Return to office vs remote work, which do you prefer? There is surely a new trend going on, coming in early in 2025. Some companies has instructed employees back to five days a week back to office to work. We all have in mind fresh, that after the Covid-19 pandemic back in 2019, remote work arrangement has changed the way people think. Once something never came about in people’s mind that work can be done at the comfort of each employee’s home turned ubiquitous.
Covid-19 truly has changed the culture of office work around the world, on top of the distress it may have caused on the flip side. Research from Stanford University found that remote workers are 13% more productive when working from home. Another survey done by Telework Research Network have shown that 47% of people are satisfied with their job when they have the option to work from home compared with the 27% satisfaction of whom does not have the option to work from home.
With many employees being already comfortable, they are worried that they would have to return-to-office (RTO) following President Donald Trump’s executive order, which instructed all heads of departments and agencies within the executive branch to terminate remote work arrangements. The policy was then followed through by several big companies such as Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Dell, and Walmart. If more and more company choose to do the same, there is a widespread fear that there would be increased resignation and disengagements especially among high-performing individuals.
Return to Office policies may lead star talents to quit
Research done by the University of Pittsburg found that individuals who are most likely affected by return to office (RTO) policy are those who are high achievers and highly experienced. The research is later backed by another research from ZipRecruiter which found that high achieving employees who are hesitant to return to office (RTO) will choose to resign than comply. Also, according to Pew Research Center who conducted a survey in October last year found that 46% of remote workers indicated that they would be unlikely to remain in their positions if the company mandated a full-time return-to-office (RTO) to the office.
Many star talents chose to quit than remain if return to office (RTO) is implemented is because, working from home can increase their performance which in return to office (RTO) increase their job satisfaction.
Employees who chose to stay may become more inclined to perform and do bare minimum
The observation, which inspected firms inside the S&P 500, uncovered that companies that diminished working environment flexibility experienced “abnormally high turnover,” especially among women and senior talented workers. These organizations took “significantly longer” to fill open positions and watched a “significant decrease” in their enlisting rates, concurring to the analysts. The rest who either isn’t confident to be able to find another job or can’t afford to find another job due to some obligations will be derailed of their motivation and do bare minimum in order to avoid being fired.
Conclusion
Human resource is one of the input of a good company. However, keeping great talent pool that would then be loyal and bring great contributions need a lot of effort and money. Employee comes and goes. Either he or she is offered better by another company, or can’t keep up with new policy imposed by a company, any move that does not represent their liking, there sure will emerge exchange in personnel.
As a result, companies bear opportunity cost due to new employee learning curve, and if that’s not enough, the cost to train new employee in not cheap either. That’s when business process outsourcing comes in handy. Leave it to US, Entryminds BPO, to train your employee and you can use and exchange them whenever you need.
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