How to Successfully Navigate a Return to the Office
As the world emerges from the worst of the pandemic after a long period of mostly remote work, many employers realize that this transition will increase stress and decrease productivity among their employees if they don’t get it right. Don’t feel badly if your leadership team is overwhelmed by this situation. This transition is like nothing in living history and we cannot discount how challenging it is to emerge from a couple of years of lockdown, masks, and other restrictions.
We all want things to ‘get back to normal’, but research already shows that the pandemic has already had an impact on our personalities and perceived priorities in the workplace. These dynamics are alive and well in today’s workplace and aren’t going anywhere soon. For example, this study shows the myriad challenges that individuals are still facing, including parents struggling to help kids get back on track in school, regret over ‘Great Resignation’ job changes, work-from-home loneliness, and residual fear of being exposed to the virus.
How Can You Support Employees During This Transition?
Business psychologist Dr. Jena Booher says that companies need to find new ways to support your team building resilience to stress and helping them find ways to get meaning from their daily work.
“Stress is bad for your employees, both mentally and physically, and this hurts the worker and company alike,” says Dr. Booher. “You don’t just solve this problem by funding a gym membership. The best companies create a culture with a combination of meaningful work, support for positive internal relationships, and access to stress-relieving activities and tools.”
This advice resonates with employees and other psychologists alike. Research shows that a positive culture and work-life balance are becoming more and more important to employees. That’s a good sign because ensuring a team is ready for the stress of this change isn’t just for your company’s leadership. Employees need to take on some of this responsibility, too. We need changes big and small to meet this challenge.
Encourage Employees to Practice these Small Things
These ‘small things’ don’t ask too much of your employees and cost nothing, yet they have outsized value in combatting stress.
- Take a Self-Care Break — Even if it’s just 15 minutes, take regular breathers. Take a quick walk or just sit quietly. Clear your mind and think about something unrelated to your work. This is a great way to quickly de-stress.
- Practice Mindfulness — Mindfulness is a practice that encourages you to pay attention to what is happening in the moment. The data backs it up; being mindful is an ideal way to increase resilience.
- Plan Ahead — Planning ahead helps everyone reduce stress. You avoid the anxiety of not knowing how long something will take and feeling rushed. This is solved with five minutes of planning early each day.
These three steps can empower employees to have a less stressful day in the office. While every little bit helps, to ensure that your team has the full support they need, check out the ‘Big Things’ list below.
Invest in these Big Things
These are ‘big things’ because there is effort and cost involved. However, your employees will appreciate this investment in their health and repay you many times over with better productivity, lower absenteeism, and higher retention.
- Holistic Leadership Development Coach, Lisa May of Fülle brings the SORCE app to companies that she supports. “SORCE provides employees a daily biometric check-in on their energetic level and quick audio advice on how to have their best day.” May says the app is successful because the time commitment is low but the value is high. Plus, employees know their data is safe. “For the first time, employers can monitor the energetics of the team without seeing an individual’s data. This is powerful insight to enable cultures of resilience versus burnout. My clients love SORCE for its actionable feedback that helps them live & lead better!”
2. At The Muse, a company focused on connecting job-seekers with meaningful work, the leadership team are implementing the Instill Culture Operating System. This platform enables them to assess their own cultural strengths and sort out how can turn this transition into an opportunity. That’s followed by using Instill’s assessment of their employees’ personal values to identify ways to make their work more meaningful by connecting them with the company’s cultural values. Instill is changing the way companies leverage their culture as a strategic advantage and the timing couldn’t be better. The Muse knew this was important; they’re so committed to helping employees navigate the modern workplace that their founders wrote a book about it.
3. NEON ID asked their entire team to re-take the company’s HEXACO-based personality test to reassess after the pandemic. Leading psychometrician Dr. Galen Buckwalter notes that personality changes are rare, but major events are usually the trigger and he says, “It’s fair to say that COVID-19 was a significant life event for the whole world.” His company, psyML, creates personality-driven assessments for companies to better connect with their employees’ needs. Having studied the effects of remote work during the pandemic, psyML is now enabling many companies to cope with this transition.
A Better Culture Means a Brighter Future for Your Company
Creating a positive culture in your workplace should be a key goal for all modern businesses. Millennial and Gen Z employees are the future and studies show that these workers expect more from their employers than just a paycheck and the bare minimum benefits. Furthermore, that was before the pandemic. Now that COVID-19 has made most workers reevaluate their work and lives, employees as a whole expect companies to be concerned about their well-being, their sense of purpose, and their happiness.
The great news is that providing these benefits will keep your employees loyal, happy, and more productive during a difficult time for all of us. This is one of those key moments in history when doing the right thing is also the best possible choice for driving business success. Will you rise to the challenge?
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