In response to the growing number of return-to-work mandates, James Reed considers their impact on career progression and business success.
Only last month, a petition demanding that advertising giant WPP revokes its new office policy attracted more than 15,000 signatures in just a few days. It came after the company said it would be forcing its 100,000 employees to come into the office four days a week. In addition, around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) announced industrial action after staff were ordered back to the office for three days a week.
Earlier in the month, Amazon enacted its requirement for employees to be back to the office full-time, and this was followed a few days later by banking giant JPMorgan Chase who announced it would summon staff back to the office five days a week from March. These are just some of the latest major corporates to end the era of remote and hybrid working introduced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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A growing demand
The debate over the pros and cons of remote work, whether it is for employers, employees, customers and communities – shows no sign of diminishing.
At the start of 2024, Reed predicted that employers would increasingly demand days in the office and would reward what we called the ‘in-person premium’. Reed handles millions of job vacancies a year so we have excellent real-time visibility of trends and developments in the jobs market.
Return to office (RTO) mandates have clearly gathered momentum. Our most recent research shows that many employers are keen to see workers back in the office more of the time, and those who are willing to be more present will be more likely to progress in their careers.
Progression and promotion
A Reed survey of 251 companies, representing more than 170,000 individuals, revealed that 68% believe in-office workers are more likely to advance, meaning they are more likely to be promoted and more likely to receive a pay rise. This finding is unsurprising given it’s five years since the pandemic necessitated widespread remote work and business life has now returned to normal.
While I acknowledge the benefits of occasional remote or hybrid work for focused tasks, the survey underscores the importance of in-person collaboration for business success. Concerns have been raised that the rise of remote work may have negatively impacted Britain’s productivity and economic growth, a sentiment shared by many business leaders. My recommendation is a balanced approach: people should prioritise attendance while maintaining flexibility for certain remote work activities.
That said, our recent polling also highlighted the issue WPP has faced. A significant minority of the 2,000 UK workers that we polled, 29%, rejected the idea that being in the office more would lead to progression or promotion. Respondents said they typically worked three days in the office and that they preferred to spend the same amount of time working from home each week, rather than showing flexibility by varying it.
So, it will be interesting to see how this will play out in terms of strike action or industrial disputes at firms like WPP. There is going to have to be pragmatism and flexibility shown by both employers and employees but there is no denying the fact that, with life basically back to how it was pre-Covid, spending the majority of time at your workplace will, and should be, the norm.
An employer’s market
I believe the ‘in-person premium’ will become even more important this year as companies responding to a slowing jobs market make tough decisions on hiring and firing. Reed was the first to warn of the possibility of recession, with job vacancies down 24% last year on 2023. And I have heard that some companies are ordering people back to the office calculating that the resignations that will result will be cheaper than making people redundant.
The Chancellor’s national insurance rise, which is a tax on jobs, has yet to take effect and already we are seeing the side effects. So my expectation is that this year will be an employer-led, buyers’ market. It’s clear that those willing to be present in the office will stand the best chance of prospering in this difficult economic environment. Employers are in the driving seat and will reward those that are willing to be more flexible in their working practices and penalise those that aren’t.
Showing willing now could mean people are less likely to be made redundant during a downturn – insisting on staying at home when their employer wants them to spend more time in the office is not an advisable strategy.
I fully appreciate the various benefits of working from home or remotely, but fundamentally offices should provide creative, energised spaces where people can interact, share ideas, have fun and learn from one another. People are by their nature keen to socialise and talk and this is what an office should offer – a focused space where everyone is together dedicated to delivering the task in hand with few distractions. This leads to better outcomes and ultimately more job satisfaction at the end of the day.
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