What HR pros need to know about RTO

As companies navigate new return-to-office policies in 2025, differing schedules and in-office expectations may create a hybrid hierarchy among teams, according to Korn Ferry’s 2025 Talent Acquisition Trends report.

For instance, companies seeking new talent may offer greater flexibility to attract top candidates, which could frustrate those with more stringent in-office requirements. In-demand workers may also be more likely to demand better pay, potentially widening the gap between current staff and new hires, Korn Ferry said.

“That’s invariably going to create some sensitivities,” Mark Royal, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry, said in a statement. “Candidates are placing priority on flexible work arrangements when it comes to choosing, staying or potentially leaving.”

To manage the hierarchy among workers, companies should develop a consistent and transparent rationale, Royal said. If a new hire joins a team and has a flexible schedule arrangement, managers should explain why clearly. The worst option would be for managers to avoid explanation or say “that’s not your business,” which could exacerbate the issue, he noted. 

In addition, companies can offer “full-circle flexibility” by allowing employees to work in the ways that suit them best, which Korn Ferry calls “Hybrid 360.” This type of flexibility is one of the firm’s top five talent acquisition trends of 2025.

“Companies that cling to traditional ways of working will likely struggle to attract and retain people,” according to the Korn Ferry report. “The more flexibility an organization offers, the better its chances of building an engaged, motivated and loyal workforce.”

About half of employees would prefer working for a company that offers hybrid and remote work flexibility, and half said they’d consider looking for a new job if flexibility were reduced, according to an Eagle Hill Consulting report. However, only 30% said their employer has asked about their preferences regarding remote work, which could signal an area for employers to gauge worker sentiment to make informed policy decisions, the firm said.

In addition, companies with RTO policies are reporting mixed results for employee morale, recruitment and retention, according to a Pearl Meyer report. Moving forward, companies need clear communication and manager training to maintain employee morale and RTO policy effectiveness, the report found.

While nearly two-thirds of U.S. employers have implemented a formal policy requiring employees to work in-office a minimum number of days per week, half said they have no rules regarding which days workers choose, according to data from WTW.

Employers said they wanted workers on site mainly for social reasons, saying they believe face-to-face interactions boost engagement within teams, strengthen corporate culture and increase collective productivity by promoting interaction within teams. 

“As employers strive to balance corporate and workforce needs regarding engagement and productivity by encouraging employees to return to the office, a lack of clear structure around designated office days will hinder progress towards improved team collaboration,” Russ Wakelin, WTW senior director of Rewards Data, Intelligence, said.

“While employers push for a greater office presence, there is still some work to be done to achieve a healthy balance,” WTW said in announcing the findings. The consulting firm pointed out the negatives that can come from cutting out remote work, including the potential for a drop in engagement due to poorer work-life balance and — crucially for HR professionals — a hit to both recruiting and retention.

WTW found that workers on the whole still prefer remote work; 53% of employees whose work can be done remotely said they would try to change jobs within 12 months if forced to be in the office full time. Employers’ awareness of the unpopularity of in-office work may explain the attempts to allow workers to choose which days they come in. WTW noted employers are also taking a “gentler approach” by improving office facilities, such as gyms and dining areas, in an effort to appeal to workers.

But while employees have said they appreciate flexibility, past studies of the burgeoning hybrid work space have found that coordination among team members is crucial to keep workers engaged. A 2023 Hackett Group study, for example, found that giving workers choice while also emphasizing manager-employee negotiated arrangements improved engagement, productivity and retention. 

Additionally, while workers have repeatedly said they value the office for socialization and collaboration, the set-up matters in promoting these factors. Attractive and intentional office design, including separate “focus” rooms and collaborative meeting spaces, can help, experts have said.

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As companies push for a return to the office (RTO), many employees are pushing back. The reasons for resistance vary; from long and expensive commutes to a preference for flexible work schedules. If businesses fail to address these concerns, they risk losing top talent to companies offering better alternatives. To ensure a smooth transition and retain employees, organizations should rethink their RTO strategies and offer solutions that make in-office work more appealing.

Understanding the Factors that Contribute to Resistance to RTO

1. Commute Challenges: Long, costly, and stressful commutes are one of the biggest deterrents to returning to the office. Rising gas prices, packed public transportation, and parking expenses make in-person work less attractive.
2. Loss of Flexibility: Employees value the autonomy they gained during remote work. Strict RTO mandates might feel like a step backward, reducing work-life balance.
3. Productivity Concerns: Many workers argue that they are more productive at home, free from office distractions and unnecessary meetings.
4. Health & Well-being: COVID-19 concerns may have faded, but many employees still worry about crowded offices and the mental strain of daily commuting.
5. Lack of Clear Benefits: If companies can’t clearly articulate why in-office work benefits employees, many will see RTO as an unnecessary inconvenience rather than an opportunity.

How Companies Can Overcome RTO Resistance

To address these challenges, companies must make the return to office experience worthwhile by offering meaningful incentives and support.

