoring initiatives within the workplace
Training and development expenses may have been the first to see a significant budget cut as the pandemic spread and businesses were forced to tighten their belts.
If your organization made budget cuts because of the epidemic, now is the time to think about restoring them even though it was the appropriate thing to do a few months ago.
Consider holding frequent company-wide training sessions at your corporate headquarters to provide all employees an opportunity to get to know their coworkers and give them a cause to come back to work in order to motivate them to do so. The greatest location for training is at the corporate headquarters since staff members can meet mentors through unofficial or casual encounters. Around 90% of workers who have career mentors report having improved job satisfaction, and the experience is especially important for both Millennials and Generation Z workers.
If your company doesn't already have one, starting one that allows new hires to benefit from the expertise of more seasoned employees could inspire new hires to re-enter the workforce. One of the finest methods to promote and support in-person encounters is through a mentorship program. At the corporate level, you can start a mentoring program and create a structure that might include suggested times for meetings and more relaxed occasions like monthly lunches.
Make Employee Experiences That Are Personalized
Personalization is the way of the workplace of the future. Each employee has a unique motivation for going back to work, thus this may vary. They will also have expectations of the supervisors and employers. While some workers might choose an environment that encourages social interaction, others might prefer a quiet workspace.
While you cannot satisfy every employee's needs, you can target specific needs and group employees so you can more easily meet their needs. They are more inclined to assist you in exceeding their expectations if you offer your staff a range of areas and amenities at work.
In order to attain success, leaders visualize it. All professional sorts' motivation is increased by this method. Assist staff members in comprehending the consequences of achieving goals. After that, inform them of the outcomes to further spur them on (Dickson, 2021).
There are several ways to improve the usability of your workplace. Purchasing ergonomic, user-friendly office furniture is one of them.
