As HR knows, workers’ wants and needs — both voiced and unarticulated — are constantly evolving. The return to the office is another layer added onto the landscape, with 9 in 10 employers planning to implement RTO policies by 2024, per an August 2023 ResumeBuilder report. How can HR provide an ideal (hybrid) office environment when the future of work is ever-evolving?

A remote work pulse report from Owl Labs, a videoconferencing company, indicated yes, remote workers benefit from the freedom of not being mandated to come into the office.

Whereas 57% of survey-takers said that working independently remotely is more productive, only 30% reported the same regarding the office. About half of workers said they think more creatively when remote. In turn, 49% said they focus better while remote, compared to 39% who do so better in an office setting.

But the study also revealed that knowledge workers really do value the benefits of communing with co-workers: 60% of survey-takers said they like to meet new colleagues in the office, compared to 17% who said they preferred to do so remotely.

About half preferred team meetings in real life, compared to a quarter who said they preferred virtual meetings. (Survey-takers also preferred in-person collaboration to remote collaboration in similar numbers.)

So how does HR balance these mixed desires and messages?

Communication is the secret sauce

In a public statement on the mixed-bag remote work findings, Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, noted that “when it comes to work environments, there’s no one-size-fits-all option that satisfies all employees, which is why hybrid work is the future.” This sentiment mirrors that of Abraham Gonzales-Pollick, Vensure Employer Services’ vice president of client development.

Acknowledging the necessity of on-site work for some industries, Gonzales-Pollick’s advice for HR is to collaborate with employees on what RTO looks like at their organization. 

Instead of exit interviews, drill down on “stay interviews.” He recommended open communication at every step of the way: from the recruiting process, to onboarding, to performance management, to training and development, Gonzales-Pollick said.

“They're experiencing all of these things throughout that whole lifecycle. It would be really great to hear from the employees on what they need in that moment,” he said. Maybe an organization needs more flexibility or better pay, he continued. “Maybe the organization needs more fun activities. Maybe the employees need a little bonus. Who knows, right?” Gonzales-Pollick told HR Dive. “Every organization is different. Every industry is different.”

Regarding RTO, Jakada Imani said that most of his clients are “wading into it pretty thoughtfully.” As CEO of The Management Center, an inclusion- and equity-focused leadership consulting firm, Imani has a bird’s eye view of the hybrid work landscape.

Many employers understand the gravity of re-integrating workers into a physical workplace. He also noted that the best intentions can be foiled with a careless approach.

Why that secret sauce is important

“That's a lot of the mistakes major companies make — when they're not actually talking to their teams,” Imani told HR Dive. “They're not having a conversation about what the preferences of folks are, why those preferences are that way, what the needs of the work are, and how to track and focus on the needs of the work.”

Along with future workflow and hybrid dynamics, conversations about how RTO is “going to impact different staff disproportionately” should also take place, Imani said. For example, many Black people prefer to work from home, as remote work offers a reprieve from in-person racism. (Previously, an executive at a recruitment company spoke to HR Dive about how remote work is a racial equity issue.)

Research firm McKinsey and Company, among others, has kept a close eye on women in the workplace and published annual insights therein. “What we know is that particularly women, mothers and caretakers really favored remote work because it allows them to be more active caretakers and less stretched with commute times,” Imani said.

How HR can make the office a desirable place

Beyond compliance — all HR experts interviewed for the Office Space series brought up the importance of lactation rooms for breastfeeding or “chestfeeding” — employers need to “convince” employees to come back to the office, as a previous expert stated. A regional lead for a coworking company, they described their spaces are designed intentionally: private spaces such as “focus” rooms and collaborative open spaces, “soft seating” in common areas and so on.

Gonzales-Pollick touched on the physical space element, saying, “We should be thinking about the spaces and how we evoke the senses, beyond just practical. People need more than just a desk and a phone and their monitors, right?”

