This should have been the trend in the first place, instead of one-size fits all RTO. In the article from LinkedIn I commented on, which I include below this article, high performers are cited as the workers who should get work from home options.
High performing workers are typically early starters that get ahead of their work, tend to be experts in their area and knowledge sharers in the company, and do two to four times the work required in a day versus other employees. It’s in their DNA, and companies must learn to reward those who do stellar work at a high level with a full-time WFH option. What I hear from clients and family members who are high performers is that companies still feel the need to control them and bring them into the office. Even if it is only a hybrid work schedule, you distract them with all the loud chit chat and interruptions, and it threatens their productivity and your bottom line.
High performers resent this control, and it’s the main reason many of my clients leave their employers. They purposely target WFH jobs, or those with very small hybrid requirements (few days a month). They will endure a long job search to get a WFH job, take a brain trust of company info with them, and leave you in a crisis of experience with that two-week notice.
Corporate America, you can ill afford to lose these people!!! Pay them appropriately and don’t punish them with less pay because they work from home. Allow them the WFH benefit with the provision that their high performance and work quality continues. Lastly, realize that you do not need to “control” every worker by having them in your office. Many of these workers are individual contributors, and don’t need all the interaction and distraction an office delivers.
Your typical high performer has an extensive outside group of friends (and doesn’t “need” in-office interactions), is often substantially involved in their religious organization or other volunteer/philanthropic groups, and, has a spouse/significant other they interact with at home during the day. Your RTO/in-office requirement is decreasing their productivity, and quite frankly, infuriating them.
Have three work environment options for your employees, depending upon their abilities and needs, and specific work category (manufacturing, back-office operations like Accounting and HR, sales personnel, etc.) including in-office, hybrid, and work from home. Stop treating everyone the same and see each employee group, and your bottom line, thrive!