Remote work is closely linked with employee engagement. Flexibility, including the ability to work remotely, are highly valued, so much so that most experienced professionals (66%) say they’d rather leave their job than go into the office fulltime. Yet, company leaders worry that a work-from-anywhere employee base puts the company at a disadvantage, and workers themselves worry that working remotely puts their career at a disadvantage.
These are just some of the findings from a Deloitte and Workplace Intelligence survey, Cultivating employee engagement in financial services, which explores the link between flexible and remote work arrangements and engagement, retention, and other key outcomes. Other key findings:
- Caregivers are more impacted by return-to-office mandates and are 30% more likely than non-caregivers to leave an organization that eliminated remote work
- Females in senior leadership are a flight risk – almost half of survey respondents (45%) reported being likely to leave their current employer over the next year
- Flexible work arrangements are preferred over prescribed models, such as mandating how many days workers need to be in the office
Cultivating employee engagement in financial services includes some recommendations for companies on navigating the return-to-office while maximizing employee engagement and retention. While the survey was conducted with financial services firms specifically, the lessons may be applicable to other industries struggling with the same transition. If you’re a leader trying to navigate a return-to-office mandate for yourself and your team, sharing the report with your management can be a way of broaching a broader discussion of what is best for you and your team.
In the meantime, it’s up to you to find your ideal balance between remote and onsite work:
1 – Fit your return-to-office schedule to company priorities
While companies experiment with different policies, take some time to think about what you personally want and negotiate for flexibility, if that is your priority. If you notice that senior leadership is clamoring for more time in the office, make an effort to be onsite. However, see work with your immediate manager to propose arrangements that fit your work preferences – e.g., one week per month onsite, instead of a few days each week. Or bite the bullet and work onsite more frequently at first, negotiating for a graduated increase in remote work every subsequent month or quarter.
For the company, a return-to-office provides a boost to productive collaboration and office culture-building. For your career, a return-to-office gives you face time with the higher-ups, so you stay front-of-mind for plum assignments, promotions and performance bonuses. Returning to the office can help with stronger boundaries between work and home. You may prefer the flexibility of working remotely, but your career can benefit from being onsite. Make an effort to appear responsive to your company and immediate manager priorities.
2 – Seek other ways to increase collaboration, build company culture and accomplish what the return-to-office mandate is for
Find out what’s behind the push for in-person teams. If it’s about increasing collaboration, then make sure you have a tight-knit team and a proven strategy for maintaining that team spirit virtually. Collect testimonials from your team in support of remote work. Document the ways that you stay updated on what your team is doing and maintain close individual and group relationships. Keep your manager updated on recent wins and status of long-term projects, so they have ongoing proof that you and your team are productive.
If a strong company-wide culture is the priority, then foster relationships with peers in different departments, product lines and geographies. Schedule virtual lunches and coffee chats to stay abreast of what everyone is working on and to better understand your colleagues’ responsibilities and concerns and how you can help. When you are onsite, meet with as many people as you can in-person – even if it’s a quick Hello. If you are seen as a valuable colleague across the company, even while you’re remote, you may be able to stay remote, or at least negotiate your preferred return-to-office schedule.
3 – Match your individual career goals to what’s available at your company
As you experiment with your company on the ideal return-to-office plan, maintain your long-term career focus. Where do you want to be in 2, 5, 10 years? Does your current company provide the opportunities to get you there?
Remote v. onsite is about how you work, but your long-term career focus is about why you are working – what do you want to achieve in your career? Also be mindful of what you are working on – clients that interest you, projects that challenge you. Finally, pay attention to when you’re working – i.e., hopefully not all the time. Maintain a sustainable pace by taking breaks and using your allotted vacation time.
Remote v. onsite is just one aspect of your work
You may prefer a certain amount of flexibility now, but your ultimate goal is career advancement — to run a department, have P&L authority or do an international assignment. If your company is steadfast in its return-to-office mandate, you might decide to meet them on that and work mainly onsite, but then push for one of your other priorities. That said, if remote work is a deal-breaker, while your company sees onsite work as non-negotiable, then you will need to launch a job search and find another employer who is more aligned with your career goals.
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