Return to Office (RTO) mandates became commonplace in 2024. Now that the pandemic feels like a distant memory, companies are eager to get workers back behind desks. In fact, studies show that 90% of companies plan to have RTO mandated by the end of the year.
Another report found that 98% of companies are encouraging employees to return to the office right now. Some organizations have even gone as far as to promise team members salary increases if they’re willing to make the commute to work.
But is the movement really working, and more importantly, should business leaders be driving employees back into the office in the first place?
The Return to Office Controversy
In the last few years, many companies have embraced a hybrid work policy, and most continue to allow employees to work remotely at least some of the time. According to KPMG, only a third of CEOs turning over more than $500 million expect a full return to the office in the next three years.
However, some organizations are still keen to usher employees back into the physical office environment. IBM has told managers they have to be on-site at least three days a week, or they need to leave the company. Google, Meta, JP Morgan Chase, and many others have even implemented mandates with severe consequences for employees who fail to comply.
Two in five companies in the UK’s Telecom industry even want their employees back in the office five days a week. Unsurprisingly, employees aren’t happy.
Team members who fell in love with the flexibility and convenience of hybrid work don’t want to give up their freedom or swap relaxing work mornings for lengthy commutes. When presented with a demand to return to the office, staff members fight back.
The Amazon return to the office mandate is one of the most significant examples of how controversial the approach can be. After asking employees to return to the office, 30,000 employees signed a petition in protest, and 1,800 pledged to leave their jobs.
Amazon isn’t the only company that’s struggled. Research shows around half of companies with return to office mandates witnessed an increase in employee attrition.
Why Do Leaders Want Return to Office Mandates?
So, why are business leaders pushing teams back into the office if they clearly don’t want to be there? We’ve seen plenty of examples of the benefits of hybrid and remote work, such as increased employee productivity and loyalty. It seems insane that companies would want to backtrack at this point, particularly as office space and overhead costs soar.
On a broad level, there are some genuine reasons why a return to the office might make sense. A poll of US CEOs found that companies mainly want employees to return to the office to improve communication and collaboration. On top of that, returning to the office can deliver:
- Better work-life balance: For some, returning to the office (even part time), improves work-life balance by separating the home and workplace. Studies have shown that fully remote workers often spend longer hours at work, because they’re unable to “switch off.”
- Greater engagement: Remote workers have a lower sense of belonging in many companies, and many say they feel more lonely than their counterparts. Returning to the office could help employees forge stronger relationships, increasing feelings of inclusion.
- Improved recognition: 95% of leaders admit that they recognize the contributions of on-site employees more regularly than those working from home. Employees who spend more time face-to-face with their supervisors could get more of the recognition they deserve.
- Enhanced collaboration: Though there are plenty of tools that enable collaboration in today’s world, few allow for impromptu conversations and everyday interactions that can improve employee creativity.
The Productivity Question: Do Remote Workers Work?
CEOs and business leaders can cite endless reasons why they want their employees to adhere to return-to-office mandates. However, I think the real factor driving most RTO mandates is a lack of trust. CEOs still believe employees in the office are more productive and profitable.
Simply put, they assume they need to be able to actually monitor their team’s productivity by reviewing how much time they spend in the office. It’s easy to see why business leaders are concerned. Major investors and stakeholders in larger companies like Amazon, Disney, Google, and Salesforce believe they need to see evidence of an active, in-office team to drive profits.
In 2022 and 2023, pressure from investors led to a slew of RTO mandates. However, there’s no actual evidence that returning to the office improves financial performance or productivity. A study of S&P 500 companies revealed mandates harmed employee satisfaction but didn’t drive any significant changes in financial outcomes.
Another report found only 1 in 3 executives implementing return to office mandates felt it had even a small impact on productivity. The problem here is that companies don’t really know how to measure productivity in the first place. That’s particularly true now that the rise of AI and automation in the workplace means most teams are spending more time on creative, complex tasks.
It’s hard to measure what productivity looks like in today’s world, so many executives are focusing on “activity” rather than outcomes. According to Slack, 70% of executives use visible activity, such as how many hours employees log every day to measure productivity.
But this measurement strategy isn’t accurate. All it really does is lead to a lack of trust, anxiety among employees, and dissatisfaction. In fact, 49% of people report higher levels of stress and anxiety when they know they’re being monitored. That’s not a good recipe for productivity.
The Real Impact of Return to Office Mandates
So, what do return-to-office mandates really do? Well, they certainly seem to have an impact—just not a positive one. The number one outcome of a poorly implemented RTO mandate is a reduction in employees’ job satisfaction, which leads to turnover. Around 75% of people unhappy with the level of flexibility offered at work say they look for new roles.
To make matters worse, research seems to indicate that the people most likely to “jump ship” following an RTO mandate are the top performers in your workplace. A Gartner study found the “intent to stay” among high performers dropped to only 16% following a mandated RTO.
If the threat of having to fill talent gaps in an increasingly skills-short environment isn’t enough to concern business leaders, there are plenty of other negative results to consider.
Rather than boosting productivity, forcing employees back into the office (particularly if that office isn’t equipped for hybrid work) can harm performance. After all, hybrid and remote employees are happier, more engaged at work, and often more productive.
