Overcoming pushback: Strategies for successful return-to-office mandates

“I think there's a little bit of a Shibboleth that these are just grumpy old white guys who've decided they can't figure out how to manage this environment.”

So says Joseph Fuller, professor of management practice in general management at Harvard Business School, in discussing the ongoing pushback against return-to-office (RTO) mandates.

“I think that's a little harsh and a little naive, frankly.”

He cautions against oversimplifying the motives behind RTO mandates, pointing out that many data-driven companies are making these decisions based on observed productivity trends, not just managerial discomfort with remote work.

But as Canadian organizations such as TD Bank, Rogers Communications and the Ontario government increasingly push for a return to the office, HR leaders and managers face a complex challenge: how to implement RTO mandates effectively in the face of widespread employee resistance.

It’s no easy task, judging by the insights and tips offered by three academics who highlight the importance of intentionality, leadership, flexibility and empathy in navigating the transition.

Understanding employee resistance

Sylvia Fuller believes that mandating people to be back in the office full time is “disastrous” and “disappointing.”

For one, many are unhappy about losing autonomy and flexibility, and facing longer commutes, says the sociology professor at the University of British Columbia

“Employees are, for the most part, not going to be happy, especially when they see that this is a move that's being made in what may feel like a somewhat arbitrary and punitive way,” she says.

“If you're making the workers feel like you've taken away something that's valuable to them and there's no compensation for that, there’s no real benefit to them that offsets it, you're setting yourself up for a disgruntled workforce, which is just really problematic.”

Research consistently shows that flexibility leads to happier employees, says Sylvia Fuller.

“When workers have more flexibility, they are happier with their jobs, they are more committed to their employers, they are less stressed, they report better health, they're more engaged in their work, they have lower rates of sickness and absenteeism.”

She also points out that certain groups—such as parents and people with disabilities—are more likely to be affected by RTO mandates, raising concerns about inclusion and equity.

“Are you going to lose valuable people? Are you going to lose people who are at different life stages? Are you going to have a less inclusive labour force if you're not considering what those diverse impacts may be?” she asks.

No easy answers

Joseph Fuller acknowledges that for many workers, RTO policies represent a significant loss.

“For a lot of people, you are taking something away from them, which they've now had, to some measure, for a number of years, and they will have made assumptions and accommodations in their life that are now rendered invalid,” he says.

“Companies will incur costs in productivity, in lost morale and trust and in turnover, to some degree, over some period of time, I have no doubt about that.”

There are no easy answers, according to Murtaza Haider, professor and executive director of the Cities Institute at the University of Alberta.

“There will not be a single definitive formula that will help us understand what is in the best interest of the economy, employers and employees when it comes to working from home, and a lot will depend upon what role individuals have, how constrained and enabled they are in flexibility as they work from home or work, and is there a way for them to demonstrate to their managers their level of productivity?”

Focus on goals, not mandates

So what can help with a successful return to the office? Focusing on the goals you are trying to accomplish, and how to achieve those goals — rather than seeing the mandate as the goal, says Sylvia Fuller.

“A lot of the communication from employers is 'Well, we need everybody back in the office' or 'We need people back in the office for... collegiality and teamwork and so forth,’” she says. “If that is the benefit that you're looking for, think about how do you actually create those benefits?”

If, for example, employees come to the office and end up spending all their time on Zoom for meetings, they will question the mandate: “You're going to have some pretty unhappy campers,” she warns.

“If you just bring people back to the office, but you don't actually do anything to ensure that there is team building or mentoring or collaboration, then what you've really done is you've taken away something that's really valuable for workers without any real commensurate, offsetting benefits.”

Data-driven decisions for RTO

Joseph Fuller emphasizes that the need for in-person work is not universal and depends on the role, project stage and business objectives.

“The necessity to be on-site, full time or near full time, is definitely linked to both your current position and your aspirations for advancement,” he says.

For example, product development teams may benefit from in-person ideation, while coding tasks may not require physical presence.

“Now, does that mean that executives and boards and senior managers have some obligation to prove to a level of judicial certainty that they're making the right choice?

