Hybrid working is reshaping the corporate landscape, as businesses grapple with finding the right balance between in-office and remote work. The middle of the week sees the highest levels of attendance and desk utilization in corporate buildings, with Tuesday emerging as the most popular day. While some companies like Amazon are outliers, requiring a full return to pre-COVID attendance expectations, others are embracing flexible models. This shift is increasingly vital for retaining and attracting talent, as studies indicate.
Amazon stands out in the corporate sector by mandating that staff attend in person five days a week. This contrasts sharply with other major corporations such as Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank, which require managers to be present in the office four days a week. Meanwhile, hybrid working has become the new norm, a trend underscored by its importance in employee retention and recruitment.
Between July 2022 and September 2024, attendance saw a modest increase of 4%, rising from 29% to 33%. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that hybrid working is now the standard pattern for more than a quarter (28%) of working adults in Great Britain as of autumn 2024. Despite this, entirely remote work has declined since 2021.
“Hybrid working is here, it’s not going away,” observed Andrew Mawson, the founder of Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA).
Job advertisements reflect this shift toward hybrid models, with a nearly one-third (31%) increase in listings for hybrid roles in 2024 compared to the previous year. Conversely, listings for entirely remote positions plummeted by 41% during the same period.
Telecommunications giant BT has adopted a "three together, two wherever" policy, requiring its 50,000 office-based employees to spend three days a week in the office. Some of Germany's largest employers, including SAP and Deutsche Telekom, have also formalized a three-day office regime.
However, not all changes have been smooth. In a notable instance, the PCS union voted to strike after managers increased office attendance requirements for civilian staff employed by the Metropolitan Police. This decision affects about 2,400 workers who support police officers and disproportionately impacts women, part-time workers, and those with disabilities.
The ONS highlights "improved staff wellbeing" as one of the most frequently cited business reasons for maintaining a hybrid work model. Employees who work from home save an average of 56 minutes each day by avoiding their commute.
“People are likely to leave jobs with return to office mandates for ones that offer greater flexibility and accommodate their personal needs,” stated Prem Saripalle, a senior consultant at Randstad Enterprise.
The push for hybrid work is also driven by practical needs. Parents emphasize the role of remote work in achieving work-life balance. Dr. Dagmar Weßler-Poßberg, a director at economic researchers Prognos, notes that flexibility is crucial when unforeseen circumstances arise.
“Parents say the need to work from home has to do with work-life balance, and ‘it doesn’t matter whether it is a Monday or a Thursday, if the kindergarten is closed or my child is ill, then I need the flexibility to say that today or tomorrow I will work from home’ – and the majority of companies say this is what they want to facilitate,” Dr. Dagmar Weßler-Poßberg explained.
The corporate world is navigating these complexities carefully. While some HR directors report pressure from senior leadership to return to traditional office setups, they recognize the necessity of offering flexibility to attract top talent.
“I have talked to quite a few HR directors who tell me their boards and senior leadership teams are still insistent on getting people into the office, but they are caught in the middle because they know that if they don’t offer this sort of flexibility to new recruits, they won’t recruit the kind of calibre of person they need,” said Andrew Mawson.