“All that is practical, but when we put focus on the design and emotional aspect of the workspace, we are influencing moods, behaviors, attitudes. It’s those things that impact performance,” he continued. “You may not even think about it, but lighting makes a difference. Plants at your desk, photos and collaboration spaces.”

Colors matter, Gonzales-Pollick added. An example he gave was the company break room. If the “walls haven't been painted in 10 or 20 years” and bosses mandate RTO because employees are “going to perform better” in the office, the logic falls flat. It probably won’t compete with the windows, bright colors and comfortable chairs of someone’s WFH set-up, he explained.

HR needs an IRL engagement plan

Gonzales-Pollick also stressed the importance of daily engagement activities or what he called “power hours.” He also built on the idea of employee resource groups. “We think about these new and meaningful ways of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, but belonging sometimes gets missed,” he said.

He floated the idea of belonging groups to “give people something to look forward to,” so they can say “I belong here. And if I'm not coming to work, I'm going to miss out because I get a lot out of these belonging groups.”

“We wish that every workplace environment was highly supportive, highly connected. And what we know is that's not true. [We know] that a lot of workplace environments are dysfunctional at best and toxic at worst,” Imani said. “So if you're going to have people come together to build connection and camaraderie, you actually have to build that in.”

Imani even brought the old-school concept of “icebreakers.”

“Those things, in fact, do work, because they build trust, they build connection, they build knowledge of each other,” he said, laying the groundwork for a “virtuous cycle.”

In turn, he said, “Coming in with me sitting in my cubicle and you sitting in your cubicle doesn't actually build camaraderie. When we don't know each other's names, you don't know what each other does, and we don't have any particular sort of projects or work together: surprise! That's not going to build really deep connection.”

Both experts suggested that people teams plan engagement activities during the work day, particularly to be mindful of caregivers’ time. Beyond happy hour, employers can bring in speakers and hold breakout sessions afterward, pairing employees with people they don’t work with on a daily basis. Imani also suggested lunch conversation groups; simple prompts can be effective here.

Spitballing, Imani offered three prompts:

• What’s something you love to do outside of work?
• What do you really love about your job?
• What is one thing you’re looking forward to over the next 12 months?

“There's so many things that [managers] can do,” Gonzales-Pollick said. “They just need to give themselves permission as leaders to have that creative license to try things.”

Many leaders have bemoaned the lack of “serendipitous” hallway moments when transitioning their workforce from WFH arrangements into the office. But Imani arguably pushes back on that thought process. Intentional engagement events are what actually give people an opportunity to know their co-workers.

“It is a little bit ‘forced,’ but so is coming back to work,” he said. “So let's build in some of those opportunities for connection that are not just random. Because if I run into you in the hallway, I'm just going to say ‘excuse me’ and keep going.”

Although employee engagement appears to be rebounding after two years of decline, fewer remote workers are finding connection to the mission and purpose of their organization, according to a report from Gallup.

The organization’s May survey of full- and part-time U.S. employees found that about 34% said they were engaged at work, up from 32% last year. However, 35% of hybrid workers and 33% of on-site workers said they felt that their employer’s mission or purpose lent importance to their jobs, compared to 43% and 39%, respectively, in 2021.

That decline is even steeper among fully remote employees, only 28% of whom said they felt connected to organizational mission and purpose — a record low, per Gallup, and down from 36% in 2021.

“It is encouraging that, as U.S. workers are settling into new ways of working, they report improvements on the basic elements of employee engagement — clearer expectations, access to materials and equipment, and opportunities to do what they do best,” wrote Jim Harter, chief scientist of Workplace for Gallup and author of the report.

“But even as employees are more equipped to do their work, the relationship between employee and employer is less bound together by a common mission and purpose,” Harter said. “This means many employees’ relationships with their employers are becoming increasingly ‘gig-like’ and less loyal — which has possible implications on customer and employee retention, productivity, and quality of work.”

