In an era where the lines between work and life have blurred, the debate around RTO mandates rages on. While many executives push for a full return, a critical question emerges: Why are so many HR leaders resisting these policies?
Josh Blalock, Chief Viedo Evangelist at Jabra, believes businesses can build a thriving culture while balancing flexibility with productivity in the evolving landscape of work and AI.
Why are many HR leaders pushing back against forced RTO policies?
Due to the nature of their jobs, HR leaders are very in tune with how to keep employees happy and retain them. That's one of their primary remits. Policies that limit employee flexibility, like forced RTO, are a direct challenge to maintaining the employee happiness and retention that HR leaders are working toward. Employees have had a certain way of working – whether remote or hybrid – for years now. Taking away that flexibility – in part or whole – with forced RTO policies makes an HR manager's job a lot harder as it directly impacts employee satisfaction and can lead to attrition. HR leaders may have to find other programs and policies to put in place to mitigate the negative impacts of the forced RTO and minimize employee turnover.
What challenges do companies face when trying to enforce in-office work?
Many companies skip or gloss over the logistical prep work needed to properly equip spaces for a return to in-office work. Offices from 2020 and earlier are often not set up for the way we work in the hybrid world. Meeting rooms aren't outfitted with the right technology, employee devices aren't conducive to noisy environments and office layouts aren't designed with virtual collaboration in mind. Being forced to make the transition back to the office for better collaboration but having places that aren't physically and technologically set up to do so, will make the return to office a challenge.
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As employees make the transition back to the office, they may also struggle with acclimating their normal routines and ways of being productive into the office environment. There will likely be challenges with balancing the "watercooler" moments and more frequent disruptions that are a natural part of office work, with deep focus time and uninterrupted time to zone in on projects that may have been more easily achieved working remotely.
Beyond logistics, many companies may face employee pushback, both internally and externally, for forced in-office work. For large companies, this employee discontent shared externally can cause headlines and public scrutiny. And for companies of any size, this can cause employee turnover.
How can businesses foster collaboration and productivity without requiring everyone to be in the office?
It starts with tools. Businesses need to make sure they are putting the right tools in place, starting with the platform. Whether choosing Teams, Zoom or others, businesses must consider if the platform supports stronger and more frequent virtual collaboration, and if it does, are they using it in the right ways. Consulting groups that specialize in rollouts, governance and tips and tricks on getting the most from your platform can help businesses better use what they already have.
Going beyond the platform, the physical tools that people use every day are critical as they are the gateway to effectively using the platform in place. Business need devices that remove barriers for employees and provide crisp and clear audio and video to ensure that it feels like you're together without battling tech hurdles.
What role does technology like video conferencing play in helping teams collaborate remotely?
Think back to the days of audio-only conference rooms – a long table with a speakerphone in the center. You can't read reactions, see what's going on in the room, or use that context to guide and enhance the conversation. You might have an audio-only meeting where you're checking off agenda topics, but for real brainstorming and collaboration, you need video conferencing. Having clear video that captures the entirety of the room is the heart and soul of virtual collaboration.
For example, you might have an idea that you're ready to share on a call, but judging by the conversation you're hearing through audio alone, you hold it back. However, with video collaboration, the gestures and what you see in the room may signal otherwise, and you feel confident sharing the critical idea. Seeing not only faces and reactions, but also the full context of the room better enables you for more effective collaboration when teams are dispersed.
How can companies build and maintain a strong culture when working remotely?
Focusing on employee culture has always been critical to business success, but even more so in hybrid and remote work environments. Businesses can look for ways to utilize virtual collaboration platforms creatively for social purposes. By gathering teams for virtual events to recognize people and focus on aspects outside of day-to-day operations, it helps to draw people in and balances work and play.
Training is also an important piece to ensure employees feel supported and stay engaged when operating remotely. Companies should think of training not as a one-off event, but as a consistent plan that spans over time. Smaller, bite-sized trainings monthly or quarterly help to establish a culture of growth and learning.
Finally, adopting – from the top down – an understanding of the right tools needed for different workspaces is important. While you may have more people coming into the office on a regular basis, you still need to have some flexibility no matter where people work. Putting the right tools for flex work in people's hands whether in office or remote, and embracing that as part of the culture, is critical to empowering employees in a remote environment.
Related: RTO policies reveal an American workforce at a crossroads
What should businesses implement to balance flexibility with productivity?
Technology helps to facilitate flexibility and productivity in today's era of work. If you don't have a virtual collaboration platform that lends itself to easily joining meetings, you're not flexible. If employees can't do what they need to do from a mobile device, laptop browser, and meeting room – all the different ways of connecting into the work you do – then businesses are already a step behind from a flexibility standpoint. Giving employees the ability to access and do work across different devices and locations and providing the equipment that facilitates that is critical.
This goes beyond just logging into emails. It's also being able to collaborate with teams and talk to AI assistants. As we proceed further into the future of work and AI journey – it will be less and less prompting via a typed LLM and it will be increasingly interactive via voice – a more human approach. Using earbuds to talk to an AI agent to prompt them or having the right tools in place whether in a cubicle, on a train, at home or shopping at a grocery store – will be key to interacting with peers, the work you do and AI, and building and maintaining a flexible and more productive work culture.
How do you see the future of work evolving in terms of collaboration and a flexible work-life?
AI, AI, AI is where it's all going and how the AI shakes out is the big question. Everyone says this is the year of agentic AI, and while there's a significant push for this and increasing adoption, it's not a regular part of what people are doing yet.
AI is going to continue to advance in the months and years ahead. AI will evolve so that the prompt doesn't need to be perfect, and it can better determine context without providing a flawless prompt. People are also getting more familiar with speaking to AI. There will be more evolution on the physical products being AI-ready and facilitating voice to AI engagement. Devices need to be built into the AI journey and be a gateway to engaging with AI more efficiently. Evolution will take place in meeting rooms, too. Technology will become even more intelligent, utilizing AI to switch back and forth to different speakers and views based on the overall context of the conversation as it evolves.
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