Want loyalty and to get people back in the office? Don’t be D!ck!

After years of working away from the office, many of us may prefer to continue working from home in our yoga pants with our dog or cat by our side. Hybrid working is now the norm, but there’s a strong desire among business decision-makers (BDMs) to get people back into the office.

Data from the Microsoft Work Trend Index research shows that 82% of BDMs say getting back to the office is needed. But what is a compelling reason to come into the office? When asked, employees had a resounding answer: social time with coworkers and a place that’s enjoyable to be.

In this blog, we’ll explore why we need to think differently about workplaces, what we can do and what will entice people back to work and get them to stay. 

Workplace loyalty is in crisis

The traditional links many people had with their workplaces have altered fundamentally with the advent of widespread remote working. There used to be a clear psychological contract between employees and employers built on what they believe they owe each other and are owed in return.

New patterns of work have undoubtedly disrupted this and changed the traditional bond between employers and employees. Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder when it comes to the workplace. In fact, it can have the opposite effect, leading to distance and even dislocation. Sadly, workplace loyalty is becoming a thing of the past.

Yet some employers are trying to reverse this by demanding their people be present; others are using software to monitor their people’s performance when they work from home. None of these builds trust, and none solve the issues. It’s my opinion that you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. WFH, in some form, is here to stay, so leaders must work out ways to inspire people to come in if they can in this new landscape.

Thankfully, there are plenty of effective strategies that can be put in place to build relationships and create places where people want to be.

You can’t persuade people with trinkets

There’s a storyline in the excellent Channel 4 comedy Big Boys in which one of the main protagonists, a student journalist, gets his dream work experience placement in a ‘lad’s mag’.

The magazine’s offices are an exaggerated version of the type of workplace you might have seen in the creative industries of the noughties and still see today in some places today. There are all the usual stereotypes. Table football, bean bags and a drinks fridge shaped like a VW Camper Van. The idea being that if you want to foster a motivated workforce and a culture of creativity, you have to reward people.

Yet despite all these expensive ‘benefits’, the people who work on the show’s fictional magazine, Nice One Mate, are miserable. The reason? Their boss is a massive bell-end.

The moral of this story is simple. You can’t persuade people to stay in a crappy culture with trinkets. You can give them all the fancy trappings you like, but if you do not build a human bond with them (and if you are a dick), there will be no engagement, limited productivity, less creativity, and no loyalty. No one benefits.

We humans are social creatures; being nice, trustworthy and taking a genuine interest matters a lot.

It would be naive to think that wages are not a primary concern

Way back in the sixties, Douglas McGregor, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, came up with a theory that managers can be divided into two camps depending on their assumptions about employees.

One type of manager believes that people are naturally averse to work, and so will mainly be motivated by money. The other type of manager believes that people want to work and that if they earn enough to take care of their needs, other factors matter more. This mirrors Maslow’s hierarchy of needs whereby once a person’s basic needs are met, they prioritise higher-order motivations such as belonging, self-esteem and purpose.

The reality lies somewhere in the middle. McGregor’s theory probably held more weight sixty years ago when people tended to stay in careers for life and jobs were more stable. Today, the world of work is very different. Job hopping is common, as is contract working, freelancing, remote working, and the gig economy.

Additionally, the rising cost of living and housing shortages mean it would be naive to think that wages are not a primary concern for most employees. Yet other factors still play a significant role in building loyalty.

A sense of purpose, trust and meaning matters

A sense of purpose, for example, is one of the key factors in determining levels of happiness. Research shows us that if people think what they do matters, they are more likely to stick at a job and go above and beyond. Studies have also found that trust between leaders and their teams and doing meaningful work both boost engagement, satisfaction, and commitment. Autonomy and responsibility are also motivating factors.

None of these involve ping pong tables, one-off rewards, pizza on a Friday or cash bonuses. Instead, they are all elements of workplace culture. Establishing them takes time and effort, but it is an investment that pays off for everyone.

Why? Because this stuff not only improves productivity and wellbeing, but it also builds loyalty. And workplace loyalty is in crisis at the moment. There's an undeniable sense that the conventional relationship between employers and employees is changing and, in some cases, is coming apart.

Thankfully, there are plenty of effective strategies that can be put in place to build relationships and trust and to inspire people to come to work to  

Ultimately, most people enter the workforce because they need to earn money to live. No one works for free. But the situation is much more nuanced once the salary side of the contract is fixed and agreed. After that, people need interaction and a higher sense of purpose; this can be gained by a range of factors, and good leaders understand what these are.

If you’d like support to help get motivation and loyalty into your team, get in touch, and we’ll be more than happy to provide training and/or a programme to help you. Simply email doug@laughology.co.uk, and he’ll talk you through your options.

Laughology’s CEO, Stephanie Davies, is one of the UK’s leading voices in happiness and engagement in organisations. She has an unsurpassed reputation for designing and delivering interventions for top-performing teams across a range of sectors and has developed Laughology into the nation’s most talked-about training and development provider.  She also has the smallest little fingers of any human being ever and can often be seen walking a cat on a lead in the Surrey village where she lives.