Canada (FR)
The shift to remote work saved countless businesses from financial ruin and enabled millions of people to continue earning a living during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a growing number of employers have decided the time has come to bring employees back to the office. Dozens of major employers, including Amazon, Instagram, JPMorganChase and AT&T, have enacted strict return to office (RTO) mandates, while Google, IBM and others have adopted or formalized hybrid arrangements.
The rationale behind this shift includes that in-person work builds a stronger company culture, strengthens collaboration, improves productivity and allows for better adherence to data security protocols. While some employees welcome the opportunity to get back to the office, others say they are more productive, feel a greater sense of connection and enjoy better work-life balance when performing their duties from home.
Indeed, remote employees appear to be thriving, with three-quarters saying they are often or almost always productive, according to the 2025 Alight Employee Mindset Study. What’s more, 66% feel connected to the purpose or mission of their employer; 63% report positive energy and excitement about their employer; 64% feel like they belong at their employer and 61% say the organization inspires them to do their best work every day.
In each of these four categories, remote workers’ assessments far outpace those of onsite employees, who are expected to be the most productive, engaged and connected. However, those working hybrid schedules fare best of all, with 70% to 71% agreeing with each of the four statements.
What does this mean for employers? Should they abandon return to office plans and allow employees to work their choice of arrangement — fully remote, fully onsite or hybrid? Not necessarily. However, they may want to reconsider inflexible mandates, evolve beyond binary “remote vs. onsite” debates and layer in elements of choice where possible.
Workers value flexibility
Across media outlets, strongly worded headlines would have one believing that return to office mandates are sweeping the nation, with few outliers. However, 67% of companies still offer some level of flexibility through a hybrid model and 6% of businesses expect to remain fully remote. While there’s clearly no single one-size-fits-all solution, these companies might just be on to something.
While hybrid arrangements remain popular, it’s worth noting that hybrid workers are far happier when they are allowed to determine their own schedules, rather than having it dictated by their employer (72% self-scheduled hybrid vs. 53% company-scheduled hybrid). This points to the need to give employees some agency in the process, allowing them to choose which days they will work onsite. This may be particularly helpful when trying to lure fully remote workers back into the office one or more days per week — or keep hybrid workers from seeking a more pleasing situation elsewhere.
Flexibility is important to today’s workforce, so much so that one-third (35%) of employees say they would be willing to take a pay cut in exchange for flexibility — in both where and when they work and how their benefits dollars are spent. Perhaps not surprisingly, parents and caregivers value flexibility even more than the general employee population, with 43% and 51%, respectively, saying they would trade less pay for more flexibility, according to the Mindset Study.
Granted, this doesn’t mean employers should necessarily offer people lower salaries in exchange for working from home, but it does provide food for thought, especially for those companies that already have flexible hybrid or fully remote options. Continuing to offer such alternatives can be an attractive lever to pull when recruiting older Millennials and Gen Xers, who make up a large percentage of the “Sandwich Generation,” caring for both aging parents and their own children.
Despite the myth that Generation Z is chomping at the bit to work exclusively from the office, these young professionals also crave flexibility. Nearly half (49%) of Gen Z workers say they would consider a pay cut for flexibility, while 36% of those working from home now would look for another job if they were required to return to the office. Across all employees who are currently working remotely, 33% say they would look for another job, while 6% would resign immediately.
Weighing the options
Some experts caution that RTO mandates could cost an organization greatly — by chasing away top performers who either have no interest in working onsite or simply don’t live in close enough proximity to the office and aren’t willing to relocate. This may be of little concern to employers in areas where talent is plentiful, but for those doing business in a tight labor market, it might be difficult to replace lost employees, especially when recruiting remote workers from far-flung locations is no longer an option. In such cases, they must decide whether having a 100% in-person workforce is worth the risk of losing key talent.
The debate over return to office policies is not one that can be easily resolved — and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that will work for everyone. While 54% of businesses say they have been at least somewhat influenced by major corporations’ return to office mandates, adopting a hard and fast rule is likely to set some companies up for challenges, including declines in productivity, engagement and retention. For other organizations, having a fully onsite workforce might be the right way to go. It’s a highly individual decision that must be based on company culture, business needs, nature of work, employee sentiment and accessibility of skilled labor.
Whatever the ultimate decision, it’s wise to avoid thinking of any return to office declaration as permanent. Just as employers pivoted to remote work in response to the pandemic, they can pivot between onsite, hybrid and remote as they continually evaluate which is best for their organization now and in the future.
