However, forcing employees to return to the office is not a wise option as requiring the employees, who are accustomed to working flexibly, to return to the office can only have a negative effect, and even lead to talent loss.

The best approach is to adopt an incentive-based policy that provides an incentive to attract employees returning to the office. You also need to know that your workplace is ready to welcome them back.  

Incentives to Encourage Return to Your Office  

Workspace renovation – Redesign your office into a dynamic and comfortable workspace.  

Commuter benefits – Provide your employees with travel allowances, and even free shuttle buses.  

Free meals – Some companies offer complimentary snacks and lunches to employees.

Health and wellness facilities – Provide a gym in the workplace or a spiritual retreat room with a focus on wellness.  

Hybrid work schedules – Allows your employees to work remotely sometimes and provide personalized work hours for each staff. 

Workplace concerns you need to know

In addition to implementing the above motivational measures, you also need to be aware of the problems your employees encounter when working remotely so that you don’t repeat the mistakes in your workplace.  

We’ve collected some data and made some analysis to support your decision to return to work. 

Workspace management 

When employees return to their workplace and find too many empty workspaces, they feel empty and sparse. 

Therefore, you need to optimize your office space, most importantly by centralizing work areas and rebuilding spaces for teamwork. This will help attract employees back to the office. Some data shows that centralized work areas make employees happier, and their attendance steadily improves. 

Microsoft’s report found that 85% of employees enter the office because they are motivated by a renewed team bond, so when rebuilding your workspace, you need to pay attention to a clear division of work areas. 

Facilitate communication everywhere

Another thing employees crave is the ability to talk face-to-face. The epidemic causes employees to work alone for long periods of time, making them mental fatigue which can affect the quality of their work. Face-to-face conversations can provide immediate feedback and make work run more smoothly. 

Microsoft reports that employees will visit the office more often if they know their immediate team member will be there (73%) or their work friend is there (74%).

Communicating with supervisors in a relaxed space makes for a more casual work atmosphere and brings both parties closer together more easily, which helps build a good work culture.

Some companies create their offices as friendly and casual environments and also provide equipment that is conducive to work. 

Appropriate Work Flexibility 

Employees like to work from home because working remotely has high flexibility. So, when they work in the workplace, it is important for you to provide a flexible work style in your workplace.

One simple thing is to provide them with flexible office facilities, such as a hot desk, so that they can change their work location in anytime and feel as relaxed as if they were working at home. This policy can relieve employees’ anxiety and will not highly refuse to return to the workplace. 

Reports indicate that more than 80% of managers expect to adopt more flexible work principles in the post-epidemic era to support employees to work from home and encourage them to return to the office. 

Systematic work devices 

Nowadays, hybrid workplaces are implementing different collaboration tools or management systems to improve employee productivity. For example, Microsoft Teams is a great collaboration tool that allows employees to have real-time conversations and store their work progress in the company’s cloud-based system.

Then, workers can keep track of their remote work progress when they go back to the office. A report shows 70% of companies are using collaboration tools and are seeing significant improvements in team performance. 

Moreover, workers expect their workplace to provide them with a well-connected network. In an internal study of Microsoft employees, 59% of interviewers said they had to use their phones as hotspots to avoid disconnections.

Thus, you must provide employees with a good network system to attract them back to the office. 

What setup can support your hybrid office?  

A hybrid office should use a functional office management system, which helps Singapore employees use office resources efficiently, such as rooms, desks, and office equipment, and support them to have remote work and virtual meetings with their colleagues in the office.       

ONES is one of the famous all-in-one smart office systems that can help you to easily implement hybrid working at ease.  ONES can easily help you to perform virtual meetings, desk hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management feature.     

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/.    

The post 4 Tips that support your return-to-office policy in 2023 first appeared on ONEs Blog.

People Matters, a new-age niche media organization, recently invited some business leaders to explain the key factors that will help employees and employers transition to the office in a live LinkedIn session under its “Big Questions” series. 

The challenge of staff re-entering the office 

Indonesians value family ties and have great respect for their elders. So how can they feel comfortable returning to the office if they have a chronically ill family member, young children, or elderly parents to care for? 

Also, working in a traditional office is more stressful, and working from home is more relaxing for them. Some people have even been bullied in the workplace, so they have a negative perception of going back to work. 

Key factors in transitioning back to the office  

In a live LinkedIn session, Dedev Parulian, who is Cluster HR Head (Indonesia, PNG, and Timor) and ASPAC IR Head at Ofi, Clare Muhiudeen, Head of Asia at WTW, and May Yang, the MD and Global Head of Operations at Synechron, discussed the post-pandemic work schedule. 

They both cited different key factors in the transition to the office and then agreed that the office is now a multi-dimensional, flexible, hybrid, and adaptable space where the 9 to 5 job is no longer a key requirement.