This year’s increase in engagement comes after a decade of growth. Engagement reached an annual peak of 36% in 2020 before dropping to 32% in 2022. Other measures are improving as well — the percentage of actively disengaged employees declined from 18% in 2022 to 16% this year, and the ratio of engaged-to-disengaged workers increased from 1.8-to-1 last year to 2.1-to-1 this year.

Overall, on-site employees showed the greatest engagement gains, according to Gallup. Respondents generally noted improvements in specific areas, such as knowing what’s expected of them at work, having the materials and equipment to do their work and having the opportunity to do what they do best every day.

To improve engagement among remote workers, “exceptional managers” are key, Harter said. For instance, Gallup previously found that managers should have at least one meaningful conversation each week with each employee — for a minimum of 15-30 minutes — to cover recognition, discussion about collaboration, goals, priorities and the employee’s strengths.

“We find this single habit of one meaningful conversation per week develops high-performance relationships more than any other single leadership activity,” Harter said. “Gallup analytics have found managers can be quickly upskilled to have these ongoing strengths-based conversations that bring purpose to work.”

Hybrid schedules and return-to-office policies may have put managers in a difficult position regarding employee expectations and engagement. Most managers in a 2022 Microsoft report said they felt that they didn’t have the influence, resources or skills to make changes or improvements for their teams.

Upskilling and coaching could help, according to a recent Info-Tech Research Group report, particularly when focused on specific skills such as providing useful feedback, guiding prioritization and having effective one-on-one meetings.

Leadership training may be particularly important since managers affect employees’ mental health —  more than doctors or therapists and about the same as a spouse or partner —  a 2022 UKG Workplace Institute poll found. Investing in manager training could help with employee engagement and mental health, particularly among remote workers who feel less connected.

Nearly a quarter of U.S. employers are facing a major skills gap in their company, and another 42% say it will hit them within the next two years, according to a report from Salary.com.

Employers named three top reasons for the current and developing skills gap: technology, employee turnover and labor shortages.

In response, 70% of organizations said they’re investing in employee learning and development initiatives. Although most employers haven’t fully decided how generative AI will affect the skills they need, almost a third said it’s already changing the type of skills they’re seeking now, and another third said it could affect the skills they seek in a year from now.

“Successful organizations will invest in training their teams on generative AI and other rapidly evolving technologies, proving the power of upskilling to mitigate employee turnover,” David Turetsky, vice president of compensation consulting at Salary.com, said in a statement.

“With a persistently tight labor market and a willingness among employees to simply move on from jobs that don’t pay well and aren’t fulfilling, upskilling represents a critical path forward for employers,” he said.

In a survey of 425 participants, including 80% who were HR or compensation professionals, respondents indicated that they’re placing a stronger focus on “soft skills” that generative AI doesn’t cover, such as problem solving, communication and decision making. The top five in-demand skills were effective communication (65%), problem solving (55%), critical thinking (47%), attention to detail (43%) and analytical thinking (41%).

In addition to upskilling and reskilling, respondents said they’re conducting skills-based hiring, reworking job descriptions and tweaking their hiring requirements. More than half believe a skills and competency framework is important and decreases bias in job definitions, yet only a quarter said they’ve implemented one. Only 14% have conducted a formal skills inventory audit.

“We strongly advise that organizations start with conducting a skills inventory. HR teams may be pleasantly surprised that they have critical skills they’re seeking in-house,” Turetsky said. “Our survey found that HR pros regard conducting a skills inventory and creating career pathways as their top challenges. Fortunately, software and data can play a key role in operationalizing the process.”

Overall, employers aren’t adopting skills-based hiring quickly enough to keep up with skills gaps and the changing labor market, according to a recent report. While talent acquisition teams catch up on the hiring end, nontraditional training approaches such as upskilling and apprenticeships appear to be helping.

As employers determine how to use generative AI in the workplace, digital and tech skills remain in high demand, as well as “human” cognitive skills such as problem solving, creativity, originality, imagination and the ability to learn. HR professionals are focusing on these skills, both in skills-based hiring and upskilling initiatives.