RTO mandates also put more pressure on companies to find the budget for extra office space, technology, and strategies to keep employees engaged.
Is there a Better Approach to Return to Office Mandates?
Ultimately, return-to-office mandates and increased “activity” monitoring lead to lower employee satisfaction, problems with retention, and a fundamental loss of trust among team members. Most importantly, they affect a company’s ability to drive positive results.
On the other hand, companies that build trust with their team members and offer flexibility achieve more. One report found employees at high-performance companies were 11 times more likely to say their managers trusted them to do their jobs (no matter where they chose to work).
Clearly, business leaders are starting to take notice. In the KPMG study mentioned above, nearly half of CEOs now believe the future of work is hybrid.
Of course, hybrid work still requires a return to the office – at least part-time. The key to success for business leaders will be rethinking how they approach their RTO mandates.
Based on what I’ve learned about failed and successful return-to-office mandates in the last couple of years, here are my top tips for success.
1. Rethink How You Measure Productivity
First, business leaders need to stop measuring productivity by hours logged or how often employees appear “active” on Microsoft Teams. Companies that focus on measuring genuine outcomes, like tasks completed and deadlines met, will stop focusing so heavily on where people work.
Once you change your approach to measuring productivity, you begin to recognize that it’s not the office environment that drives results but the employee experience. Team members know when they need to return to the office to get things done and when they can complete tasks just as easily at home. Give them the freedom to do what works for them.
Show your team members that they’ll be rewarded by taking accountability for their performance, and trust them to nurture their own productivity.
2. Listen To Your Employees
One of the main reasons employees reject return to office mandates, is they believe employers aren’t taking their needs into account. The reality is that most companies won’t be able to implement RTO mandates that allow for absolutely no flexibility.
However, the way companies communicate with their teams about their approach to the future of work is fundamentally damaged. 68% of business leaders say they have no detailed vision for what the future of hybrid and flexible work will look like. This creates concerns among employees that lead to non-compliance with mandates and requirements.
Instead of just telling employees you want them to come back into the office four days a week, ask them what they need. Ask what the ideal hybrid work environment would look like for your team members. Discuss new ways to implement flexibility, like enabling a four-day workweek.
Discover what really prevents your employees from coming back to the office, and find ways to resolve those issues. Find out what will actually encourage your team members to visit the office when they need to.
3. Redesign your Office for Hybrid Work
If the future of work is hybrid, we can’t expect employees to “go back to normal”, or the version of normal they saw before the pandemic. Yet countless companies still haven’t designed their offices to enable and support hybrid work.
Business leaders are so focused on increasing workspace utilization that they’re missing out on a crucial opportunity. This is a chance to reduce office space and operational costs. It’s your opportunity to design a workspace that adheres specifically to the needs of employees.
Based on how your employees work and the resources they need, rethink how you design your meeting rooms and spaces. Approach office design with a focus on the question: “Why would people want to come back to this office?”
Make the office environment something employees look forward to visiting, even if it’s smaller than it was before. Create comfortable spaces for collaboration, design focus rooms for people who want to eliminate the distractions of the office, and adapt as your employees’ needs change.
4. Upgrade Your Technology
Studies show that problematic technology is one of the core factors limiting productivity among hybrid workers. If you want employees to return to office schedules, at least part of the time, you need to give them the tools they need to thrive in that space.
This doesn’t just mean investing in cutting-edge computers, smartphones for communications, and video conferencing tech. It also means looking into technology that will help you to manage and coordinate your hybrid teams more effectively.
Room booking software solutions, like Microsoft Places, will help optimize resource allocation. Hybrid work scheduling tools will also help you make the right decisions about what to change or implement.
Creating more flexible spaces will also be effective. For instance, embrace BYOD and BYOM solutions for meeting rooms. This will allow employees to consistently use the technology they feel most comfortable with, giving them a greater sense of freedom.
5. Start Slow with Return to Office Mandates
Finally, be realistic about how you implement return-to-office requirements. If your company has supported a fully remote workforce for the last three years, suddenly asking team members to spend five days in the office is going to cause a lot of disruption.
You may never be able to ask team members to attend the office full-time, and that’s okay, too. Think about, realistically, what you need to achieve with your return to office strategy, and start slow. After surveying your employees and understanding their concerns, implement a strategy to bring teams back into the office part-time.
As you learn more about your workforce, adapt over time. If you do eventually need your team members to return to the office full-time, find other ways to offer flexibility.
Giving team members the option to adjust their schedule when necessary or work a four-day week can improve talent retention.
Rethink the Return to Office Mandate
The unfortunate truth for business leaders is that strict return-to-office mandates aren’t sustainable. Workers continue to prize their autonomy and flexibility. 69% of employees still say the independence offered by remote work is more important than the benefits of in-office work.
It’s unlikely that most companies will implement full in-office work requirements for every employee. You might need frontline workers to visit the “workplace” every day, but not every employee will need to work in-house.
Just look at the fact that 75% of the Fortune 100 operate on a hybrid work schedule. Clearly, there’s something to be said for flexible work.
If you need to bring your staff back into the office part-time, take the right approach. Implement a clear strategy for hybrid work. Listen to your employees, and give them an office space they actually want to visit. Otherwise, you’ll lose your top performers.
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