Say Goodbye Comfy Pants – 9 in 10 Companies Planning RTO This Year

• ResumeBuilder surveyed 1,000 business leaders to see if their respective companies have implemented a return to office plan, or if they intend to in the new year. 
• Of the companies that allow employees to work fully-remotely, 73% of them said they will “definitely” or “likely” change their work location policy within 6 months.  
• This isn’t the news that workers want to hear; the majority of people want to continue working from home.

Employers have been heavily pushing workers to return to the office full-time…and workers still aren’t so obliging.  

ResumeBuilder surveyed 1,000 business leaders to see if their respective companies have implemented a return to office plan, or if they intend to this year. 

The survey reported that, as of late last year, 34% of companies were allowing employees to work fully remotely, while 45% had a hybrid policy, and 21% had employees work full-time on-site. 

What the survey found was that:  

• 66% of employers required employees to work from office in 2022 
• 90% of companies will require employees to return to office in 2023 
• 21% of companies will fire workers who do not return to the office 

Of the companies that allow employees to work fully-remotely, 73% of them said they will “definitely” or “likely” change their work location policy within six months.  

“With this upcoming change from companies that currently still allow full-time remote work, this means in six months, 9 of 10 companies overall will require employees to come to the office with some frequency,” according to ResumeBuilder.  

This isn’t the news that workers want to hear; the majority of people want to continue working from home. Nearly 80% of employees think they’ve been just as or more productive than they were before the pandemic.  

The data that the majority of companies that currently allow workers to work 100% remotely intend to change their policies and require employees to return to office isn’t a surprise given the big-name companies that have already made that decision this year.  

“If these return-to-office decisions were in the hands of younger managers, who are more accustomed to working remotely, I think we’d see less companies shifting back to an in-office culture,” career strategist and job search coach Stacie Haller said.  

The push back to the office will have implications for office space 

Although the pandemic goes through cycles of resurgence, it isn’t over. But employers are pushing their employees back into the office. This is mostly due to the issue of office space cost; companies have lost money by hanging on to under-utilized office spaces during the pandemic.  

Employers are confident they can get their workers to come back and work in person, and 67% of companies plan to have more office locations in six months, the survey showed.  

Aside from cost, why do employers want workers back in the office? 

According to the report, 96% of companies believe there are benefits to having employees in the office rather than allowing them to work from home. 

These are the reasons they give: 

• Improved communication (55%) 
• Creativity (50%)  
• Productivity (48%) 
• Company culture (39%)  
• Employee oversight (31%) 

It’s unclear if organizations will be able to go through with their return-to-work plans; employees are not going so easily.  

This is why 88% of companies are offering incentives to get employees to return — including catered meals, commuter benefits, and higher pay.