How to Encourage Your Teams Back to the Office

There’s been a lot of talk about the return to the office recently, and whilst it’s a controversial move (to say the least), there are tried and tested ways to succeed.

So, whether you want to bring everyone back full time, or just shift your hybrid model towards more “in office” time, our Editor – Megan Jones – puts the spotlight on what’s really working right now, with expert advice from Afshan Kinder, Alex McConville, Emma Wilson, Gareth Brophy, and Pier Ragone.

Many Are Rethinking Their Office Requirements Right Now

Office requirements are very much in flux right now – with research from Calabrio highlighting a rethink across all options.

What’s most interesting here is how hybrid models are taking somewhat of a dip, whilst ‘fully remote’ and ‘on-site 5 days per week’ requirements are showing signs of growth:

So, if you are championing more in office time, how do you make it a reality – without your best agents heading for the door?

Make It as Easy as Possible for Agents to Come Into the Office

One of the first things to get right in your push to office-based working is to remove as many barriers as possible, to get ahead of any potential resistance and pushback.

Accessibility is a big one here! Why would anyone want to swap working from home for an hour-long commute in rush-hour traffic, only to struggle to park their car, and find that they don’t even have a desk to work at? If you don’t get these things right, you’re just setting everyone up to fail.

“Expecting agents to travel to a contact centre in the middle of nowhere with no amenities is not going to create happy employees.

If you want people to come in, make sure there’s parking, make sure it’s accessible, and make sure there are good transport links.” – Alex McConville, Contact Centre Consultant and author of ‘Diary of a Call Centre Manager’

We’ve even seen brands like Ocado successfully work with their local council to secure free parking for their employees in the city centre.

Where realistically possible, you should also consider scheduling shift start and finish times that miss the rush-hour traffic. That way, it’s always quicker and easier for agents to come into the office and there’s no “urgh, it took me an hour to get here” watercooler talk to worry about.

Make it easy for everyone to claim a desk too and you’ll be off to a strong start.

Food Can Be a Real “Make or Break” for People Too

Food can be seen as a faff and a financial burden when coming into the office – especially for people who are used to having the convenience and choice of being at home. So, make options affordable and accessible.

From inviting local food trucks to come to the office to overhauling your canteen, getting your food and lunch offerings right can make a big difference.

“We ran an employee survey that highlighted a wanting for something warm to eat at lunchtime, so we now have a brand-new restaurant style offering that not only caters for cold AND warm options, but is subsidised to allow colleagues to have a cheaper healthier meal with colleagues in a really inviting welcoming space.” – Emma Wilson, Operations Manager – Optics at Specsavers

You could even offer free meals (where budget allows) to help sweeten the deal for those in-office days.

“To help ease the financial burden of coming into the office, we offer our agents a free breakfast. We also have a fridge full of pre-packed sandwiches and wraps, so that when they are coming in, there’s not an additional financial burden and stress for them. It just makes it a bit easier all round.” – Gareth Brophy, Vice President of Customer Experience and Back Office Capabilities at The DDC Group

And it’s not just about food. It’s about everything else on offer too! Some contact centres are really upping their game to give agents lots of good reasons to spend time on site.

Make Sure Time in the Office Is Truly Purposeful

Beyond this, you really need to make sure that your people feel valued coming into the office and the time there is truly engaging and well spent – especially if you are making the shift from fully remote to 2–3 days on site.

“I think people will come back to the office if they see value in doing so. If an agent shows up, they’re the only person there, and they just put their headset on as if they were at home, they’ll quickly think “what’s the point?”.

So, it really is about having designated days and activities where you’re teambuilding, and really bringing to life the things that you can’t do at home.

Once you get some positive momentum behind you, your people will feel it’s worthwhile and be more motivated to make the commute more regularly.” – Afshan Kinder, Thought Leader and co-author of three books – including ‘Call Centers for Dummies’

Don’t forget to coordinate with other functions too, so any cross-departmental conversations can happen face-to-face as well.

“We’ve looked at our office-based rota from a management team point of view as well. So, on those days when we’re getting all the agents in, we’re also asking the HR and IT teams to come in too, so any of those conversations can happen face to face – and agents don’t just end up dialling into a video call like they could from home.” – Gareth Brophy

Sell the Wellbeing Benefits When More of a Push Is Necessary

Unfortunately, if your team are reluctant to spend more time in the office, but you still want to make strides towards this, you will need to push a bit harder.

Aligning the move with your wellbeing strategy is one approach that can help make your point and soften the blow.

So put self-care and wellbeing front and centre of your conversations. After all, working from home and taking challenging customer calls in isolation takes its toll on everyone – in one way or another.

“When everyone’s working from home taking call after call from stressed-out customers, it can really take its toll.

This is where it can really help to lean into the wellbeing conversation to draw people back to the office, with an emphasis on self-care and long-term mental health.

When you can frame it as an “invitation” back to the office focused around better people connection, better mental health – even just for the benefits of getting up and out of the house in the morning – you have a much stronger message to work with.” – Pier Ragone, Principal Consultant, CX Operations & Strategy

New Recruits Offer a Fresh Opportunity to Set the Course for the Future

There’s also lots of opportunity with new recruits, as this can be a fresh start on resetting standards and expectations, which will ultimately filter out across the contact centre.

For example, even in a hybrid model, it can really help to ask new recruits to work office-only for the first six months of their tenure. Just as we saw at Leeds Building Society Contact Centre, this really helps them to build relationships with their peers and get into good habits of spending regular time in the office.

In the long run, this can swing the balance in your favour – even when they have the freedom to work hybrid at the end of their probation period.

If you are looking for advice on improving your recruitment, read our article: 10 Ways to Attract Fresh Talent Into Your Contact Centre

Great Culture and Benefits Can Help Agents Ride the Wave of the Change – Even If You Pull the Plug on Remote Working

That being said, you can just “go big” and hope for the best. In some cases, particularly where there’s a strong culture in place, this can be a relative success.

We’ve already heard of one contact centre that boldly implemented a full 5-day-a-week return to the office in autumn 2024.

Quite literally by taking the plunge and riding it out! And whilst they did lose a handful of employees, the vast majority adjusted to the new office requirements due to the strength of the brand, culture, pay and perks.

Have You Successfully Brought Your Agents Back to the Office?

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With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts for this article:

• Afshan Kinder, Thought Leader and co-author of three books – including ‘Call Centers for Dummies’
• Alex McConville, Contact Centre Consultant and author of ‘Diary of a Call Centre Manager’
• Emma Wilson, Operations Manager – Optics at Specsavers
• Gareth Brophy, Vice President of Customer Experience and Back Office Capabilities at The DDC Group
• Pier Ragone, Principal Consultant, CX Operations & Strategy

If you want to find out more great advice to improve contact centre operations (whether in office, remote of hybrid), then read these articles next:

• Get Your Hybrid Strategy Working Again
• How to Manage Big Changes Well in the Contact Centre
• How to Foster Strong Relationships Across Multiple Sites

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman