In the past few months, several large organizations have announced that their employees will soon be required to return to the office five days a week. The message is clear: After more than four years of flexible remote work, we want you back in the building because that’s how we keep people connected. But because this rationale oversimplifies workplace connections, it’s unlikely to have the intended results, as we wrote recently in HBR.
When we think of workplace connections, we typically picture social connections with colleagues — those chats over coffee or serendipitous hallway meetings that can spark new ideas, increase collaboration, and keep people engaged. Yet, there’s no conclusive evidence that being physically in an office improves productivity or performance (many workers claim the opposite), and return-to-office (RTO) policies can actually cause companies to lose their best performers.
Our research suggests there’s something missing in the RTO debate. While social connection with colleagues is important, it’s not the whole story, and that might be one reason employees are saying no to RTO mandates. In a recent research collaboration, NLI and the technology firm Akamai discovered that connection in the workplace is made up of four interrelated and essential elements: employee connections with their colleague, leader, employer, and role (CLEAR). Let’s take a look at each of these components.
Colleague connection
A high-quality colleague connection involves working with people you like and trust. You collaborate and give and receive support. As mentioned previously, this is what most of us think of when we envision workplace connections. While strong social support at work has many benefits, it’s only one part of the conversation about workplace connections.
Leader connection
Leader connection isn’t just about liking your boss. It’s also about whether your leader provides autonomy and access to opportunities. In addition, you’ll feel more connected to leaders who are effective communicators, providing clarity about expectations and useful feedback.
Employer connection
When you feel as though your values align with those of your employer, and your work contributes significantly to the goals of the organization, you experience employer connection. In contrast, when employer connection is missing, it can feel like the proverbial “punching the time card.” A lack of employer connection can negatively impact job performance, as well as talent attraction and retention.
Role connection
Experiencing role connection means understanding your job, feeling engaged in what you’re doing, and knowing how you can advance. While the adage “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” is seldom true, when you feel connected to your role, you’re motivated and inspired by the work you do.
Individual needs may vary
While each type of CLEAR connection is important for the overall picture of workplace satisfaction, our early data suggest that employees have unique requirements. For example, one employee might be all about colleague connection, organizing office parties or Zoom happy hours, and rarely thinking about their organization’s mission. This employee requires a different path for motivation than someone for whom employer connection is key.
Likewise, requirements can vary throughout an employee’s life. Someone who formerly had a strong need for colleague connection may get married, find a new hobby, or experience life events that elevate the importance of other CLEAR components. While most employees expect the minimum requirements of having helpful colleagues and leaders, working for a respectable company, and feeling valued in their roles, how much more they want of each will vary.
Why CLEAR connections matter in the RTO debate
When we look through the lens of CLEAR Connections™, we see why RTO mandates can make employees feel less — not more — connected to their workplace. Although colleague connection likely increases, every other form of connection has the potential to decrease. Employees might feel less connected to their leaders because they believe their supervisors don’t care about their needs for flexibility and autonomy. And they might be less eager to help the organization succeed because they feel betrayed by the RTO policy. Similarly, role connection could plummet if the employee feels valued more for their attendance than their performance.
When employers focus on only one pillar of CLEAR Connections™, they neglect other types of connection that matter greatly for employee satisfaction, performance, and retention. And while no single RTO policy will be fair for everyone (e.g., some people may actually want to be in the office full time, while for others, it’s a deal-breaker), leaders can implement a patchwork principle for hybrid work that incorporates all four pillars of connection.
A version of this article appears in Harvard Business Review. To read the full article, click here.
