Services like Fifth Third’s concierges could draw employees back to office [Video]

CINCINNATI — As businesses do their best to lure employees back to work, one locally headquartered company is helping pioneer a new frontier of work-life balance.

“You have employers that are taking the carrot approach or the stick approach,” said Janet Harrah, professor at the NKU Haile College of Business.

Along with teaching the business leaders of tomorrow, Harrah also consults for several companies in the Tri-State. She said many of them are trying to entice, rather than enforce, coming back to the office.

“Sometimes what people think they might want is not something they’ll actually use,” Harrah said.

One in-house program for Fifth Third employees has a 99.8% approval rating, a concierge service run by Cincinnati-based Best Upon Request.

When employees go to the second floor of their building on Fountain Square, Katie is usually one of the first faces they see in the morning and one of the …