More than half of the surveyed companies do not know how to encourage employees to return to offices – Cushman & Wakefield presents the findings of its survey conducted among office tenants

The survey carried out among the tenants of office buildings under the management of global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield has revealed that employees have an ambivalent attitude towards returning to offices and half of the surveyed employers have not developed incentive plans to encourage staff to go back to the office.

As regards the question about employees’ attitudes towards returning to offices, 77% of all answers were either “rather positive”, “neutral” or “rather negative”, which indicates a lack of a clear-cut opinion on this matter. Additionally, more than 50% of employers said that they had not implemented any plan to incentivize employees to go back to the office. This suggests that employers either have not thought about returns as the pandemic continues or have not developed back-to-the-office strategies yet.

The most common measures taken by respondents to promote in-office work include change management and an information campaign (21%), a new office lay-out (19%) and providing access to additional parking spaces (11%).

“There are many ideas to promote in-office work such as hosting a joint breakfast or projects involving groups of people, but in my opinion it is critical that we make employees aware of benefits and create an appropriate space that fosters knowledge sharing and collaboration. In-office work is definitely a lot easier and gives more satisfaction. We must not forget the pivotal role that transparent communication with employees and engaging information campaigns play in change management. Employees should be engaged in and feel responsible for the back to the office project. It is also a good idea to appoint a group of ambassadors to promote a selected work model and facilitate information sharing with managers, which will allow for aligning the chosen solution with both the requirements of employees and current business needs,” says Aleksandra Tomaszewska, HR Manager, Cushman & Wakefield.

The survey was conducted using the CAWI method in June 2021 on a sample of 132 decision-makers in office space management (CEOs, Heads of Administration, Chief Operating Officers and Office Managers) in buildings under the management of Cushman & Wakefield.

Author:

Cushman & Wakefield

Last Updated on October 20, 2021 by Anastazja Lach