New research says that more professionals are working exclusively in the office than abiding by a hybrid model.

A study by recruitment business Hays canvassed almost 15,000 professionals and employers and found that over two-fifths of workers now work exclusively in the office (43 percent) while narrowly under two-fifths work in a hybrid model (39 percent).

This flips the findings of Hays’s report 2022, which recorded that 43 percent abided by a hybrid model while 36 percent worked in the office full-time.

Gaelle Blake, Head of Permanent Appointments at Hays UK and Ireland, said:

It’s clear from our research that there’s still no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to how staff want to work and how flexible employers are willing to be. Yet, despite more workers saying they are now working full time in an office – it’s evident that hybrid working can’t be erased overnight.”

Among Hays’s other research was that over three-fifths of employers still offer hybrid working (61 percent), but almost a quarter expect to change their hybrid working policies to mandate employees to return to the office within a year (24 percent) — either exclusively or with reduced allocation for WFH days.

Additionally, only 18 percent of professionals say they will work remotely in 2023, a drop from 21 percent in 2022.

Half of the employers surveyed said they work a hot-desking solution, with almost half explaining that it was to accommodate reduced desk numbers as many businesses shrink office space to cut costs and enable hybrid working experiences (49 percent), while the rest said they had always worked with a hot desking model.

Almost three-fifths of respondents said they would accept a job in the future that did not offer hybrid working (57 percent), while 43 percent said they wouldn’t. Interestingly, there is a significant regional divide behind the responses to this question. Two-thirds of respondents living in northwest England would accept a job in the future if it did not offer hybrid working, while just 44 percent of those who work in London said they would do similar.

Nearly one-third of employers have different working policies for their employees depending on seniority.

Is This Becoming a Case of an Unstoppable Force Meeting an Immovable Object?

There is a concerted move by most CEOs to return to a full-time office working model — KPMG’s 2023 CEO Outlook survey, which canvassed 1,325 CEOs of businesses with revenues over $500 million, found earlier this month that 64 percent of CEOs plan on a return to the pre-pandemic, fully on-premises working model within the next three years. 87 percent of CEOs aim to achieve this goal by connecting financial incentives and promotion opportunities to in-office attendance.

However, the hybrid working boom post-pandemic has seen many workers feel more productive, healthier and happier in hybrid models. Every employee is different, but financial and career incentives might not be enough to overshadow hybrid working’s benefits.

While Hays’s survey suggests that employers are gradually getting workers back to the office, returning to the pre-pandemic levels of in-office attendance is highly unlikely, given the significant cultural shift that’s taken place with hybrid working’s normalisation.

While Hays’s survey suggested that almost three-fifths of UK professionals would accept an entirely on-site job, a recent BSG survey of 1,500 global office-based workers recorded that roughly nine in 10 respondents consider flexible work options important when looking for a job. Additionally, employees disillusioned with their company’s work model are two-and-a-half times more likely to consider leaving their business over the next year than those who are satisfied.

Returning to traditional, fully in-office circumstances might grant CEOs greater control over their business and the visibility of their employees, but it potentially might hurt recruitment, retention and employee morale and wellbeing.

“What employers need to understand is that everyone is different – some workers may thrive in an office environment, and some won’t,” added Blake. “If employers are asking staff back to the office more – they need to question if they are doing it for the right reasons, such as facilitating more team building opportunities and offering an enticing work environment. Employers asking staff to come into the office more due to a lack of trust will struggle to retain staff going forward.”

This data-backed notion of most employers seeking to return to fully in-office models versus most employees seeking a flexible working model resembles an unstoppable force hitting an immovable object. This dynamic will likely result in conflict. This was illustrated last week when Amazon managers were reportedly given approval to sack employees who resisted working on-site three days a week. The tech giant had previously adopted a flexible model until February this year.



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