Connection matters a lot. Now more than ever. If you work in an organization, how we welcome our people back to the office may be the most important thing you and your leadership team do this year. This article highlights steps you can take to help get it right.

How we engage employees during stressful times is an opportunity to cultivate loyalty. Few would argue against this point. Showing compassion as organizations transition back to in-person or hybrid working arrangements will present unique challenges. Patience, flexibility, and clear pathways towards the desired outcome will help employees remain healthy and productive.

In contrast, what might not work is the approach outlined recently by Elon Musk described in a recent NPR article where it was reported, “. . . return to the office 40 hours a week — or quit.” While it is a clearly stated position, I’m not sure how it inspires others to excellence or builds loyalty to Tesla. We will all see for ourselves in the coming weeks and months.

The employee reality

Think about this. 2 years ago, a large population of workers were told to work from home. Many didn’t have the right situation to make it work without a lot of friction. Somehow we managed. Some didn’t have the equipment, child care, or the means to support working from home at all. The world changed overnight and it was up to us to find a way to survive. Over time, most of us learned how. Some of us even began to like it. Now we are invited back to the office. Hmmm.

Delivering the ‘big welcome’

Today, many of us are invited (or told) to return to the office. Leaders. Realize this is the best opportunity we have ever had to demonstrate how much we missed seeing our people and establishing the culture we want to ignite across the organization. Make your Welcome BIG. Something that employees deserve and will remember.

Exemplary leadership is shown in times like these. People are watching closely. RTO could (and should) be an exciting time full of deep memories and happy moments. Let’s not blow it. Instead, let’s create a shared experience for our people they will think about with joy!

10 steps to help employees feel the big welcome

While these steps will need to vary to fit your situation and desired outcome, please consider each one and its rationale as you design and execute your RTO. Afterward, let me know how it helped.

Step 1: Assemble your core team

You won’t need a big team, but you will need one committed to the cause of making others feel belonging. Find a few of your close colleagues who feel as you do and a leader with authority. This will be your core group for the event (3–5 is ideal).

Next, craft a message inviting those who would like to help and have your positional leader send it to those affiliated with your site along with your contact information. This is how you will quickly grow your team.

Establish a goal to attract 5% of your target audience to help. For example, if you have 300 employees, you want to have 15 employees ready to help in some capacity in the planning and especially during the event itself. You can do it with fewer people, but there is a reason why more is better to allow for unexpected conflicts that will likely reduce your numbers as RTO day approaches.

Step 2: Assess resources

With your core team, assess what resources you have available so you can define an experience that fits within your parameters. How much budget will you have and what space might be available to your team and the employees to assemble? Select the most welcoming environment for your people.

Step 3: Build your event

The program should be simple to plan and execute and easy as possible for employees to join the experience. This is about them. Keep that tenet front and center and however it turns out, your people will feel it.

• Time: Decide if you will have 1 activity, or multiple activities, all on the same day or over a period of days.

• Budget: Be sure you have the approval to spend. If there is no official budget, ask those with the biggest titles to pitch in. I bet they will.

• Location: Ideally, reserve a common space at your location that is open and made for gatherings.

• Food and beverages: Community is formed around sharing meals together. Ensure there is diversity to ensure those with allergies, religious, and dietary requirements can enjoy something your team makes available.

• Objectives: How many employees are you targeting to reach and what other company resources might be offered to them during the activity. Thinking about “what’s next” for them can be introduced during the RTO.

• Name it: You might want to name the event something special and brand it with shirts, balloons, pens, water bottles, stickers, or other swag. This will depend largely on your budget. Do what makes sense.

• Music: Find a way to add music in the background. It can provide a deeper layer of ambiance. Let someone on your team who knows music make the appropriate selections. There is always someone who loves this job.

• Photography/Video: capture candid shots to record the event. You will want them later.

Step 4: Receive leadership support

Preparing a well-defined program and objective that is easy to explain to leadership will likely be welcomed and highly desirable because your team will be seen as helping the organization.

Step 5: Determine team capacity

• What: We need to determine how many individuals will be contributing and how much time they have to contribute. Ask each person what they are able to contribute and in what time frames. If your team is small enough you could do this in a conversation. If it is too big, a survey, e-mail, or poll could be used to gather the team capacity quickly and in a similar format. You can use this to build a schedule.

• Importance: One-third of the entire value being delivered to the organization will come from the energy generated by the organizers. These are the change bringers, community builders, and people advocates. Treat them with the greatest respect and accept whatever help they offer. Find them the right place to contribute and watch how they exceed your expectations. Allow for individuals to help you prior to and during the event. Some may not be able to attend the RTO themselves but still can make material contributions in some way.

Step 6: Market your event

• Have a plan: Plan out your communications early and follow them. You should have communications that inform, encourage, and invite leading up to the event.

• Communications: You will need at least 3 weeks before your event to get the word out depending on its size and scope. Communication may come in the form of e-mail, invites, posting in your community space, postcards, and/or even physical posters. Focus on where 80% of your people are first. Then, if you have time reach for the other 20%.

• Digital marketing: If your people are on a particular platform, create something unique enough to draw attention, but in a way that fits with your organization’s brand.

• Images: If you have real people you can feature in your marketing that is ideal. There are tools such as canva and snappa that you can leverage to help create something branded, yet unique.

• Website: Be sure to leverage the organization's site (if you can) to have a centralized place to begin sharing what your RTO event(s) will be so they can find the details well before the date arrives.

• Invitations: Send them early and follow up with those who have not responded. We want to ensure that everyone feels welcomed and invited. One of the worse things that could happen is if your team spends effort on an RTO activity that no one knew about or didn’t feel it was for them. The extra effort will pay off.

Step 7: Execute

Now it is time to activate your plan and align your team for execution. Everyone has a role. All roles are important. Core leaders orchestrate. The extended team does their part.

Step 8: Make a memory

Work to generate and multiply the positive energy. Your work is to establish a positive feeling about coming to the office. The feeling people have the first time they return will become a memory they won’t soon forget. Smile. Laugh. Enjoy. Most importantly, no employee is to be left alone. Look to connect personally and help them to connect to others close by. Keep the energy high and positive.

Your RTO event may be their first memory of what your organization is all about.

Step 9: Record results

If we don’t record it, the memory will fade and it will be as if it never happened. Don’t let your hard work go unremembered. If not for you, then for those who follow you.

Ensure you have team members assigned to help record your results. Take people counts, ask your people open-ended questions, take a survey, ask for their ideas, gather testimonials, and maybe even have prizes for the most actionable contributions.

Step 10: Share testimonials

As the RTO time passes, it is time to begin sharing the images, testimonials, and survey results in digital or physical formats that make sense. These could be on your website or images you print and post.

Your RTO is now history and a story you and others can tell. It may be their first memory of what your organization is all about for participants. Our efforts just ensured it was a good one.

Last remarks

Realize this is only the beginning. We only get a chance to start, but once. It is not lost on me that the community will need to dig deeper with each employee to discover how they prefer to connect and build new opportunities for them to feel at home. With consistent leadership and volunteer support, employee needs can be met, lives changed, and loyalty cultivated.

Now is not the time to squeeze more out of our employees. Instead, it is the time for deep listening and caring; followed by an invitation to build a better future.