Employees are winning the battle against RTO

In the past year, employers have enforced return-to-office mandates, despite employee demand for flexibility. Are employees winning the battle against RTO at last? 

Fifty percent of U.S. employers have issued some form of an RTO mandate since 2022, according to a survey from workplace management app Deskbird. And while the trend was initially created to promote in-person connection and collaboration, employees aren't interested — as such, just 4% of U.S. CEOs said they will continue to prioritize a full-time return to the office.

"I made a prediction at the beginning of this year that everybody would pick a side on RTO, and we see that happening," says Jennifer Dulski, CEO of software company Rising Team. "The companies that land on the side of flexible work will be the winning companies."

Read more: How to keep RTO mandates family-friendly

While employers have touted the benefits of in-person work on productivity, data reveals that employees benefit from remote arrangements: 77% of those who work remotely at least a few times per month show increased productivity, according to a survey by ConnectSolutions, with 30% doing more work in less time and 24% doing more work in the same period of time. 

When it comes to hiring, remote first arrangements win, too: 41% of applicants said they'd consider a job that was fully remote more than any other option, with only one in ten saying they'd consider a role with an in-office split, according to a survey from McKinsey. 

"We're currently in a place where employers have slightly more power because of the economy and layoffs, and so it's only natural that employees feel that it's risky to leave their jobs right now," Dulski says. "But that will not last forever — the more the market returns, the more companies will need to offer flexibility." 

Certain companies are already preparing for the pendulum to swing back. For example, in April, the CEO of tax preparation company H&R Block officially announced the firm's intention to reverse its previous attempt at an RTO mandate, which would have had employees physically in the office Tuesday through Thursday. Instead, they're allowing employees to choose when they want to use a physical office space themselves, if at all. 

H&R Block may be the first prominent company to publicly backtrack their RTO attempt, but Dulski does not anticipate for it to be the last.  

Read more: SAP employees are protesting RTO mandates

"We already know that the highest performers have a preference for remote work and so when given the choice of companies to work for, they will move toward companies that do offer more flexibility," she says. "The companies that stick to their RTO mandates will still be able to recruit talent, but it will be a smaller demographic."

While RTO mandates may never fully go away, the way people work has changed for good, and investing in flexibility, whatever that looks like for any given company, will always reign supreme. 

"This doesn't mean companies should turn to a 100% remote work strategy, but they should understand the difference between moments when it's important to be physically together and when to give employees the flexibility to manage their own lives," Dulski says. "The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to flexible work — there is no going back."