Time to Call Workers Back to the Office? 4 Reasons You Should Think Twice
Malcolm Gladwell thinks remote work is bad for both employers and their employees. Where do you stand on the remote work debate?
The best-selling author of The Tipping Point and Blink set off a fierce backlash after he stated on the podcast “The Diary of a CEO” that working from home makes workers feel “socially disconnected from their organization.”
“If you’re just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom,” he asked, “is that the work life you want?”
Critics swiftly hit back calling the man who spent years writing books from whatever location was convenient for him, a hypocrite who is misinformed and out of touch.
Nonetheless, a growing number of employers think just the way Malcolm does and they’re taking steps to bring their workers back to the workplace. Among their claims: Working offsite slows down decision-making, innovation, and creativity.
About half of companies globally say they already mandate or are planning to require that workers return to the workplace full time, according to a Microsoft study. While employers risked losing employees to such edicts in the recent past, their hand is strengthening as the economy weakens. A Wall Street Journal headline sums up the new tough stance: “Enough, Bosses Say: This Fall, It Really Is Time to Get Back to the Office.”
As an employer, it might be tempting to follow the crowd. But it’s important to carefully weigh both sides of the remote work debate, before making your decision.
Some companies, including Salesforce, Twitter, and SAP, have embraced remote or hybrid work and say they’re reaping the benefits. Chris Herd, the CEO of Firstbase, a startup that helps companies set up remote workforces, spoke to employers in this camp and compiled a list on LinkedIn of what they consider the upsides of remote work. As you think about where your employees should be located, check out some of the items on Chris’s list:
1. Companies can draw from a wider talent pool
Among the most significant arguments in favor of remote work is that it removes geographic boundaries when searching for talent. “Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office,” Chris writes, “they can hire the best person in the world for every role.”
Lifting location barriers also helps employers improve their diversity hiring. If a company has historically had a hard time finding underrepresented individuals, it can use data to identify areas where this talent is plentiful and then reach out to candidates with remote job openings.
Meta recently announced that it beat its diversity goals by two years, citing an increasing number of remote jobs at the company. “For the first time, we’re hiring individuals who are fully remote and working from locations where we don’t have offices, increasing the diversity of our candidate pool and workforce,” Maxine Williams, Meta’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in a statement.
2. Remote work reduces real estate costs
Another reason companies are going remote is because it saves them a boatload on real estate, Chris says. According to a study by hybrid work software provider Robin, more than 80% of executives said they expect hybrid work to save them money and 60% said they plan to shrink their real estate by 50% or more.
“Rather than spending $20,000 / worker / year on office space,” Chris notes, “they can provide the best remote setup on the planet for $2,000 / worker / year.”
Yelp, Affirm, and McKesson are among the employers that have given up office space as they’ve allowed employees to work offsite. Yelp told the Wall Street Journal last year that it expects to save $10 million to $12 million annually through 2024, thanks to its lower real estate costs.
3. Remote workers are more — not less — productive
One of the major concerns employers raise about remote work is fear that their employees are wasting too much time at home. The companies Chris spoke to say the opposite is true. By eliminating commutes and allowing employees to work at the hours they feel the most energetic, employers can boost worker output.
“The productivity inside the companies we’ve spoken to,” Chris writes, “has gone through the roof.”
There’s some evidence to support this claim. According to data from Stanford University professor Nicholas Bloom and reported in Vox, people who worked remotely at least some of the time said they were about 9% more efficient working from home than they were working in their offices. From the second quarter of 2020 through the end of 2021, a period that includes forced lockdowns, corporate profits steadily rose, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
This increased productivity, however, may come at a price. When the workday no longer has set schedules, employees can end up working too many hours. Employers told Chris they’re aware of the risk, he says, and are taking steps to mitigate worker burnout.
4. Eliminating offices helps companies be more sustainable
There’s little doubt that achieving sustainability goals is becoming an increasingly important focus for companies. Those who’ve gone remote believe it can play a big part in meeting those targets.
“Many companies we’ve spoken to care massively about the environmental impact that eradicating the office — and the commute — will have,” Chris notes.
The jury is still out on whether remote work will have a net positive effect on the environment. E-commerce company Shopify says it’s on a journey to answer that question and will be tracking the “impact teleworking has on energy usage and emissions,” writes Stacy Kauk, head of sustainability at Shopify, in a blog post.
“Shopify has the opportunity to build climate consciousness into the fabric of our digital-by-default strategy,” Stacy says. “We will go beyond what is easy to measure, quantifying employee behavioral changes and attempting to put together a complete picture of remote work — or as close to complete as we can get.”
Final thoughts
While some employers might be emboldened by the weaker job market to insist that employees come back to the office, that approach could backfire when the economy recovers. Dig into Chris’s list to more fully understand the breadth of issues that are impacted by your choice of workplace.
It’s worth tapping into the sentiments of your employees to gain a handle on their preferences. LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2022 report found that employees are 2.6 times more likely to report being happy and 2.1 times more likely to recommend working for a company when they have time and location flexibility.
Focusing on workers’ well-being and happiness isn’t just the right thing to do, it also increases employee engagement while casting a positive light on your company. In the end, those could be among the greatest arguments of all in favor of remote work.
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