[Jjinbit] "Low-tenure employees must come to the office"... Remote Work 'New Employee Training' [Office Shift] (26)

Office to Home, Learning Methods Change with Space Shift
"Remote Work Reduces Mentoring Time and Growth-Helpful Feedback"
"Face-to-Face vs Remote, Content Matters More Than Method" Evaluations Also

Editor's Note[Jjinbit] is a shortened form of 'Jung Hyunjin's Business Trend' and 'Real Business Trend,' a segment that showcases trends in changes in work. The segment within Jjinbit called 'Office Shift' carefully examines the changes in offices triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to lay the foundation for exploring answers to work styles through experiments we have experienced together. It will be delivered to you every Saturday and Sunday morning. After 40 installments, it will also be available as a book.

Global consulting firms Deloitte and PwC made headlines earlier this month for conducting retraining for new employees hired during the COVID-19 period in the UK. The reason for retraining was that most training was conducted online at home for employees working remotely due to the pandemic, resulting in new employees not properly acquiring the skills needed for their jobs. Compared to previous generations, they were evaluated as inexperienced in work due to the lack of additional learning in the office.

The firms diagnosed that new employees faced difficulties in communication and face-to-face activities such as giving presentations or expressing opinions in meetings while attending university during the COVID-19 period. They decided to provide training related to presentations and meetings again for new employees and to assign managers as dedicated coaches for new hires for two years.

Deloitte stated in an interview with foreign media, "Most new employees have never experienced a corporate environment and are accustomed to working alone," adding, "This means that training on basic professional skills and work capabilities, which were not previously necessary, is now required."

As remote work expanded due to the spread of COVID-19, the issue of training new employees has emerged. Working from home instead of the office means that young workers just starting their social lives after leaving school miss out on the process of gaining work experience and skills by observing and listening in the field. Typically, new employees undergo a 'probationary or apprenticeship period' for a certain time after joining, but changes in office spaces have significantly altered the process by which they learn and acquire work skills.

◆ Wall Street's Concern Over 'Apprenticeship Culture'... "Come Out to Build Your Career"

Wall Street was the first to publicly acknowledge the biggest concern regarding new employee training due to the spread of remote work. The 'apprenticeship culture,' where students gain work experience by going to the workplace before graduation, observing actual work processes, and assisting, was Wall Street's method of nurturing and securing talent. However, remote work made maintaining this difficult. This is why Wall Street hastened employees' return to the office earlier than other industries.

According to Bloomberg and others, James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, emphasized at an event last year that employees working remotely must return to the office, describing the office as 'Careerland.' He explained that while working from home turns the home into just a 'Jobland,' coming to the office allows employees to observe colleagues working and develop skills that are difficult to acquire through laptop screens alone.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Similar situations were seen at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Jamie Dimon, Chairman of JP Morgan, has openly stated that younger employees should come to the office for training. He said, "Most professionals learn through an apprenticeship model. In the Zoom world, imitation is almost impossible." Goldman Sachs also emphasized the importance of office attendance for apprenticeship culture, noting that over 75% of its employees belong to the MZ generation.

The world's largest asset management firm, BlackRock, recently announced that starting this September, it will mandate four days a week of office attendance. BlackRock executives explained, "Career development happens when there are 'teaching moments' among team members," and for this, all employees need to gather in the office.

◆ "Mentoring is Better Face-to-Face" vs. "The Means Are Not What Matters"

So, does remote work negatively impact new employee training? Two recent research reports were released on this topic. After three years of remote work expansion due to COVID-19, the findings indicated that, in terms of training, face-to-face work is more advantageous than remote work.

According to a research report released last month by the nonprofit research organization WFH Research, which surveyed about 2,400 American adult workers capable of remote work, employees who go to the office spend about 40 minutes more per week mentoring other employees compared to remote workers. Besides mentoring, office workers also spend 25% more time on their career development activities than remote or telecommuting workers. Additionally, there was a difference of about 25 minutes per week in time spent on formal training programs.

Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University professor leading WFH Research, explained, "Mentoring is easier when done face-to-face," adding, "Remote mentoring is possible but requires careful effort." Because of this, hybrid work combining remote and office attendance allows employees to experience mentoring, innovation, and workplace culture during office hours, while focusing on high-concentration tasks in a quiet environment on remote days.

There is also criticism that feedback occurring during work processes hits new employees harder when working remotely.

Economist Natalia Emmanuel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and others investigated software engineers at a company listed among the Fortune 500. They found that engineers working in the same building with colleagues received 23% more feedback on computer code than those working with colleagues scattered across multiple buildings. However, after offices closed due to COVID-19, this gap decreased by 17 percentage points.

Especially for 'junior engineers' with less than 16 months of career who grow quickly through early feedback, feedback was reduced to half after remote work adoption, whereas senior engineers showed little difference. Economist Emmanuel reported in the study that this is why turnover rates among engineers under 30 who worked in the same building with colleagues increased significantly after remote work adoption. During the same period, turnover rates among engineers over 30 working in the same building decreased.

The researchers titled the report 'The Power Of Proximity to Coworkers' and asked, "Will you train for tomorrow or prioritize productivity for today?" The New York Times (NYT) highlighted this research, pointing out that "less mentoring is the 'hidden penalty' of flexibility."

In fact, in April 2021, when job platform JobKorea and Albamon surveyed 425 workers who had recently been hired as new employees within the past year about their feelings starting their first job remotely, 30.4% responded that they felt "confused about what and how to do things," the highest response rate. Although 26.4% were glad not to waste commuting time while working remotely, confusion was a stronger feeling. Responses such as "It took a long time to adapt to work" (26.0%) and "I was disappointed not to be able to learn by watching directly" (25.6%) ranked third and fourth.

However, some argue that while face-to-face training has clear advantages, ultimately, as with remote work, the content being delivered is more important than the method. Ellen Escher, a professor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and others wrote in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) last year that remote mentoring offers flexibility in scheduling and location, and the mentoring process is recorded, allowing review and sharing with others.

Escher and colleagues acknowledged that "there are fewer opportunities for spontaneous mentoring conversations and nonverbal nuances may be missed, requiring greater effort to build relationships and trust," but stated that remote mentoring can be effective if trust is built and rules regarding communication frequency and tools are well established and implemented.