Furthermore, according to a Cisco study, 84% of Indonesian employees agree that their jobs need to include flexibility and prefer hybrid work. 

Give up your traditional office work mentality 

“Presently, we are seeing the office as an alternative work environment besides employees’ home. It’s more like a place where a company provides its workforce a space to focus, collaborate, learn as well as socialise. Most importantly, the post-pandemic office needs to inspire employees to connect with their colleagues as well as leaders, further enabling them to do their best work,” May Yang told People Matters.    

May Yang means that the office is no longer a place to provide rigid work, but more importantly, the office is a place to provide flexibility and versatility. Employers should give up their traditional office work mentality. 

Based on a LinkedIn survey, over 30% of leaders still fear that employees do not do their work as conscientiously in the home as they do in the office. 

In fact, 3,964 companies have implemented a work-from-home policy in Jakarta alone and they have gotten a good result on hybrid working. A good example is Blibli, which has reported an increase in productivity after most of its employees worked from home. 

As a result, employers with a distrustful mindset will be at odds with their employees, making work less efficient and productive, and preventing the company from developing on the right path.

Therefore, employers need to abandon their traditional thinking and introduce a way of working those balances both ideas. One of the suggestions is implementing hybrid working. 

Increase the amount of open communication to build trust 

The lack of communication between employers and employees leads to different ideas and finally mutual distrust. More communication between employers and employees can help resolve misunderstandings at work. 

Clare Muhiudeen suggests that employers should create more platforms for open communication, so that both parties can have new experiences and common ideas at work. 

“Establish trust, accountability, and involve in a lot of open communication to make the experience meaningful and worthwhile,” said Clare Muhiudeen. 

Clare Muhiudeen also suggested that introducing a hybrid model in the workplace would help increase trust between the two parties. The reason for this is that a hybrid workplace is a good place for communication, as many hybrid workplaces have different open chat spaces and face-to-face meeting rooms for formal meetings. 

Meanwhile, hybrid workplaces have different friendly measures to provide different benefits to employees and make them feel valued. Then, they will believe that their managers know how to take care of themselves, so they will work harder for the company. 

“By introducing a hybrid model, one can make trust-based work possible.” Clare Muhiudeen added. 

Introducing a better working system 

The MD and Global Head of Operations of Synechron suggested that work scheduling decisions should be made entirely by the company, not by employees. 

“The work arrangement for employees should be the company’s approach as part of their overall strategy. If left to be decided by employees, the model will lead to confusion and chaos. You don’t want to be coming on days where your other team members are not in. For instance, at Synechron we’ve taken a hybrid model but made it very clear what are the days for the teams to come in,” May told People Matters. 

So, the company has to set up a proper hybrid work guideline for employees, or they won’t be able to properly decide when they need to go back to the office. 

Employers can look to Citi or Standard Chartered for reference. They offer different flexible roles for their employees and require supervisors to create individualized work guidelines for their employees. 

Create a culture of happiness in the office 

Research shows that a happy culture leads to many positive outcomes, including higher productivity and higher employee satisfaction. 

By implementing measures to build a culture of happiness in the office, employees can be attracted back. Examples are holding regular team gatherings and Christmas parties. 

Dedev Parulian and Clare Muhiudeen also share some tips for developing a harmonious and positive workplace culture: 

• Take and share regular feedback.   
• Indulge in team-building fun activities.  
• Celebrate special occasions, such as birthdays, work anniversaries, and achievements. 
• Let employees weigh in on office design. 
• Go out together 
• Encourage hobbies at work 

These actions help employees more engage with the company and foster a sense of belonging to the company, also promoting the process of transitioning back into the office. 

What setup brings flexibility to your office? 

To create a hybrid office, you should have some office management systems to support your staff to flexible work.  For example, a hot desk policy and a room booking system. 

Hot desk 

Hot desk is an organizational workspace system in which desks in a workspace are used on an ad-hoc basis. 

Instead of having only one designated space or permanent desk, hot desking allows employees to use any available mobile desk and is a strategy that helps increase flexibility and encourages collaboration. 

The benefits of using a hot desk are that it maximizes space efficiency and reduces redundant office space to save on operating expenses. 

Example: Coca-Cola 

Room booking System 

Room Booking System includes capabilities for managing, optimizing, and streamlining the meeting room booking process. 

It allows you to book an available room at any time via your cell phone or room panel, eliminating the need for staff to waste time searching for an empty room. 

And after the meeting, the system will help you turn off the energy in the room, automatically saving your operation costs. When someone is absent from a meeting, the system will automatically release the occupied room, reducing the chance of wasted resources. 

Example: LinkedIn 

Office management system 

ONES is one of the famous all-in-one smart office systems that can help you to implement hybrid working with ease.  

You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management features.        

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/id/.  

The post How to implement your back-to-work transition perfectly in Indonesia?  first appeared on ONEs Blog.