Three steps to reframe making the commute worth it

Unless referenced, all data is from Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong? Work Trend Index Pulse Report, Microsoft, September 2022 

Who is our customer? As HR people is it the business leader? The team? Our colleagues? The external customer? conundrum sitting at the heart of the employee experience in Australia and New Zealand’s new world of work.  

86% of business decision makers say getting employees back to the office in person is a concern in the coming year.  

While 75% of employees are saying they need a better reason than company expectations to go into the office.  

Is this just a bit of friction around mismatched needs? Or does it point to a deeper disconnect between leaders and employees on what a successful, thriving, modern  workplace looks like? 

To find the answer, let’s start with a stocktake of the current forces on our workplaces. 

What’s the stimulus-response model in your organisation?  

We are quickly moving beyond a time where organisations move in a pattern of leadership stimulus – employee response.  

This is where you will work. Response.  
This is the way you will work. Response.  
This is your culture. Response.  

This is flipping in the new world of work with employee stimulus – leadership response starting to drive a refreshed employee experience dynamic. Employers who recognise this flip and take it a step further by treating their employees like customers are best placed to address the major workplace changes being felt in organisations across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).  

Treating your employees like customers 

In our recently released Work Trend Index Pulse Report. The findings show that employees expect flexibility and autonomy around how, when, and where they work across three key themes:  

1. Productivity as impact, not hours on the clock 
2. Rebuilding social capital and team bonds with time in the office 
3. If they can’t learn, they’ll leave 

Treating your employees like customers has some great outcomes that will help you address these trends:  

Make yourself a “destination employer”ⁱ by focusing on the holistic employee experience, just like you would the customer experience. Use feedback loops to deeply understand your employees’ desired experience and preferred ways of working. You put considerable resources into proving to your customers that you care, so consider how a focus on wellbeing is letting your employees know you care. When it comes to specific themes like productivity, move away from questioning how many hours your employees are working, to identifying how to prioritise their empowerment. All these factors have a halo effect on retention, greatly needed in this highly competitive talent market.  

Deliver great value to your employees with the same priority as you do for customers. Employees are saying that learning and career development is critical to whether they stay with or leave their employer, so understanding how to embed learning into the flow of work is a great start. Also consider your manager community as the “face” of your employee organisation. Continuously assess and provide the skills they need to deliver all facets of a great employee experience.  

When we look specifically at making the commute worth it, treating your employees like customers is a great start. You can also consider these three steps to directly address the impacts of the pandemic on the choice between office or remote working.  

Three steps to reframe making the commute worth it  

For those paying attention, the current complexity of employee expectations is being driven by a simple goal: employees don’t want to lose what they’ve found through the pandemic.  

Taking it even simpler still, one could argue that every new way of working is linked to a grounding experience – being human at work. 

Layer on a request to return to the office, and it’s not surprising that employees first consider what they might lose. To change this conversation to what employees will gain, consider this three-step approach:  

Step one: Embrace the gains  
Ensuring people feel valued, seen and heard, goes a long way to laying the right foundations. Employees who feel cared about at work are 3.2x more likely to report being happy at their current company.ⁱⁱ Organisations that consider how to keep the ‘human’ gains that employees have experienced through the pandemic years – authenticity, autonomy, flexibility, and time savings banked from not commuting, to name a few – are more likely to lead with empathy while championing inclusivity and wellbeing.  

Step two: Embrace the holistic hybrid employee experience 
Let’s stop asking employees to choose between remote work and being in the office. Choices are great for empowerment, but when set up as opposing forces, choices also drive tension. Rather than considering being in the office as separate to working remotely, embrace the common foundation of the employee experience across both. 60 percent of HR leaders believe this is the right approach.ⁱⁱⁱ It means making it easy to collaborate, learn, be aligned to business priorities, and to fully participate in company culture and mission – no matter where employees work from.  

Step three: Embrace the fact that people come in for each other 
Steps one and two enable organisations to focus on the holistic hybrid employee experience separate to the return to office conversation. This enables a clear re-frame of the reasons to come into the office through the employee stimulus – leadership response model.  

Employee stimulus: Social connection is the key motivation to spend time in the office. 

This is backed up by data on what motivates employees to go to the office: 

• 85% rebuilding team bonds  
• 84% socialising with coworkers 
• 73% if direct team members are there 

Leadership response: The primary goal of spending time in the office is to rebuild social capital by strengthening team bonds, feeling connected to our workplace community, meeting with leaders, and seeing work friends.  

Building this direct connection to the value employees place on working from the office sets the stage for a compelling approach to a vibrant office environment. One where employees see their return to the office as a series of opportunities, not deficits.  

If work is never going back to the way it was, then how does it move forward?  

This question should be on the minds of leaders across ANZ. Those who put energy into figuring out not just the answer, but why it’s such an important question, are setting their organisations up for success.  

Treat your employees like customers and work from a place that recognises that the office remains a compelling place in the hearts and minds of employees if framed through the lens of what’s important to them – keeping the gains of the last few years and rediscovering the value of in-person human connection. The net result will see employees and organisations thrive in this new world of work.  

Learn more

• The People-Powered Workplace: Reimagine the Employee Experience e-book 
• Create a Holistic Employee Experience e-book 

ⁱ Employees For Life: Treat Them Like Customers, Forbes, 2022
ⁱⁱ The Transformation of L&D, LinkedIn Learning, 2022
ⁱⁱⁱ Create a Holistic Employee Experience e-book, Microsoft