The Return-to-Office Checklist

RTO success goes beyond just having more people in the office; it helps drive participation and belief in company culture. Executive leaders should create the vision and establish company-wide goals, while managers should drive the execution and be empowered with tools to help their teams to reach those objectives. Managers also need guidance on how to support employees personally and professionally as they shift to a new way of working.

Successful RTO in a hybrid model requires leaders to clearly articulate what's been decided and where managers have flexibility. This enables managers to set norms and habits at the team level and establish companywide re-onboarding initiatives.

Clearly articulate what’s mandated at the organizational level and how managers can adapt for their teams

• Set clear RTO goals at the organizational level and support people managers to develop action plans with their teams.
• Establish a cross-functional Operating Committee for executing leadership’s strategy. This team can implement leadership’s plans for RTO and approach future business challenges and transitions from a holistic perspective. Ensure HR, Real Estate, Technology and other business interests are represented.
• Be transparent about what will and won’t change, and where managers and employees have freedom to make choices.
• Use the Management Committee to communicate key dates, messaging, timelines and related RTO resources to reduce ambiguity and support teams with greater confidence.
• Consider a shift to the "core four" business hours where everyone should be in the office. This lets employees plan their workday to help reduce personal and work stress, and overcome the commute barrier, which often hampers RTO.

Set norms and habits at the team level

• Train managers and provide a toolkit for creating new rhythms and norms with their teams.
• Build cadence, purpose and understanding around how, when and why teams should meet.
• Work with employees to determine what accountability in a hybrid model looks like; factor in new priorities like core hours, work/life balance and RTO’s impact on daily routines.
• Build relationships. Encourage 1:1s and develop managers’ empathy and coaching skills. This is a unique forum for managers to influence and support individuals and discover any RTO challenges.
• Encourage managers to connect team members and colleagues. People come to the office to be around other people, so connect them to mentors, leaders and peers when they do.
• Rethink performance management. Link new RTO behaviors to performance and rewards to engender long-term habits.
• Encourage managers to build high-performing, agile teams:
  • Be inclusive. Is RTO being done to them, for them or with them? Shared accountability means giving the team a voice and choice in the process.
  • Be clear where employees have a choice—and where a decision has already been made or will stay as-is.
  • Be transparent, open and honest. RTO only works if trust is a two-way street.
• Create a peer-to-peer managers forum to problem-solve and share ideas on what’s been working.

Launch company-wide re-onboarding initiatives

• Make re-onboarding a celebratory event. This is an investment in the long-term success of your strategy.
• Invite all employees hired in the last two years to a Fireside Chat with the CEO and other leaders to welcome them back, answer questions and share the history, vision and mission of the company.
• Create an onboarding buddy system: Pair a pre-pandemic hire with someone hired during the last two years; they can attend company events together and be resources for each other.
• Incentivize people to meet at the office to build meaningful relationships and participate in career-growth initiatives.
• Offer or encourage volunteer days for teams and new hires to provide a shared experience and sense of belonging.
• Make transit fun with branded swag like commuter bags or travel mugs.
• Offer "speed mentoring" for new hires and circa-2019 employees with emerging and existing leaders to encourage personal connections that foster career growth.
• Encourage new and pre-pandemic hires to speak up in RTO forums and with advisory teams to guide strategy. This also gives employees a voice in solving their own RTO barriers.

An organization can ensure long-term RTO success by understanding employee work habits and how they utilize space. Analyzing usage data can highlight what types of environments lead to the most productivity, while also informing future occupancy spending.

Maximizing the productivity of every square foot requires measuring employee usage and sentiment, leveraging data and using it to enhance the employee experience over time.

Measure employee usage and sentiment

• Identify how you'll measure workspace and amenity utilization, employee work patterns and space preferences.
  Click to view CBRE’s 2022 Global Workplace and Occupancy Insights Report
• Leverage surveys, workshops and stakeholder interviews to further understand what employees need to thrive.
• Track productivity and usage against business goals to pinpoint the most effectively used spaces.

Leverage data to validate and optimize your office portfolio expenditures

• Create worker personas based on utilization data, sentiment and work patterns.
• Use results and feedback to guide design and space planning initiatives.
• Determine and execute on the optimal balance of “me space” vs. “we space.”
• Outfit the office with solutions that accommodate a wide range of work styles and are adaptable to employees’ changing needs.

Use data to continually enhance the employee experience

• Implement AI and Building Information Modeling tools to automate demand, space planning, space allocation and room reservations.
• Continually refine space based on employee usage and sentiment; this reduces operational, financial and environmental risk.
• Track how improvements impact space utilization to quantify the value of design and how that affects your portfolio’s Total Cost of Operations.