CHCI is honored to have Anne Loehr, Executive Vice President, mentioned in this article on reducing friction between onsite and remote employees that was published on SHRM. Thanks Arlene Hirsch for the excellent interview questions!
As organizations
prepare for a post-pandemic world, many are embracing hybrid schedules that
allow some employees to work remotely at least part of the time. As a result,
friction is rising at some companies between remote employees and those
required to work onsite who are jealous of their colleagues’ flexibility.
HR often is tasked with
addressing that friction and guiding people managers who are caught in the
middle. Here are seven strategies designed to minimize tension and foster
cohesiveness between remote and onsite team members.
1. Identify the Cause of the Friction
“If you take the resentment
[between remote and onsite employees] at face value, the obvious solution is to
allow more people to work from home. However, that’s not always possible,” said
Anne Loehr, executive vice president of the Center for Human Capital
Innovation, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Va. “So to manage the situation
effectively, you need to understand what’s at the core of this resentment. It’s
important to have an open and honest conversation with employees to gain
insight into what’s really going on.”
Loehr believes HR can and
should take the lead in researching and gathering data that employers can use
to determine the best approach. This may include scheduling focus group
discussions, as well as fielding employee pulse surveys and
employee engagement surveys, she said.
2. Be Transparent
“The decision about whether to
allow employees to work remotely is based on a variety of factors, including
organizational purpose, strategy, employee preferences and work styles,” said
Daniel Davis, Ph.D., a senior researcher at Hassell International in New York
City who studies future workplace trends. “What works for one may not work for
another, so success depends on the leadership team’s ability to choose a path
forward and communicate that vision.”
Jennifer Dennard, co-founder
and COO of Range, a technology startup in Boulder, Colo., said internal
communications and transparency are key to ensuring that everyone feels like
they are on the same team, regardless of whether they work remotely or onsite.
“Create clear guidelines and
be transparent about why some people cannot work remotely,” Dennard said. “Then
apply as much flexibility as possible to level the playing field.”
3. Define What Flexibility Means
“Employers need to grant
onsite workers the same flexibility as remote workers whenever possible,” said
Jacob Zabkowicz, vice president and general manager for global RPO at Korn
Ferry in Chicago. “If you hold onsite workers to a different standard, that’s
when resentments occur.”
An equality of benefits
and scheduling is key to reducing friction, agreed Ellen Ernst Kossek, a
management professor at Purdue University and co-author of CEO of Me: Creating a Life That
Works in the Flexible Job Age (FT Press, 2007). “Every job
deserves some flexibility. Even if remote work isn’t always an option,
organizations should offer flexibility to both office and front-line workers,”
Kossek said. “It cannot be viewed as a scarce or privileged resource.”
Giving every employee the same
scheduling options is key if you want flexibility to become a core part of your
culture, said Anne Donovan, PwC’s former U.S. people experience leader.
“Otherwise, some employees may feel left out.” But the global professional
services firm also recognizes that, depending on the circumstances,
“flexibility” can mean different things to different people. For some
employees, it might mean starting the day earlier, taking an hour off at noon
for a doctor’s appointment or leaving early to attend a child’s after-school
activity.
“It’s not about working less.
It’s about working differently,” Donovan said. “Flexibility is a two-way
street. If there’s a deadline or work priority that requires extra hours,
employees are expected to be flexible enough to meet the needs of the
business.”
At the beginning of the
pandemic, Sage North America, an 11,000-person accounting and business
management software company based in Atlanta, sent everyone home to work
remotely. As the company plans their return-to-office strategy, their top
priority is the safety and well-being of their employees, said executive vice
president Nancy Harris.
“In May, we rolled out our
Flexible Human Work (FHW) plan under which each team is allowed to make their
own decisions about how and where they want to work,” she said. “A team can
manage the ebb and flow in and out of the office based on the work that needs
to be done.
“There’s lots of appreciation
for the change in mindset because everyone is given the same freedom,” Harris
added. “It’s a way to level the playing field.”
4. Rethink What Roles Can Be Performed Remotely
Managers should be encouraged
to rethink their assumptions about what roles can—and cannot—be done remotely,
Loehr said. “It’s possible that you’ve overlooked other positions that would be
fine as remote jobs, even for just part of the time.”
At Ford Motor Co., salaried
employees are allowed to work remotely at least part of each day, while factory
workers are required to be onsite. When an electrician, who is also a single
mother, asked HR if she could work remotely part time, she was told that
remote-work options were not available to hourly employees. Although the
employee says she understands that a lot of her factory work can only be done
in person, she believes she could be productive working remotely one to two
days a week because her job requires extensive paperwork.
Options exist to help address
this type of situation, Loehr said. For example, the physical therapy team at
Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, incorporated
virtual platforms last year to help ensure the safety of staff and patients
while maintaining continuity of care, even when employees needed to work
remotely. They also cross-trained team members so that if therapists got sick
or needed to take time off, there were enough physical therapists onsite to
meet patient needs.
5. Address Distance Bias
Although the pandemic
has reduced some of the stigma attached to remote work, it hasn’t disappeared
altogether. “When companies have some employees working remotely and others
working onsite, this can foster an ‘us versus them’ mentality,” said Liane
Davey, co-founder of Toronto-based 3COZE Inc. and author of The Good Fight: Use Productive
Conflict to Get Your Organization and Team Back on Track (Page
Two, 2019). “People have a negativity bias. They often don’t pay attention to
what they have in common.”
Managers can help onsite
employees better understand and respect remote team members by sharing
information about the sacrifices remote employees make to complete tasks, meet
deadlines and accomplish their goals, said Zabkowicz at Korn Ferry. “Many
employees who don’t have the option to work remotely still have the perception
that, because you work remotely, you can do whatever you want.”
What in-office employees often
don’t realize is that working from home has its own challenges, Loehr said. She
advises managers to facilitate a discussion between remote and in-office
workers “to let each discuss their personal challenges and dispel any myths
they may have about each other.” This can be a town hall meeting or even a
brown-bag lunch.
6. Build Trust
“Virtual teams often lack
context because employees don’t have the opportunity to get to know each
other,” Davey said. “The solution is for leaders to bake in opportunities to
increase mutual knowledge and understanding.”
When addressing resentment
from onsite workers about their remote colleagues, there are a few things at
play. Beyond simply wanting to skip their commute and work in pajamas, onsite
employees may think their managers don’t trust them, according to Loehr.
“Employees don’t always trust
that managers have their best interests at heart,” she explained. “They see
working from home as a privilege, and not being allowed to do so makes them
feel that their manager doesn’t appreciate, value or trust them.”
“Many of the complaints stem
from a lack of trust,” agreed Joseph Flahiff, president and CEO of Radar4ai, a
Seattle-based management consulting company. “Employees who work in the office
don’t trust that the remote people are really working.”
Flahiff suggests pairing
remote and onsite team members so they can get to know each other better and
understand the workload each carries. He also recommends that leaders embrace a
culture where paired-up workers are in different locations to help “create
opportunities for engagement” across the company.
At Sage, all employees meet
together onsite four or five times a year as a way to strengthen the culture
and ensure that everyone feels included, Harris said.
7. Show Appreciation for the People Who Show Up Every Day
Employees who are resentful
that others work from home often feel unappreciated, because they believe that
if they were appreciated, they’d be given the option to work remotely when
necessary, Loehr said.
Managers can address this
challenge with honest praise and feedback. “A sincere ‘thank you’ can go a long
way toward making onsite employees feel like you really value and
appreciate their contribution,” she added.
Arlene Hirsch is a career counselor and author based in Chicago. Let’s share experiences.
