Kohl's Joins Corporate Return-to-Office Trend, Mandates Four Days in the Office

In October, Kohl's will require corporate employees to return to the office four days a week, a decision fueling more debate on RTO policies

Kohl’s is requiring all of its corporate employees to return to the office for at least four days a week starting in October, marking a transition from the remote work options it had expanded on during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kohl’s, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, employs around 5,000 people in the greater Milwaukee area, mostly at its corporate headquarters in Menomonee Falls. The new RTO mandate is an effort to improve “connection and collaboration” among its employees.

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The move is not as drastic for it’s employees as the City of Philadelphia’s, which requires 26,000 city employees to work from the office five days a week, or even as stringent as Dell’s RTO mandate. However, it does lean towards in-office work and could be seen as another hybrid work compromise seen widely adopted throughout the workforce.

WPR reports that only those living within 30 miles of the company’s headquarters in Menomonee Falls will be affected by the company policy. Kohl’s will require office attendance from Monday through Thursday, but will also allow employees a remote work option on Fridays. In addition, employees will be permitted two “work from anywhere” weeks each year.

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Similar to other corporate-wide RTO mandates across the workforce, the policy has not been universally welcomed. WPR reports that employees are citing disruptions to the work-life balance they’ve grown accustomed to, and some believe they can achieve collaboration effectively with a more flexible model.

The implementation of Kohl’s office return policy captures the ongoing debate between the benefits of in-office collaboration and the flexibility of remote work.