New Grads: WFH or RTO?

My daughter just got her first “big girl job” (her words), and the job is a hybrid position. Her new employer has a plan for how to engage brand new college grads as hybrid or remote employees.

* She is spending 2 weeks on site in training, learning the job and the systems, tools, and processes necessary to do the job.
* They shipped her equipment (computer, monitors, docking station, keyboard, mouse) the week before her training.
* They planned her training around their quarterly town hall meeting to meet her co-workers and get a feel for the culture.
* Part of her training is actually WFH, so she can DO the job using the equipment they provided, making sure everything works while she’s still “in training”.
* The training is with her immediate supervisor, in person, so they can get to know one another.

I’m sure they didn’t get it perfect the first time they tried it, but they created a plan, so that after the first few hybrid/remote employees got started they could review the plan and see what worked and what didn’t.

In the military, they call this an “AAR”, or After Action Report. Every AAR is different, but in general, leadership asks for three things that went right and we want to repeat and three things that went wrong that we have to fix. That’s a guideline, sometimes there are 13 things that sucked.

The AAR or any type of post-mortem on any project is MUCH easier when you’ve been through a rigorous planning exercise.

Why? Because you have THOUGHT through what you THINK will happen. In the AAR, you get to look at what ACTUALLY happened compared to your plan.

That’s where you actually see where you were right and where you were wrong.

As Patrick noted, hybrid isn’t going anywhere, so all employers need to plan for it. Part of that planning process is making sure the tech is in place so your hybrid employees can have a great experience when they work from home AND when they work from the office.

What’s your plan?