Employers advised to offer the “right enticements”.

 

A new research study by Winc Australia shows CEOs and managers are still struggling to ‘earn the commute’ from their workers.

 

Prior to the pandemic, only eight per cent of knowledge workers worked from home. Now the number is still as high as 40 per cent.

 

The Winc survey - Helping CEOs earn the commute - found that 98 per cent of business decision-makers say they are currently prioritising employees returning to the office.

 

One-third of employees say they have been subjected to compulsory mandates to return to the office or else.

 

Mandates alone, however, are unlikely to work, the survey says, because 80 per cent of office workers see some form of disadvantage in coming to the office, 47 per cent say they avoid it because they dread the commute time and nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) say they need a better reason than “company expectations”.

 

The good news for bosses is that more than nine in 10 (96 per cent) of office workers surveyed said they could be successfully lured back into the office – with the right enticements.

 

“Employers need to be flexible”– ACCO’s Adam Colman

 

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, Adam Colman, managing director of ACCO Brands, said employers need to be flexible, adaptable and willing to listen to their people.

 

Colman, who recently began an upgrade of his HQ, said COVID was just one of the shocks that businesses had to cope with, alongside technological advancements and mental health challenges.

 

“Like a lot of other businesses people weren’t in the office that much, so we’re trying to make it more appealing to come here and beginning an upgrade of the internal area and activities like town hall meetings and weekly luncheons,” Colman told the AFR.

 

“As a business leader, you have to listen to what the team wants and hopefully you can provide that environment that makes them happy, efficient, productive, and wanting to contribute to the company culture as opposed to remove themselves from it,” he said.

 

About the survey

Office workers were surveyed online between 19-24 May 2023 by research agency YouGov. The interviewees comprised of a nationally representative sample of 1,004 Australian office workers aged 18 plus. Business leaders were surveyed between 23-24 May 2023 by YouGov. The sample was comprised of 213 Australian business decision makers in medium and large businesses with a physical office location.

 

For more on the survey go to https://www.winc.com.au/services/digital-resources/report-helping-ceos-e...