Working from home or at the office? How employers can do the right thing

The last two years have shown us that working from home is a truly viable option. Now that the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, many employers realise that their employees are reluctant to return to the office. What can I as an employer do in order to deal with this issue? How should I adapt my management style to ensure that my employees once again enjoy going to work?  

Many employees are contending with challenges that they did not experience at work prior to the pandemic. Some employees in open-plan offices now miss having peace and quiet, and feel disturbed and distracted when someone nearby is talking on the phone.  Others miss their ideal work-life balance (see the “Work-Life Balance” blog post), which is much harder to achieve at the office than at home. 

 What can I do as an employer or manager to ensure than my employees are happy returning to the office?  

• Continue offering the opportunity to work from home: A study by the Fraunhofer Institute shows that 42% of the managers surveyed are already planning to expand opportunities to work from home on a permanent basis. This figure was just 12% before the pandemic. 
• New sustainable concepts and work models: To ensure that remote working continues to function as it has up to now, it is vital that managers re-structure the company in such a way that all employees are utilised optimally, whether they work from home or on site. 
• Motivating and placing trust in employees: Managing from a distance requires managerial staff to acquire new competencies and skills. It is also a good idea to define new processes that are geared towards working from home, and to adopt a trusting and motivating management style. 

It's not just employees who can enjoy the numerous advantages of working from home; employers can also benefit in a number of ways: 

• Shared workspaces: If many of my employees are working from home, it allows my company to rent smaller premises, thereby lowering overheads in this area. This also means that not every employee needs their own fully equipped workstation – i.e. shared workspaces become possible.   
• Larger employee market: The fact that people can now work from anywhere in the world means that employers can benefit from being able to hire new, competent employees from around the globe.  
• Work-life balance: My employees’ work-life balance shows long-term improvement, as the flexibility regarding their place of work and working hours allows them to better reconcile work and family life. (Read more about this in the Work-Life Balance blog post) 
• Climate: Working from home reduces the number of commuters and therefore employees’ carbon footprint, which has a positive long-term impact on the environment. 

 Here are our recommendations for ways to make employees happy about returning to the office, whilst still respecting their work-life balance: 

• It’s all about finding the right mix: A good mix of working from home and at the office will have a positive effect on employees’ work-life balance and prevent loneliness. It also allows for a regular exchange between employees and managers.  
• Group activities: Online meetings are no substitute for face-to-face contact “offline”. It is therefore a manager’s responsibility to organise group get-togethers such as team-building events, company/Christmas dinners or company events to help strengthen that feeling of “togetherness” shared by employees, and thus improve their motivation. 
• Determining who is working on site: Employers should know which employees are working from home and on which days. This allows them to ensure that there are always employees at the office, and that no-one ends up with the office to themselves – and therefore might feel lonely. 
• Training employees: Digitalisation offers many opportunities to provide training in certain areas to employees who are working from home. Employees can independently complete various forms of online training at a pace that suits them, for example. In particular, this makes it possible for companies that regularly introduce new technical IT tools to ensure that all employees know how to use the tool in question.