Good RTO strategies require homing in on culture

Since the pandemic, working from home has become the “new normal”. Organisations have made efforts to move back into the office. Curating an RTO strategy around culture is how organisations can do this effectively, an executive at Canon Oceania has stressed.

In a recent episode of the HR Leader Podcast, David Field (pictured), Canon Oceania director of people and finance, talked about navigating a return to office (RTO).

“The pandemic accelerated a lot of trends that were already there,“ Field said.

He noted that COVID-19 has made people used to working from home, not having to put on office clothes, not having to commute, and not having to come in.

Field identified that the older generation has held on to the belief that “working from the office has always been the traditional way of doing things”.

However, he added that “that’s the way we always used to do it” is not a good enough reason behind an effective RTO strategy.

One size does not fit all

Speaking about the ideal RTO strategy, Field said: “There isn’t going to be [one] size fits all. So I think you do need to think about your workforce, you need to think about who you are.”

“There are businesses that have no offices … in that situation, I’m sure those organisations are already thinking about … what does it mean to be part of the team, how do they foster those communications if they’re not? They certainly should be in that sort of remote setting.”

As a result, he said: “How do you place yourself on that sort of spectrum of possible approaches to this?”

The cultural aspect

“I think aspects of it are cultural in relation to what sort of organisation you are, and how do your people work together?” Field said.

He continued: “Adjusting the settings, I think, is very important. Watching, learning, listening.”

“We’ve got so much information … washing over us and everybody’s … trying, desperately trying to look for what are the key things I need to focus on … for it to be impactful, it needs to be something that’s meaningful – [that’s] going to make people stop and say, that’s interesting.”

Employee value proposition

Field recognised a sense of entitlement that some employees feel, surrounding flexible work arrangements, making it harder for a return to office.

The “working-from-home comforts” that workers enjoyed will become something expected to be compensated for, he explained.

In spite of these expectations, Field said: “I think it’s important that you view it in terms of the total employment value proposition … It’s not so much from the compensation side, but it’s something that your employees value … A degree of flexibility – [that] is absolutely something that your employees are going to value and ... that should be part of the total value proposition.”

Crucial questions

“The risk is that businesses think that a return-to-office mandate isn’t a ‘why question’, [and that] it’s not negotiable,” he said.

He urged: “It’s critical that you keep asking yourself about what [it is] that I’m offering here that can be done better here? What more am I getting out of it? What more are you getting out of it?”

“A great expression that I heard … which I really take to heart is … to ‘earn the commute’ … I think it’s a great mindset because it says, don’t just say you’re coming back into the office, that’s the end of it. Think about … what is it that happens here that you can do better [here] than what you [can] do at home. And I think there might not be perfect answers around that, but that’s the right place to be reaching for.”