With a new federal administration and a swiftly changing economic and political landscape, uncertainty is contributing to a range of workforce management concerns. From the Trump administration’s stance on immigration to an evolving climate for DEI work, business leaders are focused on trying to keep up in a fluid environment, according to the results of Littler’s 13th Annual Employer Survey.
Another top concern employers continue to grapple with is the still-forming post-pandemic workplace and the impact of return-to-office strategies on the workforce. The survey of 350 HR professionals, business leaders and in-house lawyers found that, as organizations call workers back to the office, they are witnessing a rise in requests for accommodations to remain remote. Handling such requests is falling to HR, who, experts say, need to be prepared with a solid strategy to reduce legal risk and potential damage to employee morale.
Return-to-office has become an increasing challenge for HR leaders in the past few years, who are often tasked with executing an order from executives for more in-person work, while contending with resistance from employees.
For many organizations, according to the Littler survey, that work is running up against an influx of remote work accommodations requests.
Forty-eight percent of the leaders surveyed whose organizations have positions that can be performed remotely have increased the amount of time workers spend in the office over the last year, or they are considering doing so, the survey found. For employers with hybrid arrangements, nearly one-third have upped the requirement for in-person work, and 12% are eyeing that shift.
When such changes were implemented, Littler found, 56% of organizations saw more requests for remote work accommodations. Such requests are largely being driven by mental health issues: Seventy percent of employers said they have seen an uptick in remote work accommodations requests related to mental health conditions in the last year.
The requests are exacerbating HR stress, which is already at a boiling point: Littler found that 50% of survey respondents are concerned about potential lawsuits over workplace accommodation issues in the coming year.
Start with a solid strategy
How can HR navigate this increasingly complex landscape and reduce risk?
Trevor Hardy, shareholder at Littler, says it’s critical for organizations, guided by HR, to have a strong basis for asking workers to report for in-person work—and that business and people leaders understand this rationale in order to communicate it effectively to workers.
Simply connecting return-to-office with goals for enhanced “collaboration and office camaraderie” isn’t effective enough, he says. Instead, identify all essential job functions that necessitate on-site work, and consider how remote work could inhibit specific employee goals that are tied to business, customer and client needs.
Aligning with executives to understand the business objectives underlying the need for less remote work and to formulate clear communications around the approach, he says, “positions HR professionals to address employee questions around a shift in the way some employees have performed their jobs in recent years. Doing this from the start can eliminate uncertainty around return-to-office expectations.”
Lean into collaboration and communication
When remote work accommodations requests do occur, Hardy says, they should be evaluated on an individual level, with a focus on identifying a “strong basis” for the person to work on-site. If remote work is not feasible, Hardy advises HR to engage with both the employee and potentially their healthcare provider in “good-faith efforts” to understand their medical conditions.
“This helps employers identify creative solutions that may eliminate the need for remote work while building a stronger employer-employee relationship,” he says.
The process should be “robust” and “interactive.” If it’s rushed, Hardy says, “employers may miss out on new and creative ways to accommodate employees while allowing the business to meet its operational needs.”
Often, employees simply want to know that leaders hear them and are seriously considering their perspective. Ensuring a collaborative evaluation process can present HR a good opportunity, Hardy says, to strengthen the relationship between the employee and the organization.
At the same time, to effectively address the rise in remote work accommodations requests, HR must lean into its own relationships with other functions, particularly legal. That’s a “critical” collaboration point to ensure the company “formulates consistent messaging and approaches to the complexities posed by individual accommodation requests,” Hardy says.
“No accommodation request is exactly like another,” he says. “So working together on the front end to think through consistent application of the company’s goals will alleviate concerns later and allow HR to remain nimble in response to accommodation requests.”
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