The work-from-home days may be over — at least at some companies.
Companies like Amazon, Google and Goldman Sachs have been making headlines with their return to the office (RTO) policies. Amazon, for example, announced an initiative requiring employees to return to work five days a week, beginning in 2025.
Why return to work after almost five years of hybrid and remote work? Companies have been slowly bringing employees back to work for a couple of years now, moving from fully remote positions to three days a week in the office. Now many companies want everyone on site five days a week, citing improved workforce culture and better collaboration between colleagues.
Not everyone is excited about the change, however. RTO policies are causing mental strain for many team members. Learning & Development (L&D) is well-placed to help those employees — although to do so, it’s important to understand why RTO is stressful in the first place.
Why are employees resisting RTO policies?
RTO initiatives can be stressful for employees who are comfortable with remote and hybrid work, especially for those who believed they’d be working from home indefinitely. For example, on October 30, 500 Amazon employees sent a letter opposing Amazon’s new RTO policy to leadership, citing medical issues, family care responsibilities, and commuting times (at least one employee said he would have to move across the country to be in the office full time).
Even for employees without these issues, RTO can be a significant source of mental stress. A recent report found that most of the surveyed companies are losing talent due to their RTO policies. Sixty-three percent of employees have said that they’d be willing to take a pay cut in order to continue working from home.
There are several reasons why employees find RTO policies stressful:
- Commute times: Depending on where an employee lives, the commute can add a significant amount of time and cost to a person’s day.
- Child and family care: While it’s not exactly easy to work remotely with a child in the house, remote work allows many employees to care for children without having to spend thousands on daycare. It’s also easier to accommodate sick children, snow days, and other unexpected developments if they’re working from home.
- Employees who have moved: Over the last few years, some employees have moved and may not be willing to move again in order to come back to the office.
- An increased emphasis on work-life balance: Workers place more value on work-life balance, and remote work has been able to help with that.
Despite these factors, however, RTO policies are carrying forward; 1 in 4 of companies say they plan to increase in-office days in 2025. So how can you support employees through this transition back to the office?
Addressing RTO resistance with training
Training is an important tool for organizations that must return to the office full time, but also want to support their team members’ mental health.
In a recent article in HR Today, Litmos Chief People Officer Kyile Stair wrote that learning can — and should — be used to create a supportive environment for team members. This is true all the time, but is especially critical during times of stress, like the rollout of a new RTO policy.
“A supportive company atmosphere is characterized by open communication, empathy, and inclusivity. L&D initiatives can cultivate this environment by promoting mental health awareness and encouraging employees to seek help if needed,” writes Stair.
What should a Return to Office L&D strategy include?
An L&D program aimed at supporting employees during an RTO rollout should include several elements aimed at mental wellness and balance:
- Wellness modules: Learning content covering stress management, resilience building, and mindfulness give your team the tools to take care of their mental well-being.
- Information about mental health resources: Sometimes learners simply don’t know that support is available. Integrating a module about your organization’s offerings and policies is a simple but effective way to share this information, especially as part of your onboarding program.
- Training for leadership: Mental health is often stigmatized. By training leadership about mental wellness, your organization can help change the way mental health is seen and discussed in the workforce.
- Soft skills training: Communication is an integral part of a supportive workplace. Soft skills can help all employees learn how to communicate with one another about their needs and also to ask for help if they need it.
- Time for training: Work can seem to take priority over training or using services aimed at improving mental health. Allow your learners time to use the resources you’ve built.
- Different modalities for training: Not everything needs to be a course or module — especially if your workforce is returning to the office in person. Consider taking advantage of face to face interactions, like workshops, counseling services, peer support groups, coaching, and mentoring relationships.
Is a training strategy necessary for RTO?
If you’re going back to full time at the office, you might question whether these courses are needed. People came to the office before the pandemic. Why do they need mental wellness support to return?
Consider the fact that while 64% of employees say they’re struggling mentally, only 19% report using their organization’s mental health benefits. According to a State of Workplace report, 45% of employees who don’t use their mental health benefits say their busy schedules as the primary reason.
You may not see the struggle your people are experiencing, but just because the struggle is invisible doesn’t mean it’s not happening. By building mental wellness into your RTO strategy, you can support your team so that they can return to work happy, healthy, and productive.