The Great Return: the continuing saga of office based, hybrid and remote work patterns

A while back, during the pandemic, our co-founder Stacey Keen put together three articles on LinkedIn looking in detail at the good, the bad and the future of remote working, particularly in the technology sector, in the UK.

Fast forward four years, and the debate has shifted to the growing trend of businesses instructing employees to return to the office – the Great Return, or RTO.

Have we come full circle? Is a return to a 5 day commute inevitable?

Or, are there lasting benefits to the forced adoption of remote working we experienced during the pandemic?

Remote working – the ‘good’ – a recap

Back in 2020, some of the benefits talked about with regard to remote working included:

• A better work-life balance for employees, less time spent commuting.
• Flexibility of hours, especially for those with caring responsibilities.
• A boost in equality and diversity – for women, those with disabilities
• A shift in focus to productivity rather than hours spent at work.
• A rapid increase in the adoption and deployment of new technologies.
• Greater talent pools, employers are able to recruit where the talent is to be found rather than where the office is located.
• Less time, money – and carbon emissions – wasted through business travel with the explosion in video meetings.

Remote working – the ‘bad’ – a recap

It wasn’t all good. There were, and still are, some significant issues with remote working.

• Feelings of isolation, lack of social interaction and the negative impact on our mental health
• Lack of support for employees, particularly for new employees
• Unsatisfactory home working environments and poor technology inhibiting productivity.
• A blurring of home and work, leading to an inability to switch off or unreasonable demands of employees to stray into non-work time.
• Poor internal communication and employee engagement, a negative effect on company culture
• Difficult for managers to manage a remote workforce, poor collaboration.

Not all these issues have been resolved. And, new ones have reared their heads.

For example, the Great Resignation post-pandemic was made all the easier for employees who could spend part of their day researching and applying for new jobs. And, for ambitious technologists,

Remote working – the ‘future’ – a recap

Back in 2020 many people, like us, predicted that a balance would be achieved with the emergence of the hybrid working pattern. And this has largely come to pass, within technology as well as other knowledge based sectors.

Companies, and employees, have made adjustments that should be sustainable and workable. Such as:

• Working on maintaining their culture by increasing employee engagement on ‘in office’ days.
• Maximising collaboration by holding meetings in person.
• Investing in training for managers to develop remote team management skills.
• Some people working a hybrid pattern are moving further away from the office – often happy to trade a couple of days at home for a longer commute.
• Softening of rigid working hours is becoming the norm, allowing people to juggle and flex around childcare provision.
• The pace of technology innovation and adoption continues to increase. Cloud services enable employees to log on from anywhere, at any time.
• With hybrid working, alongside in-office time, events and socials are back, helping to increase social contact and alleviate feelings of isolation.

What about productivity?

If it’s possible to create a hybrid working environment that works, then why have many high profile companies decided to bring people back into the office? According to a report by KPMG, 64% of some 1200 global CEOs expect everyone to be fully office based by 2026. And, 87% say they would increase rewards for those come into the office.

The biggest reason cited is usually to increase productivity. But the truth is, productivity is very hard to quantify. And, it varies according to industry, role, business and individual. This makes it impossible to draw blanket conclusions and helps explain the sheer number of contradictory reports available on whether productivity increases, decreases or stays the same for hybrid and remote working.

The impact of the Great Return

We are now used to hybrid working and the ability to flex work around life – regardless of age or situation. Productivity aside, if the RTO trend gathers pace, companies will risk losing talent.

The technology sector in particular is an area where working fully remotely and hybrid working is the norm. All developers need, after all, is good tech, access and some peace and quiet. If the RTO is forced, many employees would rather quit, or take a pay cut, in order to keep their flexibility.  Younger people are tied to hybrid and flexible working patterns, with many having known little else.

The Great Return could also be a backward step for diversity and inculsion, particularly for women and people with disabilities. Women with childcare responsibilities are 32% less likely to leave a job if they can work remotely and 88% of women say hybrid working has had a levelling effect in the workplace. Take flexibility away, and businesses could see a mass exodus of women, and other groups relying on remote to give them access to work opportunities, to businesses that do continue to offer it.

What is the new normal?

Simply put, so far there isn’t one. There is confusion everywhere.

Are people more or less productive?

Is our carbon footprint lower if we work more remotely?

Have we really managed to crack managing remote teams?

There are many factors that come into play. So many, in fact, that these decisions simply cannot be taken as a one-size-fits all.

It is a delicate balance between attracting talent, retaining talent, employee satisfaction, maintaining culture and collaboration, creating equal opportunities and individual business models.

What is encouraging is that the new world of work enables businesses to do just that. To create their own ‘normal’, based on engaging with their unique mix of employees and putting in place technologies, policies and processes that suit them.

If they are able to do this, then the risks of losing talent are lower and the opportunities created by attracting the best talent and achieving a competitive advantage are much, much higher.