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The hum of office life is making a comeback for many employees after a remote hiatus, but their return to the office isn’t without its challenges. Managers now find themselves responsible for ensuring a seamless transition for team members who are returning to in-person work after a prolonged period of working remotely.
Below, 18 Forbes Coaches Council members share a range of effective tips managers can use to help their team members navigate this shift with confidence and enthusiasm. These strategies could prove instrumental in helping managers ensure post-remote work success for their teams and organizations.
1. Make In-Person Work Meaningful
Make certain that time in the office is meaningful and sparks deep connections. There must be strong reasons for coming back in. Spend a great amount of time planning, orchestrating and designing the time spent in the office—as if it were an important company event. - Mitchell Simon, Simon Leadership Alliance
2. Give Them Time To Adjust
Give them grace. Just as they needed to adjust to remote work, they need to do the same now. First, share that you expect them to go through an adjustment period. If one or two people appear less social or engaged, don’t pressure them to engage equally at first. Meet with them one-on-on, ask them how you can support their transition, overcome obstacles and set gradual goals to get back on track. - Loren Margolis, TLS Leaders
3. Facilitate In-Person Collaboration
Our in-person collaboration muscles are weak. A manager can help by facilitating the group conversations that are needed. Ask, “Around what would it be helpful for us to align? What few new habits would help us collectively be more effective in person?” They won’t be able to agree on everything, but focusing on a core few will help them stand on common ground and re-envision the rewards of quality collaboration. - Maureen Cunningham, Up Until Now Inc.
4. Align Their Work With Who They Are Today
Not only has the team’s work experience shifted by being remote, but their beliefs and values may have also shifted. It’s your job as a leader to identify your people’s beliefs and values so that you can align their work with who they are today versus who they were. - Susan Hobson, Elite High Performance Inc.
5. Ask Them How You Can Help
An essential part of helping someone with any transition is listening. Don’t make assumptions about what will be challenging for them. Ask them. And then work with them on how to navigate through that perception and concern. A key question always for managers to ask is this: “How can I help?” - Kathi Laughman, The Mackenzie Circle LLC
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6. Be Open To New Ideas And Suggestions
Be open and welcome new suggestions from employees about how they would like to reshape and rearrange their in-person work. Do not insist on things staying how they used to be; openly state that change will be implemented. Set a deadline for new ideas and ways of working to be implemented, and once that is accepted, everybody should follow. New norms and new work-life stability can result in a new working culture. Be open to that. - Judit Ábri von Bartheld, CHN LLC - Coaching Without Borders Hungary (Coaching Határok Nélkül)
7. Meet People Where They Are
I’m finding that some people are thrilled to be back together; others resent company requirements to be on-site. We’re each adjusting to coming back in our own way. Check in with your team members one-on-one to find out what they value about being back and what they feel they’ll miss about remote work. Then, open the dialogue to create a shared view of a successful return. Open communication is key. - Kathleen Woodhouse, Nova Leadership
8. Keep Office Time Purposeful
If you make people come into the office to do the same work they could do at home (without the commute), they will be resentful. Keep the office time purposeful, collaborative and productive. Focus on work that is harder to do when remote, such as brainstorming, deciding on strategy or discussing delicate or nuanced issues. - Monisha Toteja, Dynamic Speaking
9. Treat It Like An Onboarding For Everyone
Make sure employees have 30-60-90 day plans to adequately transition. Clearly communicate roles and expectations—not just the “what,” but also the “how”—and if you can co-create those new norms, even better. - Carrie Skowronski, Leadology
10. Be Flexible About Making Accommodations
Some flexibility in making reasonable accommodations can also help team members feel fully supported as individuals. An extra 15 minutes in the morning for a parent tasked with drop-off or an early departure that enables someone to coach little league in-season can do a lot to remove friction from the transition process. - Christy Charise, Strategic Advisor
11. Connect One-On-One With Team Members
Managers can ask their team members, “What did you like about working remotely?” “What parts of that can we incorporate now that you are on-site?” and, “What did you miss when working remotely?” This can be an opportunity for them to help reinforce a good company culture of personal connections. Use this opportunity to do one-on-ones while out walking together or getting a coffee. - Wendy Hanson, BetterManager
12. Rebuild Social Connections
Rebuilding social connections between team members is vital after long periods of disconnection owing to working remotely. Any activity that promotes team-building and social interaction will be a useful tool to facilitate the transition as managers help people rebuild relationships and camaraderie. It’s also important for leaders to provide an open and supportive space for the team to express concerns. - Angela Sedran, The Business Growth Accelerator
13. Employ A Phased Return Policy
Managers could employ a phased return policy to the office as a strategy to manage the change, drawing on evidence-based change models such as William Bridges’ 30-year-old Transition Model. Bridges suggests change happens without people transitioning, and that transition is psychological. People go through distinct phases, gradually accepting the details of the changing situation. - Beaulah M. Chizimba, Limitless Nurses
14. Recognize Emotional Components Of Change
The sudden exodus to our home offices was a big change that employees needed to work through, from logistics to childcare to homework spaces and more. Reversing that and going back to the office is an equally big change. Recognize that there is an emotional component to change that employees will be navigating. Ask what they need, what support you can provide and what challenges they are facing. Listen and engage. - Kristy Busija, Next Conversation Coaching, LLC
15. Enable Unstructured Collaboration
One of the most powerful short-term gains of being in-person is unstructured collaboration. So first, create the space (in both space and time) to allow it. Then, force it to happen, even if it’s just grabbing two people to help you brainstorm around a particular problem—even if you don’t really need the help. - Jamie Flinchbaugh, JFlinch
16. Turn It Into A Shared Adventure
Create an “Office Reentry Game” with themed challenges to ease the transition back to work. Map out the journey with landmarks, offer collaborative quests and celebrate achievements with rewards. Turn the return to the office into a shared adventure, building team unity and making reintegration an engaging experience. - Andre Shojaie, HumanLearn
17. Don’t Assume The Team Hasn’t Changed
Don’t assume that the team who left the office years ago is the same team, even if the members haven’t fully turned over. Three years is a long time. Be prepared to manage a team with a history—and one that, at the same time, may just now be becoming familiar with each other. It’s a unique situation, but one you can’t simply ignore. - Carol Geffner, CB Vision LLC.
18. Get Aligned On Team Members’ Preferences
Do you have any flexibility within your company’s policies to allow for flexible work schedules? If so, align with your team members on their preferred schedules. Redo your team agreements to reflect how the team can work best together under the new circumstances; for example, some team members may want mandated quiet time each day. And understand that it takes time to acclimate to changes. - Aaron Levy, Raise The Bar
