Omicron & Remote Work: How to Plan for the Big Return

Across the country, the conversation around returning back to the office is ever-evolving. While many companies originally planned to be back in the office at the start of 2022, omicron…well…had different plans. Now, organizations are faced with having to decide what their return-to-office plan will look like. Some companies have opted to return in-person with routine testing and/or vaccine mandates; others have decided to continue working from home for the immediate future as new variants and health data continue to develop. 

As an executive, there’s lots to consider as you create your RTO plan, and how do you even know where to start? We break down a few pointers to help you develop your plan below. 

1. Gain employee feedback.
As you are developing your RTO plan, it’s always a good idea to get a feeler for what your employees’ preferences are. While some have loved working from home and want to keep it that way, others might be itching to go back in-person. Everyone’s working habits and preferences are different. Consider sending a brief survey out to your employees to help you get a sense of how they’re feeling about everything, and then use that feedback to help fuel your RTO plan.

2. Keep personal preferences to yourself.
As Harvard Business Review explains, it’s best for executives to keep their preferences close to the vest in order to not affect the opinions and feelings of employees. This is especially true as you develop the employee feedback survey. To get an accurate reading of your team, it’s important to keep those thoughts to yourself. 

3. Weigh your options. 
There are so many different types of RTO plans out there right now…fully in-person, fully-remote, a hybrid of the two…and that’s just the start of your options. Will your plan play out in stages, with certain employees returning in person sooner than others? Will family circumstances play a role in your decision-making? Will certain employees remain working from home indefinitely? What’s best for employee productivity and the organization’s bottom line? These are all scenarios that should be well-thought out as you develop your RTO plan.

For many, this is the most challenging step yet it is also one of the most important. At Excelerate, we help organizations develop these types of plans regularly. To learn more about our consulting and facilitation services, click here. 

4. Create a strategy to communicate the plan to your organization.
So you have your plan ironed out and ready to go…your work here is done, right? Not exactly…your plan is not ready until you have a communication strategy on how you want to deliver the plan to your organization. Will it be a company-wide email? Perhaps it’s a town hall meeting. And who is giving the message – the CEO? Department heads? While it might seem like small details, in reality, these details can make or break how employees respond to the return-to-office plan.

As an executive communication coaching firm, Excelerate is the perfect partner to help you develop your communication strategy for your RTO plan. To learn more about how we can help your organization, click here. 

These are just a few things to consider as you roll out your return-to-office plan. If there’s one thing we’ve learned the past two years it’s that resilience and flexibility are your best friends. That’s definitely true when it comes to company workspaces. To stay in-the-know about the latest executive trends, subscribe to our newsletter.