What are you trying to accomplish by returning to in-person?

Currently, there is a lot of media coverage about remote, in-office, and hybrid work policies. Large companies are announcing their return-to-office plans and employees are grumbling about having to commute again. There are articles about why working in an office is better for your business and other articles about why allowing remote or hybrid work is better for your business. If you want evidence to support your desired approach, you can find it.

Of course, making the decision about how your business is going to operate based on the media or what large companies are doing is not the best approach to decision making. When implementing a significant policy, such as the work environment you are building, you need to take into consideration your values, culture, and desired outcomes and ensure your policy allows for those outcomes to be achieved while maintaining your values and culture.

The key is to focus on what you want to accomplish, not simply where you want to accomplish it.

Answering the simple question of what you are trying to accomplish could very easily make the location answer obvious. If you are building a physical product, manufacturing cannot be done in each employees’ homes. If you are building a global service or technology product that requires having people in each target location, a dispersed team is going to be more advantageous. Scientific research needs to be conducted in a lab. Coaching, consulting, and other professional services can easily be delivered remotely. Meeting with customers to show them physical deliverables or samples requires an in-person location. 

That does not mean, however, that if the work can be done remotely it must be done remotely. It also does not mean that if you choose a remote structure that you will not convene as a team regularly. You are the business owner. You can decide what is going to work best for your organization.

If you are unsure what is going to be best for your organization in the near and long-term, the following questions can guide you in thinking through different variables that will impact your decision.  

Geography

• Is your entire team located in the same geographic location or are they currently widely dispersed?

• Will being in the office result in team members needing to relocate and would those team members be open to relocating?

• Will all team members be in the office, or will there be some individuals working remotely?

• Will you need multiple office sites to accommodate multiple geographies of your team?

Team Members

• Would you like each team member to move to the same workplace structure or are you open to arrangements that accommodate personal preference?

• Have your team members (as a whole or individually) asked for remote work, in-person work, or general flexibility?

• Do you have team members with pre-agreed upon structures that they will be unwilling or unable to change?

• Which of your team members could potentially leave the organization if you transitioned to a different workplace structure?

Maintaining Momentum

• How will you support your employees whose needs prevent them from being in the office when/as much as you want?

• How will you maintain strong communication and collaboration with the employees that are not in the office?

• What retention tools will you utilize to ensure your team members stay with the organization if they add commutes and time constraints to their daily schedules?

Desired Outcomes

• What will change in how business is currently conducted if the team is in the office, fully remote, or hybrid?

• How will the changes improve your ability to meet the needs of your customers and/or your goals for the business?

• What are you trying to achieve by having the team work in the office versus remotely?

As you think through what direction you want to take your business, remember, there is no right or wrong answer. There is your vision and how you see it being executed. There is the culture you are working to build, with core values that will sustain as the business grows. You need to decide the workplace structure that is going to confirm the organization’s values and allow you and your organization to make the greatest impact on your customers.

There will continue to be many articles about remote versus in-person work environments and announcements about companies changing their policies and bringing employees back to the office. This does not mean you need to follow the crowd. It means you need to remind yourself what you are trying to accomplish through your workplace structure.