At a time when global companies are grappling with putting an end to working from home and convincing employees to return to office, a recent study conducted in the US has shown that 80 percent of bosses regret their initial return-to-office decisions, saying they would have made their plans differently if they had a better understanding of what their employees wanted.
The study was conducted by Envoy which interviewed more than 1,000 US company executives and workplace managers who work from their offices at least one day a week.
“Many companies are realising they could have been a lot more measured in their approach, rather than making big, bold, very controversial decisions based on executives’ opinions rather than employee data,” Larry Gadea, Envoy’s CEO and founder of Envoy told CNBC Make It.
The study showed that some bosses struggle with measuring the success of in-office policies, while others shared the difficulty of making long-term real estate investments regarding office space and related infrastructure without knowing how employees might feel about working from the office in the near future.
In New York City, office space costs, on average, about $16,000 a year per employee, according to the New York Times. And the constant risk of losing top talent has made companies reconsider their strict return-to-office policies. Research has also shown that companies that force employees to return to the office are more likely to experience turnover issues than those that don’t.
Meanwhile, Kathy Kacher, a consultant who advises corporate executives on their return-to-office plans, is surprised the percentage of business leaders who regret their earlier calls to return to office isn't higher.
“Many organisations that attempted to force a return to the office have had to retract or change their plans because of employee pushback, and now, they don’t look strong,” Kacher told CNBC Make It. “A lot of executives have egg on their faces and they’re sad about that.”
The companies experiencing the most difficulty are the ones that mandated a strict return to the office three days a week without seeking employee input first, she added. “They’re the ones struggling with retention and recruitment,” Kacher told the publication. “Some of the companies I work with have even scaled back the number of in-office days they’re requiring in response to employee backlash.”
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