1. Offer Commuter Benefits

A key friction point for employees is the cost and inconvenience of commuting. Companies that provide commuter benefits, such as public transit stipends, subsidized parking, or e-bike programs, can significantly ease this burden.

For example, Amazon partnered with Ridepanda to offer employees an e-bike benefit, making their commutes more affordable, flexible, and sustainable. Other organizations can adopt similar initiatives to encourage employees to embrace in-office work.

2. Maintain Workplace Flexibility

Instead of rigid RTO mandates, companies could consider hybrid work models that balance in-person collaboration with remote flexibility. Allowing employees to choose specific in-office days or staggered schedules can ease resistance while still meeting business objectives. Plus, giving employees flexibility in their schedules allows them to avoid rush hour and save time on their way into the office.

3. Redesign the Office Experience

Returning to the office shouldn’t feel like a downgrade from remote work. Companies should create engaging, comfortable, and productive workspaces, incorporating collaboration hubs, quiet zones, and wellness-focused amenities. A quick survey to employees asking what they would like to see in the office will give organizations the insight they need to create the best spaces for their workforce.

4. Focus on Career Growth & Culture

One of the biggest advantages of in-office work is the ability to network, build relationships, and advance careers. Employers should emphasize these opportunities and ensure that employees know that working in-person can help them gain meaningful career benefits, such as mentorship programs, leadership exposure, and training sessions.

The Link Between RTO and Employee Retention

Companies that force employees back without considering their concerns risk higher turnover rates. In contrast, businesses that implement thoughtful RTO policies, centered on flexibility, benefits, and engagement, are more likely to retain and attract top talent. A successful RTO strategy isn’t about forcing employees back into offices, it’s about making the office a place they want to be. By addressing the factors outlined here, companies can turn RTO from a point of resistance into an opportunity for stronger engagement and retention.

Widespread return-to-office mandates aren’t discouraging job seekers from looking for flexible work, according to a Nov. 12 report from Flexa, a remote and flexible job site.

The site saw the “highest number of flexible job hunters ever recorded” last quarter, it said in a statement announcing the data. The number of seekers looking specifically for flexible roles more than doubled in number from the previous quarter, Flexa said, with 22,014 job hunters signing up between July and September 2024.

Notably, Amazon’s 5-day RTO mandate was revealed in September, but it wasn’t the only organization to take such steps. Even the U.S. Department of Labor will require workers to be in the office five days for each biweekly pay period.

This ongoing conflict emerges in Flexa’s data, as well. While 59% of job seekers said they preferred “fully remote” roles, only 2% of job postings advertised fully remote work between July and September. And while demand for fully remote roles continues to increase compared to past quarters, related job posts only continue to decline, Flexa said.

However, more than three-quarters of job posts advertised hybrid work, meaning anything from 1 to 4 days in office — even though only 11% of job seekers said they preferred hybrid roles, Flexa said.

An end to the conflict may not come any time soon. A majority of CEOs told KPMG they expect a full return to the office in the next 3 years, according to a September report. But 1 in 5 workers told Resume Builder that they are ignoring their company’s RTO mandate, and that they want to be in the office for three or fewer days per week.

Although many U.S. companies have implemented return-to-office policies since 2020, 1 in 5 workers say they aren’t following their company’s mandate, according to an Oct. 1 report from Resume Builder.

Most workers said they want to be in the office for three or fewer days per week — and about half said they’ll quit if their company enforces RTO compliance.

“Today’s workforce enjoys flexibility and choices that were unprecedented before COVID-19. Remote work, once considered a temporary solution, has now become a preferred option for many employees due to convenience, work-life balance and the ability to avoid long commutes,” Stacie Haller, chief career advisor for Resume Builder, said in a statement.

“For many employees, remote work has become a non-negotiable part of their professional lives,” she said. “As companies attempt to reinstate in-office requirements, there has been pushback from workers. Employers should know job seekers today still have options if they are looking to work remotely.”

In a survey of 1,030 full-time employees working for companies with an RTO policy, 78% said they abide by the rules, 18% occasionally evade the policy, 2% rarely follow the policy, and 1% don’t adhere to RTO rules at all.

Compliance appears to vary based on workers’ schedules. For instance, those on a hybrid schedule have higher rates of noncompliance, with only 61% following the RTO policy if required to be in the office 1-3 days per week.

Employee satisfaction varies as well. About two-thirds said they’re very or somewhat satisfied with the current RTO policy, while 14% are neutral and 21% feel somewhat or very dissatisfied.

If companies begin to enforce compliance, 20% of workers said they’re very likely to leave, and 33% said they’re somewhat likely to leave. 

Workers pointed to several challenges with current RTO policies, including commute time, commute costs, a lack of flexibility in work hours, difficulty balancing personal responsibilities, office distractions and reduced productivity compared to remote work.

