Are employers favoring in-person employees?

In the last two years, remote work has cemented itself as a permanent part of workplace culture. But with the rise of return-to-office mandates, there's some concern that employers may start favoring in-person workers. 

According to Executive Network's 2023 Future of Working and Learning Report, 71% of senior HR leaders and 62% of senior business leaders agreed or strongly agreed that in-person workers are probably benefiting from a proximity bias, the tendency of leadership to show favoritism or preferential treatment to employees that are close to them physically. 

"Unfortunately, some managers and leaders aren't being trained well on how to manage a remote/hybrid workforce, which is causing most of the conflict," says Kathleen Quinn Votaw, CEO of TalenTrust. "Look at the actual work production and quality of the work, versus where the work is done." 

Read more: 'Mismatched workers' are derailing your hybrid work plans

A 2021 report from SHRM reported that two-thirds of supervisors overseeing remote workers admitted to believing remote employees were more replaceable than their onsite colleagues. Forty-two percent said they sometimes forgot about remote workers when assigning tasks, which could explain why remote workers get promoted less often than their peers, despite being 15% more productive on average.

As workers seek out more remote-first roles, this dynamic will need to change, Votaw says. A recent survey from TalenTrust found that 44% of applicants would turn down a job if it was an in-person only position. And if forced to return to the office, 68% said they would rather just look for a new job, according to a survey from Clarify Capital, a financial consultancy in New York City.

"Employers need to remind themselves that this is an employees' marketplace and will be for the foreseeable future," she says. "The more flexibility we can provide our workforce, the more retention companies will experience, and they will be able to attract new employees. Bias of any kind isn't recommended in this new world of work." 

Read more: 5 steps to crafting a return to office plan employees won't hate

While proximity bias is definitely an issue, it still depends on the industry, according to Shane Spraggs, the CEO of Virtira, a completely virtual company that focuses on remote team performance. Whereas employees in smaller, local businesses may see their employers favoring local hires to strengthen culture, many remote employees at big organizations won't wait around for equal treatment at work. Instead, they'll create jobs where it's a given. 

"Over the long term we're going to see entrepreneurs starting new business models," he says. "Apple, Google, Microsoft — they were all started in basements. We're going to see more and more remote businesses crop up because employees are going to choose to start them themselves." 

However, there are still actionable strategies organizations can roll out if they want to stay hybrid, while  keeping both halves of their workforce productive and satisfied. But it will require some significant training changes from the top down.

Read more: Why the C-suite should stay out of hybrid work scheduling

"The important part of building developing talent from within is for it to be an organization-wide effort," Spraggs says. "It's not something that an individual manager can do on their own; the overarching business has to have a plan and some guidelines."

For example, companies should be reassessing how managers measure productivity. Executives should be setting better boundaries around how to keep track of projects in ways that benefit both remote and in-person employees. If possible, managers should keep employees accountable for their own work and give all workers the freedom to choose how and when they complete tasks.  

"Train your managers on how to lead hybrid teams and create time together via Zoom or in person," Votaw says. "Your employees want to feel successful — make sure you recognize the little moments along the way to balance your teams and focus on great performance where and when they do their work."