RTO, Remote, or Hybrid Work? Everything in Moderation

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By now, we all know how the pandemic upended the world of work. Five years hence, we have gone from working fully remotely to a hybrid workplace, through to some companies demanding a full Return To Office (RTO) mandate.

Behemoths like Amazon, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, and Elon Musk with all his various businesses have moved aggressively to demand that their employees return to the office or face the consequences, which in most cases means job termination. In Mr. Dimon’s case, his frustration with remote and hybrid work spilled over when he used an expletive when asked what he thought about a petition led by employees of his company to continue offering remote and hybrid work arrangements.

Of course, the jury is still out. We will have to give it time to see how a full RTO mandate would affect employee morale, employee engagement, and employee turnover. There are also demographics to consider – while the baby boomers continue to exit through retirements and attrition and Gen X just behind them, the needs and mindsets of these two generations about the world of work are starkly different than what the other up-and-coming generations need and want.

Gen Z, Alphas, and Polars are digital natives who don’t necessarily see the value of face-to-face interactions or the value of in-person interactions in the office. If you have ever interacted with any one of these three upcoming generations, you are likely familiar with the fact that they might not even use the phone feature on their mobile phones.

This group generally believes strongly in their ability to work from anywhere and don’t see the value of being tethered to a desk. As long as they have a phone, laptop, and internet connection, they believe that they are all set. So, while RTO mandates continue to increase, it does not appear to provide more positive outcomes as it did in the past. The reality is that the world of work has changed.

And in a timely development, a study released by the consulting firm McKinsey earlier this month challenges the assertion that RTO mandates are the only way to go.

McKinsey found that “in-person, remote, and hybrid workers all report mostly similar levels of intent to quit, burnout, effort, and satisfaction.” “This pattern largely holds true regardless of gender, though there are slight differences across generations and caregiving status,” it added.

It stated that executives who think return-to-office will be a panacea to their productivity problems should instead focus on “collaboration, connectivity, innovation, mentorship, and skill development.” McKinsey found that these five qualities are essential to improving workplace performance and strengthening organizational health.

And therein lies the key point. I agree with McKinsey’s findings and  believe that focusing on the five qualities will result in better outcomes and alignment between organizations and their teams.

There are relatively few differences in each of the three work models around employee intentions to quit, burnout, effort, and job satisfaction. Therefore, the one size fits all model no longer works in today’s environment.

Instead, we should spend the time to listen to our teams and help them better understand the priorities of the organization and work with them to find the compromise between their needs and those of the organization.

Find a balance by seeing what you can do to incorporate pieces of RTOs with remote and hybrid work models that allow your organization to address the more important issues around engagement, burnout, mental health, productivity, and happiness.

We need to shift the focus to these five qualities, not only because our understanding of the world of work needs to change, but also because of the potential disruption that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning will bring to all roles within organizations.

As the adage goes, everything in moderation…

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