Consumer Products & Retail Leader | FMCG Geek | RETHINK RETAIL Top Expert | Client Partner | #WomeninSTEM #GenderParity #Talent Champion | LEAD Network Sponsor | MBA MCIM DipM BSc(Hons) 🫶Proud Mum of The Firecracker🫶
“Why does the American Office Worker Lag Behind European Colleagues in Returning to the Office?”. We have identically sized land masses so I’ve been wondering why the US is dragging its #RTO feet and has seen a significant rise in office vacancy rates whereas European office re-entry rates are higher, exceeding 80% in cities like London, Paris, Madrid, and Amsterdam. 🇺🇸 A Rubbish Commute? - In the USA, longer commutes, inconvenient transport systems and poor quality public transport make remote work a more attractive option. In contrast, European cities typically have more reliable and efficient public transportation, making commuting less burdensome. 🇺🇸 Bye Bye Presenteeism? - the USA has been late to the remote and hybrid party and during the pandemic learned to love working in slippers and slobbies. In Europe, it has long been part of the working mix coupled with a stronger emphasis on in-person collaboration. 🇺🇸 Labour Market? - [relatively] low unemployment rates gives employees more leverage to negotiate flexible working conditions or vote with their (slippered) feet. 🇺🇸 Sympathetic Infrastructure? - European cities generally have better public transportation, better urban planning, and better workplace amenities that make the office experience better. A number of IBM offices across EMEA have been renovated and are great places to work (with London being the perfect example). 🇺🇸 Don’t Mention Vacation Days - my American colleagues are of the opinion, I’m sure, that we Europeans are on holiday for at least half of the year. In the US, with fewer vacation days, maybe remote-work brings a semblance of work-life balance? What do you think? Karl Haller, Dee Waddell, Joe Dittmar, Connie McDonald, Alexandra Gordon, Monica Proothi, Jonathan Wright, Jennifer Kested, Alexandra Leppert, Sara Kronon, Jerry Edmunds, Brooke Einspanier, Tess Rock, Jane Cheung, Paul Rakowski Given that an average person might spend around 12.8% of their life working (if they work full-time from age 22 to 65 and live to 80 years old) (double that for Management Consultants obvs lol), RTO has notable impacts on our Consumer Products, Hospitality and Retail industry including increased online shopping and so demand for ecommerce platforms and home delivery, changes in the types of products consumers are buying (more slippers, less ties), a move towards smaller, more strategically located stores, often in The Burbs and more agile supply chain strategies to meet fluctuating demands. In London, I’ve noticed that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is #TheNewFriday. The much much much overused New Normal needs to address the demands of a hybrid workforce and the changing consumer. #ReturnToOffice #WorkplaceCulture #RemoteWork #HybridWork #EmployeeExperience #OfficeTrends #WorkLifeBalance #IBMRetail #IBMConsumer #FMCG #ConsumerGoods #Retail #RethinkRetail #RethinkRetailTopExpert RETHINK Retail
“You show up, and then nobody else from your team is there, and then you’re on back-to-back Zoom meetings, which you could’ve done from home.” Sound familar? This is the state of #HybridWork for many as we pay the #CoordinationTax of trying to align #WFO and #WFH days with our colleagues and teams. A big challenge is that while 40% of companies have hybrid work policies, only 8% specify which days to be where. I still think The J.M. Smucker Co. has come up with the best solution, setting — and calendering well in advance — specific #MarketWeeks where everyone must be on-site and allowing everyone to work remotely other times.
I definitely think a lot of this rings true. At the heart of it for me it’s efficiency and purpose. I’m far more efficient in many aspects of my life at home. On the purpose side, if businesses aren’t making an effort to establish a purpose for RTO, I, the person they’ve trained to find reason and logic, have a hard time going into an office with no culture or purpose.
"Low unemployment rates gives employees more leverage to negotiate flexible working conditions".
Retail Industry Leader at IBM Consulting, NRF Board Member, Business Transformation and Growth Leader, Distinguished Industry Leader
2moElaine Parr, you are going to get my RTO pov first. I think you covered the reasons I have encountered with clients and coworkers over the last 2 years, post lock down. Not that there is ever a broad brush to paint any problem, so it truly is a little of each depending on the individual. The sad part is the implications it has on the workforce now. While remote work saw an enormous increase in productivity as commute times were converted to productive work and quality of life, I am starting to notice a skill gap appearing as team members desire to take on stretch roles, but do not have the in person collaboration where they would have acquired the people leadership skills to be successful in expanded roles. If you are an individual contributor, it is not as big of a problem, but if you aspire to lead others you really need to be around people picking up skills and experiences from others outside of choreographed meeting agendas. You just can't achieve that via Zoom or Teams.