Australians reluctant to get back to the office

Getting people back to the office is proving harder than sending them home.

Sarah McCann-Bartlett, Australian HR Institute chief executive

More than 70 per cent of Australians are resisting a return to the workplace, citing issues such as commuting and contagion as employers begin to crank up requests to staff to get back to the office.

A survey of human resources practitioners conducted this month has revealed a widespread reluctance to end the months of home work forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the survey, by peak body the Australian HR Institute, has found an overwhelming number of companies have embraced remote working, with 80 per cent of HR leaders reporting that their organisations will allow more employees to work remotely to some degree because of COVID-19.

AHRI’s chief executive Sarah McCann-Bartlett says the survey suggests there is a fundamental shift under way from “employer-led organisations to employee-led organisations”.

“Employees’ concerns will be taken into account and there won’t be a one-size-fits all remote working policy,” she says. Companies will need to understand the concerns of employees and manage so that “flexible work policies will be more flexible”.

She says the finding that only 27 per cent of employees are comfortable about returning to work means companies should do quick internal surveys known as “pulse surveys” to gauge the mood of staff and identify the barriers to return.

Reasons vary from wanting to retain family balance to health concerns related to travel on public transport.

McCann-Bartlett believes the changes in company dynamics are in part due to the fact we have dropped some of the “role playing” we do in the office.

“We have been told that we have to bring our genuine self to work,” she says. “Well, during COVID there has been no escape from your genuine self at home. I’ve got dogs on my lap, children asking for money, you have people walking behind you (on Zoom conferences), so we have actually seen more of you and a different side of you. Our communications with staff have been more personal, more one-on-one. I don’t think we will go back to the old role playing that some people thought that they had to do in the workplace.”

New essential skills

The AHRI survey also asked about the skills that will be needed post-COVID. McCann-Bartlett says they include resilience, flexibility, agility, digital skills and communication.

“These have been known as the soft skills, but I am calling them the new essential skills,” she says.

Those skills were on show in many companies as they seamlessly and rapidly switched to remote working in March, McCann-Bartlett says. “We changed our processes to enable change,” she says. “We were very ‘change able’ and I think we want to hold on to that.”

The AHRI survey also has found that 68 per cent of practitioners believe their organisations are factoring remote working into their long-term real estate planning and 80 per cent believe their organisation has or will change its operation, delivery and/or strategy because of COVID-19. About half of those believe the adjustment will be permanent.

As companies increase their efforts to encourage people back to the office, there is mixed evidence of their success, with CBD-based businesses finding it more difficult to build the numbers because of concerns about public transport.

Managing director for office and logistics at AMP Capital Luke Briscoe says 15 to 20 per cent of staff have returned to the office towers the company manages in Sydney and Melbourne, with 25 to 30 per cent in business parks. In North Sydney, the secondary business district of Sydney, about 45 per cent of staff are back in the office.

“What that tells us is when getting to the location is more achievable without using public transport, more staff are ready to return,” Briscoe says. “There are concerns regarding getting an understanding around public transport and access into CBDs.” An example of the difficulties of getting people back to work emerged for SAP in New Zealand last week. It had planned for up to 75 people to return to their desks but surveys showed only 55 of the total 150 staff wanted to go back. In the end, only 20 returned. Not that SAP is worried: the firm has been 100 per cent remote working since March and is moving towards a permanently flexible working model. As well it expects the numbers returning to increase in the next few weeks.

Public transport concerns

In Australia, SAP will open for employees on July 6 and the company will operate split teams with a maximum of 50 per cent of staff in the office at any time.

Australia’s largest office landlord, Dexus, which owns offices in the CBDs of Australia’s major cities, reports that tenants are keen to get back to the office with the biggest barrier being employee concerns around public transport. Executive general manager Kevin George says that during lockdown, about 25 per cent of tenants’ workforces remained working in their offices. This now has increased to about 40 per cent. Dexus expects numbers of returnees to keep growing during the next few months. Dexus figures show that although 73 per cent of employees say their work-life balance is better when working from home, 80 per cent miss working from the office, citing the lack of interactions and ability to collaborate with colleagues.

Commercial real estate company Investa says employee attendance at its tenants’ buildings have been increasing by about 5 per cent every week since the middle of last month. Public transport remains the biggest factor preventing employee return. The return-to-work numbers have surprised some companies whose own surveys of staff suggest more people want to come back to headquarters.

Deborah Yates, national managing partner for people, performance and culture at KPMG, says these views are reflected in attitudes of the firm’s 8000 employees. KPMG will change work practices as a result.

“There are really a very limited number of people who want to be in the office five days a week or working from home five days a week,” she says. “

“We’re thinking about the future being based around three hubs: working from the office, working from the client’s office and working from home. That’s the flexibility we are aiming for.”