Forced Return To Office Is Actually WORSE Than I Predicted
The Data Shows Interesting New Information Proving The Mandates Are A Terrible Leadership Decision
I have been speaking out against Forced Return To Office mandates for many months now.
It is not because I don’t believe working In-Office can be better for organizations’ successes than Remote Work.
From a Psychophysiological level, I KNOW that in theory In-Office work can create significantly better results than Remote Work!
However, there is a HUGE discrepancy between “theory” and today’s REALITY that makes moving back to In-Office an extremely poor Leadership Decision.
The Known Reality Of Why It Wouldn’t Work
The reality of why this is true is actually really easy to see.
The Dis-Stress and Burnout that has been caused by poor Leadership in today’s world has caused people’s productivity to plummet.
Burnout is so wide-spread that over 75% of employees are experiencing it!
This doesn’t even account for the remaining 25% who mostly are still experiencing high Dis-Stress, just haven’t hit burnout (yet).
Productivity has dropped so low, that when people were forced to work from home, they discovered that being alone was significantly better for productivity than being in a bad work environment!
In 90% of cases, employees were either equally, or MORE productive by staying at home!
Again, it is not because working from home is inherently better, but because our workplaces have become so toxic and filled with Dis-Stress that the ability to actually be productive in offices is nearly impossible.
Just looking at the track-record and reality, I knew that forced return to office would be a horrible idea.
This was also without taking into account the fact that people generally HATE being forced into ANYTHING, even if it is good for them (which in this case, it clearly wasn’t).
However, there is new evidence from the Federal Reserve’s SHED, the Greenhouse Candidate Report, and Unispace’s Returning for Good reports that explain why Forced Return to Office doesn’t work.
The evidence was actually so much worse that it even blew my mind!
The New Data Proving It’s Actually Worse!
Looking at the data, everyone “knew” that forcing a return would lead to “some” objections, which would lead to attrition.
Again, people HATE being forced to do ANYTHING, it isn’t surprising.
So, some companies attempted to take that into account.
However, 42% of companies witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had PLANNED for.
Plus, of the companies that went ahead with forcing a return, 29% of them are now struggling to hire anyone.
So not only did they know that attrition would happen (a bad decision in a low unemployed market like we are in today, where hiring is already difficult), but it is happening at higher rates and leading to significantly more problems than imagined.
To give another perspective, based on the average income in the US, it costs companies approximately $15,600 and $208,000 to replace EACH employee lost.
This means that if you are attempting to replace 10 employees, you are losing 6–7 figures in revenue per year.
Most of the companies that are forcing a return to office are attempting to replace significantly more than 10 employees.
Not to mention that keeping employees has become more difficult in today’s world.
With the workforce outside of companies that have already pulled the trigger of forcing people back, there are 76% of them ready to jump ship IF their current employers attempt to force them to return.
So, if you try to force employees back now, be ready for 3/4 of your workforce to start looking for other work.
If you already pulled the trigger, then it is likely 3/4 of your workforce is already looking for other opportunities (meaning they are giving you the bare minimum to keep their jobs).
Plus, there is only about 25% remaining employees outside of your organization that “might” consider working for you (and they are likely the most desperate employees).
Either way, it seems you are screwed.
This is actually made further worse by new data that is showing that Flexibility is actually MORE desired by employees than a Positive Culture!
Outside of career focused factors (pay, security, promotion), Flexibility is now the #1 factor employees are looking for!
BUT IT GETS WORSE!
According to the data, groups that are generally considered “underrepresented” are 22% more likely to consider other options if work flexibility comes to an end.
That means, by the data, if you force a return to office you are making a choice to create circumstances that disfavor specific underrepresented demographics.
This will lead to more difficulty in creating work environments that are representative of wider demographics, which so many companies already struggle with.
It has also already been shown in multiple studies the lack of employee diversity is extremely detrimental to businesses and success.
So making a choice that actively works against diversity is a poor Leadership decision.
Final Takeaway
The takeaway is quite simple here.
Unless you fix your Leadership, don’t attempt to force people back to the office.
If you force people back, you’re going to have problems that could easily be avoided.
If you have already attempted to force them back, maybe it’s time to face the reality that has been there the entire time.
The easiest path for businesses (right now) would be to learn new skills to make better flexible environments.
The better long-term path would be to fix your Leadership problems.
The data continues to show that the world has changed, and it is time to be wise and change with it.
