Employees and employers can be at odds when it comes to how much time, and when, they should be in the office post-pandemic
Kiwi workplaces are appearing to stop short of mandating a return to the office, instead opting to “strongly encourage” that staff head back to the building at least some days each week.
After urging their staff to work from home throughout the pandemic, companies around the world are now looking to reverse this tide and pull workers back into the office – Google, Meta, and Apple are among the foreign companies that have requested that workers be in the office at least a few days a week.
Back here in New Zealand, the value of working in-person is also being realised. As Newsroom has reported, business leaders are now urging their peers to get face-to-face time with counterparts, colleagues, and clients, while there are warning calls the “diminishing returns'' of remote working are becoming apparent
Vodafone is among the companies that has rolled out a hybrid working structure, but it seems many of its 2000 office-based workers are still choosing to work from home when they can.
The company’s senior communications lead Nicky Preston says people are generally choosing to spend two or three days in the office, then working the rest of the week at home.
Vodafone wants employees to have the freedom to be flexible with their schedule, especially when juggling their personal and professional responsibilities.
Preston says it appears Vodafone workers are choosing to alternate their days in the office, opting to work from home on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while being in the office on Tuesday and Thursday.
Still, on an average Tuesday or Thursday, only about 40 percent to 50 percent of staff in the Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch offices are opting to come in.
Preston says more people are also choosing to spend part days in the office.
“Our peak office time prior to the August 2021 lockdown was 11am, now we’re seeing peak capacity hitting after lunch,” she says.
Unsurprisingly, large events are the biggest pull for people to come into the office.
Last week, an all-staff meeting saw the company offices have the busiest day since the August 2021 lockdown, with around 60-70 percent of staff in the office.
Russell McVeagh partner and employment lawyer Emma Peterson says some of her clients are asking about how to approach bringing workers back into the office, but she isn’t seeing workplaces impose a strict mandate requiring people to come back into the office.
Part of the rationale is allowing workers to retain some flexibility over their schedule, but the number of Covid-19 cases in the community is also a contributing factor, she says.
“Most employers we're seeing are strongly encouraging rather than mandating getting everyone back in, because everybody is going to have different risk appetites.”
The Retirement Commission Te Ara Ahunga Ora is among the organisations taking this approach.
People lead Rosa Armstrong says the executive team told staff it wanted to see more people heading back into the office from the start of May.
After consultation with staff about the future of the organisation’s working schedule, Armstrong says the organisation settled on a hybrid system which sees people in the office for three days a week and working from home for two.
Employee resistance to returning
Frog Recruitment managing director Shannon Barlow says there can be a tension between what employees and bosses want when it comes to time spent in the office.
“We are seeing a drive from employers to bring their teams back into the office, even if only for ‘core team’ days, but there can be resistance from employees whether that’s due to Covid concerns or purely favouring their new work from home lifestyle.”
This increasing desire to work from home is reflected in the increasing number of jobseekers who will only consider remote work, according to Barlow.
“We have seen the need to be available to work in the office, even just one day a week, to be a deal breaker for some candidates,” she says.
She says hitting the right balance between providing flexibility to employees, while effectively managing teams and providing opportunities for team collaboration and engagement is a real challenge to employers.
Ben Thompson, co-founder and chief executive of people-management platform Employment Hero is a big advocate for remote work.
He believes there'll be a proliferation of remote work so long as technology improves and more people have access to faster broadband internet around the world.
"I don’t see that changing, particularly as the ability to work online is only increasing," he says. “More and more people will be able to work remotely and participate in the online economy no matter where they live. It’s the remote work revolution, the largest revolution in how people work, where they can work from and how they can be included globally. "
While employees will miss out on the social aspects of the office with remote work, he doesn't think this is a void that employers have to fill.
"There’s a vacuum that needs to be filled with new solutions certainly. Perhaps a platform that gives people who work remotely the ability to socialise locally- but it doesn’t have to be with people in the same company," he says.
“For employers, you’ve got to build teamwork and collaboration and good communication skills, and you need to know that people have shared purpose and vision."
Employers should take case-by-case approach - lawyer
Duncan Cotterill senior associate and employment lawyer Alastair Espie says employers are in a transition phase after emerging from last year’s lockdown and the Omicron outbreak.
“Right now, employers are trying to figure out what the new normal is,” he says.
Generally speaking, if an employer wants to require that employees head back into the office, they have the power to do so.
“The only real exceptions to that would be if they've specifically agreed to a contractual variation with staff members that changes their location of work to home or that was agreed at the outset,” he says.
If an employee refuses to come back into the office, he says employers need to work through their concerns in good faith and both parties should try to reach an agreement, even if it takes some compromise on both sides.
Russell McVeagh partner Emma Peterson says immunocompromised workers, or people with family members who are unwell might be among those with concerns about returning to work.
Peterson says employers should look at exceptions on a case-by-case basis if they’re considering a mandated return to work, while ensuring they meet their obligations to take all reasonably practicable steps to keep people safe against Covid in the workplace.