Despite trends ranging from quiet quitting to quiet firing to quiet hiring, the talent side of human resources will anything but slow heading in 2023. 

While whispers of an economic downturn hover around the water cooler and news of downsizing in the tech sector lingers, most executives aren’t planning massive layoffs. At least, not yet. 

A recent survey by PwC of 4,410 chief executives in 105 countries found that while 73% expect global economic growth to decline this year — the most pessimistic business leaders have been about the economy since PwC started asking about it 12 years ago — 60% don’t intend to cut their workforce in the next 12 months.

Instead, companies likely will be more strategic in their hiring, human resources executives say. Paul Lewis, chief marketing officer at Adzuna, an employment website company, characterizes this as “purposeful hiring.” Long gone is the explosion of hiring in late 2021 and early 2022, a time when candidates fielded multiple job offers and companies vied for talent. 

“Companies will focus on quality candidates rather than scrambling to fill a plethora of open positions,” Lewis told HR Dive via email. 

Recruiting: Candidate experience is key

Finding those high-quality candidates will involve creating a better hiring experience. 

“Companies should foster more transparency throughout the hiring process, be that improving salary transparency or stopping ghosting candidates. This is essential to make sure you get the right candidates in the door and to establish trust right from the beginning of the hiring process,” Lewis said. 

He recommended businesses find ways to streamline the hiring process and cut the time to hire to both save money and keep candidates engaged. 

Albert Galarza, global vice president of human resources at TELUS International, an IT and customer service provider, said his company has reduced the time from application to offer to two hours for front-line workers. 

“We still have a lot of candidates who are interested in evaluating the company’s efficiencies just by the interview process,“ Galarza said. 

Some candidates, Galarza said, see a slow hiring process as indicative that a company itself moves slowly. 

Galarza expects the hiring market to be about 95% as competitive as it has been the past two years. Despite major layoffs at tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook, the U.S. unemployment rate remains low, he said. 

“We expect some softening but not a lot given how low unemployment is overall,” Galarza said. 

That’s why, he said, a company’s No. 1 job is to retain employees and not get complacent about their existing workforce. 

Retention: Build trust and focus on who is present

Jennifer Shewan, vice president of people at Wonolo, an on-demand job marketplace, said it’s most cost-effective for a company to invest in the employees they already have to prevent disengagement and quitting — quiet or otherwise. 

Internally, Wonolo invests in learning and development and has created career pathing to help employees gain new skills. 

Carmen Bryant, workplace expert and VP of marketing at Wizehire, an online hiring platform for small businesses, expects to see companies hoarding labor this year, afraid to have layoffs after experiencing recent hiring challenges. 

Bryant said companies will need to work on building trust with their employees in 2023, especially as economic concerns arise. 

“Employees will have questions about the health of the business,” Bryant said. “It’s important to invite them to share their concerns and use it as an opportunity to be transparent to foster a sense of trust, address challenges and brainstorm solutions.”

When a local government fellowship program asked more than 100 applicants about their interest in the job, they overwhelmingly cited the opportunity for “meaningful work.”

Applicants ranked mission above pay, location, professional development and more, according to the Jan. 12 results. And more than half said the coronavirus pandemic only increased their interest in public service employment.

In light of the results, the research firm analyzing the findings urged employers to emphasize mission over tasks. “With meaningful work and personal satisfaction so highly rated, a job advertisement that leans more heavily on the results that can be achieved may be more likely to net interested recruits than one that focuses more on formal roles and responsibilities,” it said in a report.

Other research suggests private and for-profit employers may want to take a note from this government playbook: Employees are seeking higher purpose from their work and choosing to work for employers that have purpose baked into their ethos, an Alight executive said in September, analyzing survey results.

Executives say they know this is true — especially younger workers — but a 2022 report from consulting firm Deloitte revealed that many fail to properly integrate it throughout a business.

