Return to office: How not to upset almost everyone
Summary
Quentin Millington (Marble Brook) argues there is no one-size-fits-all answer to return-to-office (RTO) mandates. Rather than imposing blanket rules, HR should focus on clarity in vision, leadership, culture and teamwork. Millington offers eight practical questions HR leaders can use to involve people, surface the real objectives, check managerial obstacles, define a concise leadership promise, challenge outdated beliefs, set enabling principles, trial small collaborative changes and celebrate progress. He suggests hybrid approaches usually work best and that meaningful change can be achieved within about three months with focused action.
Context and relevance
RTO is back on the agenda as firms and large corporates tighten in-office policies. The article is timely for HR teams wrestling with conflicting employee preferences, operational goals and managerial instincts. It reframes the debate from where people should sit to what the organisation is trying to achieve, offering a practical framework to break decision paralysis and reduce conflict.
Key Points
- There is no universal correct choice between remote, hybrid or on-site — decisions will upset some people.
- Good policy starts with clarifying the objectives (wellbeing, innovation, customer service etc.), not location itself.
- Involve employees, customers and stakeholders in dialogue to form a practicable vision.
- Check whether RTO demands stem from managerial control rather than value creation; equip managers to lead differently.
- Create a one-page ‘leadership promise’ that sets out role-model behaviours managers must show.
- Challenge unhelpful cultural assumptions and agree a small set of principles to enable change (eg. ‘we shall make it work’).
- Pilot small, high-impact teamwork projects to turn strategy into practice within months, not years.
- Recognise and celebrate progress in ways that match the new ways of working (avoid one-size-fits-all celebrations).
Why should I read this?
Because if your inbox is full of furious debates about coming back to the office, this article gives you a no-nonsense, practical playbook to stop going round the same executive merry-go-round. It hands HR eight sharp questions you can use right away to get people talking about outcomes instead of rows about seats — and to nudge managers into actually leading rather than just policing.
Source
Source: https://hrzone.com/return-to-office-how-not-to-upset-almost-everyone/
