Roughly 95% of IT decision-makers have indicated a wave of organizational change in 2024, largely driven by return to office (RTO) policy changes.
Nine out of 10 companies intend to return employees to the office by the end of 2024. So, C-suite executives — even those at small and midsize businesses (SMBs) — must aim to refresh their in-person work strategies to enhance employee engagement and productivity.
While IT managers and channel partners aren’t setting these policies directly, the data available to these teams is vital for understanding the working needs of the organization. That’s especially true when CIOs and CTOs are collaborating with other departments, like HR, operations and finance.
To make RTO a success, IT managers and teams must develop a data-backed, modern office space that reflects the realities of hybrid work as well as the working styles of various departments across the organization.
How Not to Build a Modern Office Space
There are legitimate benefits — both cultural and quantifiable — in RTO. Some of those include a greater sense of connectivity with colleagues, improved onboarding and training processes, and easier communication.
Yet, employees can’t appreciate these benefits if the technical capabilities of their in-office experience don’t mirror the real-time technical demands of their jobs.
IT managers who consistently keep a pulse on how employees interact with technology have greater visibility into day-to-day operations than senior leaders. Creating a physical space that meets the needs of every team requires IT managers having a seat at the table when forming RTO policies. Their expertise should serve as the foundation for RTO decision making.
For channel partners managing SMB IT, it also signals an opportunity to share expertise and deepen relationship trust. However, it isn’t always that simple.
An Example of RTO ‘Friction’
Dan Root
Consider two departments in an organization: One relies on long stretches of uninterrupted work, while the other needs constant interaction and brainstorming. Then, an executive introduces mandatory hybrid work for all employees regardless of department. The IT manager doesn’t account for the second department’s work preferences, and as a result, the technical limitations of physical spaces hinder productivity. If conference rooms are unintuitive to use and hard to book, hybrid brainstorming becomes tedious. Ultimately, this fails to support all teams in their daily needs.
Organizations can’t afford this kind of unnecessary RTO friction, especially when there’s already a divide between many employers and employees. Failing to provide the right collaboration tools will only cause further division, which can be especially jarring and disruptive for MSPs’ SMB clients.
To assuage these fears, SMB leaders can enlist the help of an experienced MSP.
Configuring In-office Work for Employee Needs
Alignment between C-suite, HR, and IT leadership is essential for optimizing in-office space. But what does this alignment look like in practice?
Start by identifying the specific data your IT team lacks. Which data accurately reveals deficiencies in your office’s technology? Let’s use company conference rooms as an example. Is there a steady decline in how frequently these rooms are used? It could be a sign that employees want to use conference rooms but are frustrated by clunky tech setups.
Another data point to gauge the effectiveness of conference rooms involves meeting start and end times. Are meetings consistently going over allotted time slots? This could be the result of five to 10 minutes of initial troubleshooting, which ultimately impacts those in the meeting room as well as remote attendees.
Advanced IT and HR analytics can provide a comprehensive view of how your office space is used and how employees prefer to work. The right data can empower SMBs and their IT partners to reverse engineer the process. This can create more equitable workplaces that draw employees back to the office and ensure they feel their in-person time is spent meaningfully.
The Wrong Approach to RTO
These days, some organizations remain fully remote while others embrace hybrid and full-time return-to-office initiatives.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Taking the time to determine the right approach for your organization is a significant but important commitment. After all, a hastily thought-out approach can tank employee morale, productivity, and retention.
To make hybrid work sustainable, you need greater visibility into what’s working — and what’s not — in your physical office space. You need data that company leaders can easily access. And you must work with leaders to connect these nuanced insights back to decisions on technology and personnel.
Fortunately, IT channel partners can step in as outsourced experts for SMBs, providing guidance and identifying tools that can simplify RTO challenges. This guidance can help ensure that your clients’ chosen model of work will be sustainable for years to come.
Dan Root is head of global strategic alliances for Barco Clickshare, a provider of collaboration technologies.
Image: iStock