To improve employee satisfaction with current RTO policies, two-thirds of workers said a raise would help, and half prioritized flexible start and end times. Beyond that, workers said they’d like transportation benefits, a lunch allowance, catered lunch and an employee wellness program.

After Amazon announced a five-day RTO mandate slated to begin in January 2025, employees overwhelmingly expressed dissatisfaction with the new schedule, according to a Blind survey. Nearly three-quarters also said they’re thinking about looking for another job due to the policy.

Although 80% of employers reported losing talent due to RTO mandates, about a quarter said they’re still planning to increase in-person work days, according to another Resume Builder survey. About half of companies said they already ask workers to be in the office four days per week, and most said they planned to maintain those in-office days — if not increase them.

Certain benefits can help employees return to the office, particularly a commuter benefit, according to a Jawnt report. HR pros said commuter benefits also led to other advantages for the company, such as meeting environmental goals, increasing talent acquisition and retention and helping current employees save money.

As several large companies call employees back to the office, 2 out of 3 managers surveyed in June by Robert Half said they would be willing to increase salaries for new hires who work in an office, according to the firm’s 2025 Salary Guide.

Of the employers who would pay a return-to-office premium, 59% said they would pay up to 20% more for workers to come in between 4 and 5 days per week. Robert Half noted that meeting candidates’ pay expectations was the biggest hiring challenge for nearly half of employers surveyed.

While the firm said employers should be more open to in-office work, it also recommended that they comprehensively evaluate their pay packages including benefits, perks and opportunities to ensure better work-life balance.

Last year, a Resume Builder survey showed that the majority of employers planned to implement RTO policies by the end of 2024. The arrival of Q4 has seen that prediction play out to some extent, with big names like Amazon calling employees back into the office despite employee backlash.

Even if other companies are slow to join the RTO trend, other research shows they may not be far behind in doing so. KPMG found in a recent survey that 83% of global CEOs predicted that companies would return to fully in-office work within the next three years, which was up from 64% of CEOs who said the same in KPMG’s 2023 survey.

Still, those decisions could come at a cost. A May report by Resume Builder found that 80% of employers said they had lost talent because of RTO policies. HR professionals have long known about the potential pitfalls of RTO; a late 2022 NORC at the University of Chicago survey found that 54% of HR professionals cited the transition from remote work back to the office as a retention issue.

Extra pay for in-office work has previously been floated as a strategy for employers to pursue, but sources who previously spoke to HR Dive said that what an employee contributes in their roles is often more relevant to compensation plans than where he or she works.

There are other considerations for employers when making pay decisions centered around RTO. One, for example, is that physically getting to offices is not always an easy task for people who do not own a car or cannot drive, especially in the U.S, highlighting the need for benefits or flexibility that can help retain such talent. Additionally, some perceive a gender divide in terms of who benefits most from in-office work, according to a 2023 Lean In and McKinsey report.

A majority (83%) of CEOs surveyed globally predict that companies will shift to require a “full” return of employees to in-office work in the next three years, an increase from 64% the prior year, KPMG said, reporting on the findings of a survey of 1,300 chief executives conducted in July and August. 

The report also revealed a generational divide in the executives’ sentiment on the back-to-the-office matter:  87% of CEOs aged 60-69 predicted a full return to office, 83% of those aged 50-59 expect the shift back to the office to happen while only 75% of chief executives aged 40-49 did so, according to the report. Meanwhile more male CEOs (84%) bet on the full return to office scenario compared to 78% of top female executives.  

“This year’s findings reveal that CEOs are hardening their stance on returning to pre-pandemic ways of working,” KPMG said. 

Since the rise of remote work during the pandemic, CFOs and their companies have been navigating a challenging path as they make decisions about structuring and financing their employees’ work environments. 

A hybrid approach that allows for both in-office and remote work days has seemed to gain sway: workers in the U.S. and Canada are spending just 3.1 days in the office per week, with Wednesday being the most popular in-office day, according to a recent report from the commercial real estate and investment management company JLL, CFO Dive reported.  

But this week Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy told workers they must get to the office five days a week starting in January. He joined the likes of Elon Musk, who opposes remote work and told employees to head to the office on a full-time basis in 2022, CBS News reported.

KPMG warned in the report that there is a “widening gap” between how executives and workers think about their workplaces that needs to be taken into account.

“The successful leaders of tomorrow will be those who understand that their talent dilemma can only be solved by investing in, nurturing and supporting talent through a ‘social contract’ that understands today’s employees don’t just desire, but expect a more agile, flexible working environment and a better work-life balance — especially in the midst of a pervasive cost of living crisis,” Nhlamu Dlomu, global head of people at KPMG International, said in a statement included in the report. 

Broken out from the global data, the sentiment of U.S. CEOs was slightly less bullish on the expectation of a full return to office. Some 79% of U.S. CEOs surveyed expect the working environment to shift over the next three years to full return to office, 17% expect a hybrid approach and 4% anticipate a fully remote work culture.