New research has found that over two-thirds of managers surveyed allowed team members to work from home more regularly than required by company return-to-office (RTO) mandates.
According to a recent survey by Owl Labs, 70 percent of UK-based manager respondents say they have allowed team members to work from home despite established company policy on RTO. This reflects that, while most UK managers champion RTO strategies to an extent, they might not expect their teams to be in the office as frequently as mandated.
Owl Labs observed that these figures indicate a trend towards stealth management, where managers discreetly adopt a more flexible approach to company policies to retain top talent, possibly influenced by stricter RTO mandates.
Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, said:
At face value, it may seem contradictory for managers to push for RTO mandates while also allowing employees to work remotely when it suits them. However, it shows that despite managers valuing face-to-face interactions with their employees, they don’t want to dictate their work schedule. Managers need to trust their team so that employees can work where they do best.”
Additionally, Owl Labs’ survey found roughly seven-eights of UK workers (87 percent) believe an “unofficial” and more flexible RTO mandate bolsters team morale. This illustrates that while workers recognise some benefits regarding the return-to-office, they also want flexibility in how and when they can choose to work from the office.
Just over half of employees surveyed (51 percent) believe that working from the office for a set number of days enhances overall team productivity. However, hybrid workers are more sceptical, with only 44 percent stating that RTO mandates make them more productive. This hesitation is likely influenced by the number of mandated office days and the nature of tasks assigned on any given day.
Despite acknowledging the benefits of RTO mandates, the majority of UK workers are wary of employee monitoring tools that track daily work outputs. According to Owl Labs’ findings, 55 percent of UK workers believe that such tools hurt productivity.
“It’s clear that RTO mandates only bolster productivity and morale when employees are given the flexibility to be in the office when it makes sense for them,” Weishaupt added. “They should not be used to simply track individual work habits. As the UK flexible working bill comes into effect this April, organisations that adopt a task-based approach to RTO mandates will promote happier and more engaged teams.”
A final intriguing finding is that, with an increasing emphasis on task-based working, where employees have the autonomy to schedule their work based on their daily task list, some companies are showcasing greater flexibility on RTO. Currently, 35 percent of workers report that their company has reversed an RTO mandate, with an additional 15 percent attributing this change to employee demand.
The State of Hybrid Working and RTO
There were several significant surveys last year about the future of hybrid working and RTO mandates.
KPMG’s CEO Outlook survey for 2023 highlighted that almost two-thirds of CEOs want to kill hybrid work within three years.
According to the survey, which polled 1,325 CEOs of businesses generating revenues over $500 million, 64 percent of CEOs were planning a return to the pre-pandemic fully on-site way of working within the next three years. Furthermore, 87 percent of CEOs intended to achieve this goal by linking financial incentives and promotion opportunities with on-site attendance.
A study by recruitment business Hays canvassed almost 15,000 professionals and employers and found that more professionals work exclusively in the office now than by a hybrid model. It found that, in 2023, over two-fifths of workers worked exclusively in the office (43 percent) while narrowly under two-fifths abided by a hybrid model (39 percent).
Hays’s additional research revealed that over three-fifths of employers still provide hybrid working (61 percent), but nearly a quarter anticipated modifying their hybrid working policies within a year to require employees to return to the office — either exclusively or with fewer WFH days allocated (24 percent).
Lastly, Gallagher found that 63 percent were changing office space due to changes in ways of working, challenging the idea that a return to pre-pandemic working styles was inevitable. That figure comprised over a fifth of businesses planning on moving to smaller offices (21 percent), over one-third were considering moving to shared office space, and seven percent of companies had already shifted office space.
The extent of the post-pandemic shift in working is striking, with over two-thirds of UK businesses adopting hybrid working due to employee demand for increased flexibility (69 percent). Additionally, three-fifths of business leaders regretted not implementing a hybrid model before the pandemic, recognising its significant success.
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