PODCAST: Why office mandates can be a productivity killer

Companies’ return-to-office mandates have been laid out for debate in a JLL podcast, with workplace strategists suggesting that inconsistent and unscientific measurements of productivity are leading to failed policies.

While more people in the office is often seen as helpful for cohesion and collaboration, it doesn’t necessarily equate to productivity, said Nathan Sri, executive director in workplace experience at JLL.

“The narrative (among team leaders) is productivity with the assumption you get that when you have more people in the office. They talk about team cohesion and culture because that's a palatable framing of the concept, but it is not the same thing,” Sri said.

“We’ve seen a lot of organisations opt for a highly collaborative office design that has become stale because we know that not everyone is collaborating 100% of their day. There’s got to be better understanding about when teams are coming in, the reasons they're coming in and what the predominant work types are. Then you should be creating an environment around that,” Sri added.

Craig Knight, doctor of workplace psychology at UK-based Identity Realisation had criticism for companies that impose rather than collaborate on work-from-office mandates.

“When you mandate you destroy team spirit, you destroy productivity. What we need to say is, ‘We need this number of people in the office this many days a week and we need to achieve these goals. Team, how do we do it?’. The team decides how to reach those goals and the managers facilitate that. That works incredibly well.”

Incentivising staff to come into the office as a sole tactic won’t work, he added.

“Management will say, ‘We have provided you with scooters, we have provided you with sandpits to play in, we have provided you with free beer on a Friday afternoon’ and staff will respond, ‘Well, that’s really kind, but it would be nice if we can make up our own minds’ and so what you have is an unintentional infantilisation of the workforce.”

Addressing the connotations attached to ‘mandate’, Tim O’Connor, head of leasing – Australia, JLL, said: “It just feels like mandating is either you work completely flexibly, or you’re chained to your desk, and I just don't think that's reality.

“As an organisation we had flexible work policies well before Covid happened. You would have a conversation with your manager about what you needed, and those policies continue now. But where I thought we went to during Covid was the individual felt they had this absolute right irrespective of the organisation that was paying them to decide where they were going to work and how they were going to work every single day and curse whomever wanted to challenge them.

“For positive culture within an organisation instead of an either-or decision, there needs to be a sense of achieving a common goal,” O’Connor said on the podcast.

A longer Covid lockdown means remote work has become an ‘ingrained habit’, which organisations are increasingly addressing with mandates, says Kate Pilgrim, joint head of tenant representation – Victoria, JLL, and managing director of JLL’s Victoria operations.

However, extended lockdowns have also led to a palpable craving for social interaction. JLL’s Melbourne office is supporting this with activations that have input from employees, leadership and a concierge team.

“People are talking about the cost of living, including the cost of commuting to work. We’re providing complimentary coffee from our café, plus Pilates, yoga and HIIT classes, and so it really starts to add up for people to come into the office from a cost perspective,” Pilgrim said.

Hear more about the psychology and practicalities of office mandates by downloading this episode of the Perspectives podcast.