After observing the Hamburg entrepreneur Michael Otto, the corporate culture suffers in the office without personal cooperation.
“The employees must be given that an exchange in presence is necessary for certain topics to remain informed,” said Otto in an interview with the German Press Agency in Hamburg. “And that the corporate culture also suffers without personal cooperation.”
Asked how employees can be convinced of a return from the home office to the office, said Otto: “In my opinion, it is important that many joint meetings and events take place in presence.” That is a requirement for managers. Attached offices could also help increase presence.
Otto (81) is one of the best known and most wealthy entrepreneurs in Germany. For 26 years he headed the mail order company founded by his father in Hamburg and expanded it into an international group, today’s Otto Group. Holding and online retailers have been asked to provide at least half of the working hours in the office since the beginning of the year. Individual group companies like Hermes are excluded.
“We find that we gradually come back to higher presence rates,” said Otto. However, the process must be supported. Before the Corona pandemic, the HomeOffice share was around 20 percent, most recently at more than 50 percent, he reported.