“No, but an employer that says, ‘We've thought about this, we've looked at our data, for our data, we believe we're showing a material productivity problem, this problem has grown over time’ — that is the data I’ve seen from large companies.”

A recent Federal Court decision cast a spotlight on employer obligations when implementing return-to-office (RTO) policies, especially where unions and collective agreements are involved.  

Business case for office mandates

Haider argues that in-person work supports team cohesion and mentoring, especially for junior employees.

“We are running this risk of creating a workforce where the managerial skills will be lost in a generation if working from home becomes the norm, because they would not know how to deal with individuals in a group of 20. There are different mannerisms and associations in group meetings that are virtual,” he says.

“Half of what I learned how to be a manager was watching others, how they managed.”

Haider also highlights the psychological benefits of office routines. While long commutes can be draining, he argues that for many, the separation between work and home is valuable for productivity and well-being.

Team cohesion and mentoring are often cited as benefits of in-person work, and being physically present helps employees build relationships and learn from one another.

“The goal for managers is to build teams; we move forward better if our teams work,” he says. Without these connections, organizations risk becoming “a crowd of individuals” rather than a cohesive team and productivity suffers, says Haider.

Communicating RTO mandates

Joseph Fuller stresses that how organizations communicate RTO policies is “hugely important.”

Referencing research on how workforces respond to change, he says that employees do not necessarily expect their concerns to change company policy, but they do expect their views to be considered and acknowledged “and, to a degree, an explanation to the extent to which their point of view is being rejected.”

He points out that companies that have approached remote work as an experiment and communicated their uncertainty fare better with employee morale.

“Smarter companies said... ‘We don't know where this is going to end up. We're going to try this… please understand that we're going to have to learn whether or not this is something we can live with and to what degree.’”

This transparency allowed organizations to revisit decisions and maintain trust, even if employees remained “disenchanted,” says Joseph Fuller.

He also says that employers must be clear about expectations and the realities of the workplace. Leaders such as CEO Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, he notes, have been explicit about what working at their organizations entails, making it clear that if employees cannot meet those expectations, the workplace may not be the right fit.

“It's right for employers to be very thoughtful and deliberate about not creating mis-impressions,” he says.

Developing managers, mentorships

While companies responded heroically to the initial shift to remote work during the pandemic, few invested in training managers for long-term success in hybrid or remote environments — and that’s also true when it comes to RTO, says Joseph Fuller.

“Very often, companies make policy decisions, but don't think about what associated changes — in training or development, adding or modifying incentives or metrics, providing tools and best practices — are an inevitable follow-on requirement.”

Going back to the office could mean a shift in how people are managing, says Sylvia Fuller.

“If you're just maintaining a very hands-off management style that you know works really well when folks are working independently, you may not be getting some of those other benefits that come from more casual, ongoing, in-person interactions.”

She also recommends that organizations be intentional about creating formal mentoring opportunities to ensure equity.

“Just assuming that somehow this magic is going to happen in a way that is uniformly positive, if we're all coming together, it's really problematic. We’ve seen that mentorship, when it's informal, has unequal outcomes.”

Balancing flexibility and business needs

All three academics agree that flexibility is key to a successful RTO strategy. Sylvia Fuller points to research showing that hybrid models — where employees split their time between home and office — are most popular and effective.

She suggests that engaging teams in designing their own flexible arrangements can lead to better outcomes for both employees and organizations.

“You want to make people's work as good and rewarding and flexible as you can and still meet your business objectives. And there are going to be some differences — along different roles, by virtue of the nature of the work — but that's not a strong rationale to me for why you should not provide better working conditions where you can.”

Managers who insist excessively on a full return to the office will be the ones who probably confuse attendance and physical presence as a proxy for productivity, says Haider.

“But intelligent managers will figure out of an array of solutions, an array of arrangements, enabling their team members as per their circumstances.”

While HR departments may prefer hard and fast rules, Joseph Fuller encourages managers to exercise judgment and common sense when considering exceptions.

“Be cautious about making lots of exceptions, but be commonsensical,” he says.