Editor’s Question: With some big firms calling for their staff to return to the office full time, what is your view on hybrid working and/or working from home?

Editor’s Question: With some big firms calling for their staff to return to the office full time, what is your view on hybrid working and/or working from home?

Amid rising reports of return to office (RTO) mandates, Scalable Software’s research of 2,000 knowledge workers found that forcing employees to attend the office on specific days can create resentment. It found:

  • Sixty-two percent of organisations have implemented a RTO policy in the last two years.
  • Where an RTO policy has been implemented, 9% of knowledge workers have been asked to return to office for one day a week, 21% have been asked to return two days a week, 17% for three days a week, 5% for four days a week and 10% for the full working week.
  • Yet, some knowledge workers are unhappy with this situation and dislike being ‘told’ where and when they must work. Thirty-five percent resent being told they have to go into the office for a set number of days, and 33% resent being told on which days they must go into the office.

Starting below with Angela Hountalas, Chief People Officer at Apply Digital, four experts answer the question, what is your view on hybrid working and/or working from home?

Apply Digital was hybrid before the pandemic and for a very good reason. Much of what we do is very specialised, and we had to be open and flexible to attract the best talent. We have colleagues who prefer to spend some or all of their work week in our offices, while others are fully remote – in other cities, or even countries.

This means we often have team members working on projects from multiple locations, but we have been doing this long enough to have excellent collaboration technologies and proven processes in place to make it work seamlessly.

In our experience, hybrid working is as productive as the traditional nine-to-five in the office. What’s most important is the flexibility this model offers and it is greatly valued by our employees, contributing to their performance and wellbeing in a very positive way.

We also give people the option to work away from their permanent address for up to eight weeks per year, so long as they can work in the time zone of their immediate team.

We want everyone to get the most out of the time spent together in-person, so we have dedicated experience coordinators in our People and Culture team who put on events each week and enable teams to meet in the office for planning, knowledge sharing and social time. When we need to tackle strategy and other big topics, we bring people together for team summits, which typically last two to three days. Our goal is to foster a positive, productive and connected work environment for our people to thrive.  

Dan Westgarth, COO, Deel:

Attitudes towards work are shifting rapidly, as evidenced by the emergence of the ‘four-day week’ and proposed ‘right to disconnect’ laws, highlighting the demand from employees for greater work/life balance.

When we polled over 50,000 workers on LinkedIn, 67% said they were more productive when working from home and nearly three-quarters (73%) believed all companies should offer remote arrangements as an option. This is in stark contrast to the return to office mandates many are enforcing, which are often justified by claims of productivity losses. 

Ultimately, people will work most effectively when they feel heard by their employer and empowered to work in the way that suits them. Remote work gives workers autonomy, flexibility and trust; in addition, the creation of a work environment based on mutual trust provides workers with the motivation and security to meet their objectives, and they become even more productive than they could be working in person.

Tools like Slack, Skype or Microsoft Teams have become the norm, making it much easier to communicate in real-time with customers, suppliers and co-workers when working remotely. If anything, sending a message to another person ensures that colleagues’ tasks are not interrupted by a call or a comment, like they might be if they were physically sitting next to each other. Face-to-face interaction may have decreased when working remotely, but it has not ceased to be present, it has simply moved to one-off, quicker meetings for sensitive or complex issues that warrant them.

From a hiring and talent perspective, having a strategy to support remote work has huge upside. It unlocks the door to a global talent pool that can be integral for plugging skills gaps or ensuring teams aren’t left shorthanded by new working arrangements, like people working compressed weeks or asynchronous hours.

Meeting the demands of workers also makes them more likely to stay and helps to attract new applicants who prioritise work/life balance, particularly as Gen Z’s proportion of the workforce continues to grow. McKinsey found the group is 59% more willing than older counterparts to leave a job if their flexible work options were taken away, and no business will want to miss out on the best talent of tomorrow – and today – simply so they can adhere to ‘traditional’ working patterns.

