Companies Wanted to Return to the Office at All Cost. According to Gartner, They Paid a High Price

Many companies began implementing back-to-office policies for their workers about two years. These approaches have created conflict and turmoil between businesses and their employees.

Gartner, one of the world’s largest consulting firms, has published a report on the pros and cons of return-to-work policies. Their conclusion: Companies have paid too high a price for implementing them.

Incendiary return-to-office policies. According to Gartner, 66% of executives surveyed noticed increased corporate expectations for employees to return to the office. In turn, 74% of HR professionals at these companies view the back-to-office policies they’re implementing as an ongoing source of conflict between companies and their employees.

For example, Dell, a company with a flexible remote work policy before the pandemic, has created an open conflict with its employees by forcing them to be in the office three days a week, regardless of their positions.

Returning to the office is creating a gap between companies and employees. Caitlin Duffy, the HR research director at Gartner, argues that the benefits of return-to-work policies have proven modest at best and are friction points that have eroded trust between employees and employers.

Duffy focuses on high-performing companies where workers have interpreted return-to-work policies as a sign of mistrust in their abilities.

RTO is causing talent churn. During the transition to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies enthusiastically announced that this model was here to stay. The expectation caused many employees to move out of the big cities. Now, returning to the office puts them at a crossroads, forcing them to return or quit their jobs. High-value, high-skill employees are choosing the second option.

According to Gartner, work-life balance is among the top five reasons employees leave their jobs. On average, the most skilled employees report a 16% decrease in their intention to stay after companies implemented a return-to-work policy. Women follow this group, saying their intention has decreased by 11%, and millennials at 10%.

The Gartner data is consistent with what consulting firm Gallup found in its State of the Global Workplace 2024 report, which pointed to the enormous costs of losing skilled workers that are being paid by companies that have implemented aggressive back-to-office policies.

Back to the office with purpose. Gartner data suggests that mandatory back-to-office policies have slightly improved productivity and profitability for companies that implement them. A study by the University of Pittsburgh concluded the same, finding that back-to-office policies didn’t improve companies’ productivity scores. Their financial results didn’t improve with the return to the office. Still, they did create employee dissatisfaction and a decrease in employee engagement.

Back to the office with purpose. Gartner data suggests that mandatory back-to-office policies have slightly improved productivity or profitability for companies that implement them. A study by the University of Pittsburgh concluded the same, finding that back-to-office policies didn’t improve companies’ productivity scores. Their financial results didn’t improve with the return to the office. Still, they did create employee dissatisfaction and a decrease in employee engagement.

On the other hand, return-to-work policies based on data and transparent communication with employees had a positive impact, maintaining employee engagement and talent retention.

A “quiet quitting” machine. In the medium-term, declining employee engagement is even worse than losing talent. Disengaged and actively disengaged employees account for $8.9 trillion annually in lost productivity worldwide.

According to Gallup’s 2024 report, 62% of employees are disengaged and show symptoms of quiet quitting, doing the bare minimum to meet their goals but failing to innovate. Meanwhile, 15% of employees are be actively disengaged and looking for another job due to toxic leadership.

This article was written by Rubén Andrés and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.

Imagen | Unsplash (Crew)

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