Those efforts can start at a high level with executives infusing purpose into a business plan and a company’s core values. But purpose also should permeate the aspects of work with which employees interact every day. Managers can be trained to connect daily work to purpose, making clear how individual contributors have meaningful responsibilities and how they’re part of a company’s mission, whether that’s serving a client or advancing an ESG initiative.

Hilton’s CHRO, for example, said at a December event the company strives to connect its massive workforce and inspire them to do great things for their guests and in service of their communities.

Employers with a more obvious social mission may have a somewhat easier path. Those in green technologies, for example, previously told HR Dive they focus directly on candidates with a passion for sustainability. What those businesses lack in name recognition, they make up for in meaningful work, one VP shared.

These findings, however, don’t give employers license to neglect other offerings, the report analyzing the local government fellowship survey results cautioned.

The next generation of talent will demand meaningful work, and those employers that can offer purpose alongside competitive pay, benefits, flexibility and more will be well positioned in the competition for that talent.

A belonging disconnect is emerging in the workplace worldwide, with 41% of workers saying they feel the greatest sense of belonging at work second only to home — yet 75% report they’ve felt excluded at work, according to a report from EY’s “Belonging Barometer.”

In addition, 56% of workers feel like they can’t share — or are reluctant to share — aspects of their identity at work, especially if they believe it could hold them back. Among LGBTQ+ workers, the percentage is even higher, with 77% feeling uncomfortable about sharing dimensions of themselves at work.

“While it’s encouraging that workers continue to feel an increased sense of belonging at work, it’s clear that a disconnect has emerged with many workers globally, of all diversity dimensions, feeling excluded, actively self-editing or hiding certain dimensions of who they are at work,” Karyn Twaronite, EY global vice chair of diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DE&I), said in a statement.

“For leaders looking to bridge this gap to maximize engagement, wellbeing and productivity, and better enable their employees to feel free to be themselves, one-on-one check ins still matter most,” Twaronite said.

In a survey of 5,000 workers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, India and Singapore, about 32% said checking in on how someone is doing — both at work and in their personal life — greatly contributed to building a sense of belonging. Among U.S. respondents, 39% agreed with this sentiment, which is similar to the previous surveys in 2018 (38%) and 2020 (37%).

Flexibility also seems to help with belonging. Among workers who noted an impact on their sense of belonging due to hybrid work or economic volatility, the top two reasons for improvement were due to flexibility and encouragement to be open about their opinions, needs, preferences and personality.

Beyond that, 45% said flexible work, such as autonomy with their hours and location, was the top motivator for instilling DEI initiatives in their own teams.

These DEI initiatives continue to play a pivotal role in recruitment and talent acquisition, according to the report. About 74% of workers said their company’s prioritization of DEI influences their choice of where to work, and 63% said they would choose a company that prioritizes DEI over one that doesn’t — a stat that trends even higher among Gen Z and millennial workers.

“Amidst today’s political and economic backdrop, DE&I remains a key workplace expectation across all generations and a competitive advantage, and at the same time, DE&I remains imperative for companies like ours to consistently build into their long-term growth strategy,” Twaronite said. 

Belonging has become an increasingly important aspect of DEI initiatives, yet many workers report that these programs have “failed them personally,” according to a recent WebMD Health Services survey. Workers reported they didn’t feel safe expressing their opinions and felt excluded from career advancement opportunities.

As companies watch their budgets and consider cuts this year, leaders need to keep DEI efforts in mind, Indeed’s lead of diversity, inclusion and belonging told HR Dive. Workers are more likely to join and stay at companies that prioritize DEI, she said, and in particular, those from marginalized backgrounds tend to thrive in workplaces with a strong sense of belonging.

Ultimately, diverse teams help businesses’ bottom lines, two KPMG U.S. leaders noted earlier this year. Company leaders can make measurable, accountable progress toward achieving DEI as tangible business outcomes through communication, transparency and a commitment to upholding and working toward DEI goals, they wrote.