For us at Mosron Communications, we have studied the return to the office phenomenon. It has become an “old new policy” for many companies globally. In all parts of the world, managers are willing to have their employees back as much as the employees are not excited to return.
In some cases, companies have to backpedal because their staff are opposed to the mandatory comeback as it was at Google or lose talents for competitors as it happened with Tesla.
So what can companies do to execute their return-to-office policies and retain their talent pool?
Our #MosronCommunications team has placed a bet on strategic stakeholder communications where employees are not just summoned but persuaded to embrace the physical workmode. Apart from clients, partners and investors, employees are a critical stakeholder group that should be at the receiving end of effective corporate communication — and to be first in the queue.
Imagine having disgruntled employees in the office interacting with your external stakeholders — the effect may be totally opposite to what you envisioned when the return mandate is unaligned with the employees` desires.
At Mosron Communications, have worked on a set of creative tactics to apply in your communications strategy and make your employees willingly consider the return.
- Showcase the safety of your facilities. Sometimes staff do not want to return simply because they are afraid of public places which are perceived as incubators of infections post-pandemic. To dispel these concerns, you can shoot an educational video which explains your safety standards and send it to your staff upon the projected return.
- Organise a corporate retreat for your staff to immerse in the workplace culture afresh. The prolonged period of social distancing keeps many craving for a human touch. If your employees are “physically onboarded” again, they will experience the impact of physical communication first-hand.
- Invigorate your regular content plan with photos and videos from past physical events that captured bonding moments of your staff. If they experience the best episodes of the past anew, they will desire to relive it in the future.
- Schedule an in-person meeting in the office to invite your employees to come back. You can likely agree that talking to the staff about their return via Zoom sitting in a soft armchair at home will hardly provide the expected experience. Instead, plan a programme for the physical announcement and carefully craft your verbal messages.
The extent of quality and creativity of your stakeholder communications is what shapes your business sustainability at the end of the day. Once you properly communicate with your employees, the risk of miscommunication with other stakeholders automatically reduces. Do you know why? Find a clue in this article and share your ideas in the comment section!