Morey Haber, Chief Security Advisor, BeyondTrust:

Hybrid workforces are not just a business decision, they are a real-world trend that is strategic to how organisations balance productivity, talent retention and business continuity. When organisations force a full return to the office, especially in industries where flexibility has proven successful, the risks of angering employees and losing the competitive edge become real retention metrics that could ultimately impact the business. The lesson for executives is simple. They must recognise that work is no longer about where it happens, but how effectively, efficiently and securely it is executed.

To be clear, hybrid working provides employees with the independence to customise their surroundings beyond just a cubicle or office and allows them to work in an environment that is comfortable for their lifestyle. This assumes they have the self-discipline to balance working from home with their personal lives. This concept is what many executives call in to question and this duality is critical for organisations aiming to attract top talent where flexibility is often as valuable as compensation. Organisations have to assume that employees can perform this balancing act as opposed to a minimal few that would take advantage of the situation. Those that do take advantage would be subject to the same disciplinary actions as employees that are chronically late or have poor productivity. Measuring the difference is a business challenge rather than a reason to change the remote work paradigm. More importantly, for future consideration, remote capabilities enable businesses to maintain operations during any sustained crises, from pandemics to extreme weather events and geo-political instability that might impact a centralised workforce.

Hybrid working is not without its challenges, however. Organisations must invest in secure, scalable technology to support secure remote access and collaboration to protect the rising tide of cybersecurity threats targeting remote workforces. Executive teams need to redefine how they measure success, productivity and security and focus on outcomes rather than hours logged in, cold calls performed, lines of code written, etc. in order to build a culture of trust and accountability. And, when appropriate, these teams can be physically brought to together to build relationships, trust and camaraderie. For example, quarterly off-site meetings give team members something to look forward too and avoid virtual meeting burn out.

When organisations force employees into a one-size-fits-all solution for working they are encouraging an out-dated business model from when large office buildings and 9am to 5pm were the norm. In my professional opinion, the future belongs to organisations that adapt to the needs of a modern workforce, recognising that hybrid models can unlock productivity, reduce burnout and deepen employee engagement and overall quality of life. The business question is not whether hybrid working can succeed, but whether organisations have the vision to embrace its potential versus reverting back to older business and employment models. For those that do, the rewards could be substantial. For those organisations that don’t, the cost may be measured in employee retention, innovation and the simple lack of sustainable business growth.

Shai Aharony, CEO, Reboot Online:

As big firms from Amazon to JP Morgan are calling on staff to return to the office full time, lack of flexible working harms businesses that demand employees in the office; from delayed decision-making to rescheduled meetings. They’re falling behind those who offer work from home solutions.

Events like travel disruptions, illness and childcare are an ongoing reminder of how crucial flexible and remote working set-ups are to keep the business moving. Forcing employees to travel to an office when it doesn’t suit them can lead to frustration and stress, impacting morale and potentially straining relationships with those who struggle to commute.

Post-pandemic, we’ve found flexible working is no longer just a perk – it’s a necessity for both employee wellbeing and business stability. By going fully remote, we’re not only protecting against unexpected events but also prioritising the wellbeing of our team and allowing employees to have a great work/life balance.

Return to office mandates and strict 9-5 working policies ultimately exclude entire demographics, whether that’s parents that have young children, those who have long commutes to get to the office or those that have chronic conditions that mean working in an office five days a week is not feasible. 

That’s why we wanted to make Reboot fully remote, embrace a four-day work week and offer a nomad policy, as well as creating a leading parental leave policy and very competitive pay. We’re not just pushing SEO boundaries; we’re building a company where our employees can thrive, living their best lives too.

Traditional workplace schedules have failed to evolve with the diverse needs of employees. Working from home and options like four-day work weeks give people the time they need to fully decompress after the working week, manage life admin, work on passion projects and spend more time with their families. In our experience, this allows employees to show up as their happiest, most productive selves.

In today’s job market, providing flexible working policies as standard is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. We’ve found that our agency has become a desirable place to work due to the commitment to honouring employees’ unique needs and preferences, as well as highlighting the forward-thinking workplace culture.

Flexible and remote working is a long-term strategy that benefits both employees and business needs. With the backlash companies like Amazon are receiving by forcing employees back to the office, it’s clear the workforce needs flexibility. At Reboot, we’re striving to build and maintain a workplace culture that is inclusive of everyone, and offering flexible working plays a huge role in that.


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