Amazon’s RTO memo offers lessons in setting expectations

(Editor’s note: We reached out to Amazon for comment on this story and have not heard back as of publishing time.)

Earlier this week, e-commerce giant Amazon announced it would require corporate employees back in the office five days a week beginning in January.  CEO Andy Jassy shared the announcement in a memo that rooted the decision in words about corporate culture, claiming a return to the office (RTO) was necessary to spur the collaboration needed to keep Amazon moving along as the “world’s largest startup”. He concluded by stressing that an RTO will enhance both employee culture and Amazon customer experience:

Having the right culture at Amazon is something I don’t take for granted. I continue to believe that we are all here because we want to make a difference in customers’ lives, invent on their behalf, and move quickly to solve their problems. I’m optimistic that these changes will better help us accomplish these goals while strengthening our culture and the effectiveness of our teams.

The RTO mandates from Amazon and many other companies since the pandemic often cite culture, collaboration, or employee-centric terminology to validate the move. But beneath the surface of an RTO announcement that functions to set up employees, the nuances of operational communications can help leaders and communicators facilitate the smoothest possible transition back to office life.

Acknowledging disagreement 

Even when the intentions of the move are positive, not everyone is going to be happy about a return to the office. Amazon employees were no exception, with many taking to social media to vocalize their frustrations. Jassy addresses this in his memo and explains that the months-long lead time was intended to give employees a window to plan.

We understand that some of our teammates may have set up their personal lives in such a way that returning to the office consistently five days per week will require some adjustments. To help ensure a smooth transition, we’re going to make this new expectation active on January 2, 2025. Global Real Estate and Facilities (GREF) is working on a plan to accommodate desk arrangements mentioned above and will communicate the details as they are finalized.

At Ragan’s Internal Communications Conference earlier this year, Zurich North America VP of Internal Communications Nicole Neal shared her own experience with an RTO, emphasizing how employee experience and feedback mechanisms sit at the top of the comms priority list.

Neal also emphasized the need for clarity and consistency in leadership comms during an RTO process, including:

• Continuously updating a single-source site like your intranet, changing language from referring to ‘new’ ways of working to simplifying how you work.
• Championing clarity and consistency as foundational principles of leadership comms.
• Educating and enabling managers to carry the message.
• Message orchestration and cascading.

Employees aren’t going to be happy with every decision a leader makes. That’s the reality of working life. But when communicated with employee experience in mind and with the good of the company and its culture at the heart of the message, your RTO messaging will withstand criticism.

Crafting a culture charter 

Getting the balance between business needs and employee needs with RTO is a process that takes time and deep consideration. Jassy admits as much in the statement when he thanks his staff for their willingness to adapt to the January 2, 2025 timeline to return to the office.

Rooting decisions in culture is a must. That’s why codifying these norms in a “culture charter” can help. Earlier this year, we spoke with Mark Mohammadpour, founder and CEO at Chasing the Sun, about how to design an expectations and culture charter ahead of a return to the office. Some of the major points he made include:

• Make your commitments to the team in the document clear. “The core document includes our commitments as a team,” he explained. “Things like ‘why do we come into the office and for what purpose’, ‘how vacation is protected’, ‘what are your core hours, meetings, streamlined communications channels’, and ‘how do you ensure you understand your priorities’?”
• Fit RTO into the scope of your culture charter. Mohammadpour recalls creating a charter with a client that outlined RTO expectations. “It met several purposes,” he said. “It had specific areas and times in which people would come together and be able to help ideate challenges in person and host in-person client conversations. It also gave people the flexibility on specific days they knew to be able to block out time to do heads-down work.”
• Define the “why”. The reason behind a RTO decision should be at the center of the culture charter, and consistnetly reinforced in all relevant comms. This helps managers navigate through the stressful time and can even boost employee retention when presented as an opportunity for employee growth.

Jassy’s statement has plenty of the “why” laced throughout, and does provide pathways for employee accommodation. Leaning on the culture of innovation and speed that Amazon is famous for stands to be a big part of its RTO comms push.

Tapping managers for a smoother  RTO

Managers are the closest touch point to decision-makers in a company. Notably, Jassy mentioned he aims to increase the number of reports each manager oversees by 15%, claiming fewer managers will help streamline processes.

Ragan spoke with a former comms employee at Amazon who described the company’s robust employee feedback mechanisms for managers. Each day, an employee is asked a prompt that can range from how their mental health is holding up to the biggest challenges they’re facing at work.

“These questions give qualitative data back to managers and help them optimize how they handle running and communicating with their reports,” the former employee said.

With an increased number of reports, it’s worth considering whether Amazon managers will be able to keep close connections with their reports. During any RTO period, having open lines of communication for managers to translate information about policies down from the top and share feedback up from the lower ranks is critically important.

In a talk last year with Ragan, Amazon vice president of internal comms Leslie Letts touted the company’s “A to Z” app to help managers communicate better and boost employee experience.

Amazon isn’t the first company to return to its physical offices, and it’s not going to be the last. But as communicators, we must continue to read closely l and learn when one of the most influential companies in the world calls employees back to their desks and communicates about it for the world to see.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.