Free pizza for lunch may not outweigh the conveniences of working at home. But it can, perhaps, sweeten the deal for those reluctant to return to an office environment.
This is the hope at BankNewport. Ahead of an official hybrid model blending in-office and remote work starting after Labor Day, the bank has created summer social events such as “Pizza Wednesdays” to get its work-from-home staff to see the benefits of a return to the office.
Wendy Kagan, the bank’s executive vice president for employee and community engagement, compared the comeback to what new parents experience after family leave.
“Once you reconnect and get over that hump or adjustment period … you get into a routine again, you’ll see it’s not so bad,” she said.
But in workplaces after the COVID-19 pandemic, flexibility will be key, and many employees want the option for remote working at least some of the time, according to many national surveys. A recent study by Morning Consult found that in addition to the 87% of workers who want some remote work, more than 1 in 4 say they’ll find a new job if their current company doesn’t offer flexibility in remote work.
Wanting to keep employees happy is a major consideration behind employers’ decisions, with many local companies opting for a “soft” return to the office that still incorporates an element of remote working, said Cynthia J. Butler, president of Butler & Associates Human Resources Consulting.
There’s no right answer or one-size-fits-all approach, but feedback from employees, through surveys and more-informal discussions, should be part of the decision, according to Butler.
‘My preference is really to be in a building, with people.’
DENISE DRISCOLL, Dominion Diagnostics LLC vice president of human resources
Indeed, BankNewport surveyed its back-office staff before deciding on its hybrid policy. The results were varied. Some, such as Kagan, were eager to return to a traditional work environment, free from the distraction of a teenager doing distance learning in the next room. Others, especially younger workers, preferred the flexibility of remote work.
At some point, you have to accept that you can’t please everyone. This was the attitude of Andrew Bramson, executive director for The College Crusade of Rhode Island. He announced to the nonprofit’s 50 employees that they would return to their offices on a rotating, hybrid basis at the start of the summer.
“I’m not going to tell you I was greeted with flowers,” Bramson said, noting that many were still unvaccinated when he broke the news in March.
He tried to make the transition as seamless as possible, giving a three-month notice so workers could prepare. But for Bramson, the decision ultimately came down to what was best for the prospective first-generation college students the nonprofit serves.
While College Crusade has applied its policies – remote, then hybrid and potentially, fully in person come fall – to all of its staff, others have taken a different approach.
While back-office staff at BankNewport can continue to work fully remote for now, branch employees returned to their customer-facing jobs when banks reopened last summer.
Dominion Diagnostics LLC also required employees who work in its North Kingstown medical laboratories to come in each day, while the administrative staff were sent home and have not yet been told they have to return.
Denise Driscoll, the company’s vice president of human resources, said she had not heard much pushback from lab workers over having to come in when their administrative co-workers did not.
Even hiring for these specialty medical jobs has not proven overly difficult despite workers’ increased interest in remote jobs. Rather, it’s the administrative job openings that are more challenging to find applicants for, she said.
Erin Pavane, a founding partner for Providence recruiting firm The Hire, echoed that sentiment. Where job candidates were once laser-focused on salary in potential postings, now their attention has turned to whether jobs let them work remotely. She named one candidate who is considering taking a $20,000 pay cut to switch from an in-office job to one that offers remote work.
“When people are climbing the corporate ladder, money is usually the No. 1 driver,” she said. “Now, it’s more about work-life balance.”
For some, that balance is best achieved working at home. But others found the opposite to be true, that a home office makes the separation between home life and office life a little too blurry.
Driscoll was also eager to return to the office, though she was already accustomed to remote work before the pandemic. In fact, it was her desire for that in-person work interaction that made her change jobs. Ironically, when she started with Dominion in June 2020, she found herself still working from home due to the pandemic.
More than a year later, Driscoll has yet to meet some of her colleagues face to face, something she was hoping would happen sooner rather than later.
“My preference is really to be in a building, with people,” she said. “There’s a lot of informal information you can learn from employees when you see them.”
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.