[Well, DUH!]

Forcing workers to return to the office has led to firms losing their best
employees

Date:
Wed, 18 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Description:
Pushing workers to be in the office is making them consider walking out and
finding more flexible roles.

FULL STORY

New data collated by researchers from universities across the US and China 
has confirmed return-to-office (RTO) policies are pushing some of the most
skilled and experienced employees to leave their jobs. 

The Return-to-Office Mandates and Brain Drain report tracked more than three
million workers from tech and finance roles via LinkedIn to observe when they
changed role in relation to company policy changes, noting businesses with
tough RTO mandates saw higher rates of employee turnover. 

Furthermore, companies pushing for in-office working are said to find it
harder to re-recruit as a result of prospective employees valuing 
flexibility.

Employees want to work remotely 

The researchers found employee turnover rates spiked by an average of 14%
following the introduction of RTO mandates. Senior-level staff and highly
skilled employees were the most affected by these changes, who are also the
hardest to replace. 

Female workers were noted to be three times more likely to leave a company
following office-working pushes, with the researchers attributing this 
largely to greater family responsibilities. 

On average, it now takes companies 23% longer to recruit new employees, while
overall hiring rates have dropped by 17%. 

The study concluded: Our evidence suggests that RTO mandates are costly to
firms and have serious negative effects on the workforce. 

The news comes amid an ongoing push to reinstate full-time office working, a
trend largely reflected across the tech sector. Recently, Dell announced that
its workers should be attending the office full-time. Amazon also confirmed
similar plans. 

At the same time, studies continue to be published showing that workers favor
the flexibility of hybrid and remote working setups. We also recently 
reported that more than three in five workers are hybrid workers.

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/forcing-workers-to-return-to-the-office-has-led-
to-firms-losing-their-best-employees-study-finds

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