84% employees will return to office to be able to socialise with co-workers

Recently Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had made news for its innovative social-media campaigns aimed at wooing its employees back to office. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Pulse Report also reveals that leaders need to put in extra efforts to get people to spend time in office, shrug off the work-from-home mode and return to in-person working. Data reveals that people are more likely to come into office because they miss interacting with others and the social connect.

Their primary draw to office is the opportunity to rebuild social capital, and that is what employers need to focus on.

About 82 per cent of decision makers in organisations admit that getting employees to work from office will be a major concern in the immediate future, the truth remains that employees seek flexibility as well as autonomy related to when and where they work. A whopping 73 per cent of the employees and 78 per cent of the decision-making leaders who were part of the survey said they need a better reason to revert to in-person working from office than merely their employer’s or organisation’s expectations.

As per the survey, it is better to engage employees and energise them to bring them back to office. Connecting with their co-workers and colleagues will act as a primary motivation for returning to office. A majority, 84 per cent of employees admit that the promise of socialising with co-workers will motivate them, while 85 per cent say the thought of rebuilding bonds with team mates will motivate them.

About 73 per cent of the employees also admitted that they would visit office more often for work if they knew the other members in their team will be present there. About 74 per cent said the presence of their work friends at office will pull them to work from office.

Clearly, organisations that do not use in-person time to rebuild and strengthen team bonds may face the likelihood of failing to attract and retain top talent.

However, in TCS’s case, after trying to woo its employees back to office with a fun social-media campaign, TCS had to send a mail to them making it mandatory to be in office for a minimum of three days a week.